The pain of self defeat
A couple of news stories that I’ve read this morning lead me to believe that our government and congressional leadership has either A. Lost their friggin minds, or B. Since most of them have never served their country besides the capacity in which they do now, don’t realize their impact.
For a bunch of crusty old men, their sense in matters makes no sense. Should we have senility checks every year, like we have drivers tests every year, over a certain age? If one person, representing thousands or millions of constituents, makes dumb decisions, should there be any type of mandatory Show Cause hearing?
The stories I’m referring to are these: Women May Be Banned From 22,000 Jobs & Army Offers 1 1/4-Year Hitch.
Ok folks, now, the past year it has been mentioned by only Everybody, to include Mr. Rumsfeld, that we’re short on soldiers in certain positions while being overstrengthed in others. It also has been noted that retention is at a low point. Now, lets take 22,000 jobs away from people who have the job and the experience already, and then convince me that this is helping the cause in any way. Does this mean that I’d prefer to see women killed? In a sense, yes. They too want to serve, or they’d not be here. I haven’t heard any major outcry yet about the women who have lost their lives, gotten blown up in a truck via an IED. Why not? Probably because in the sense of Equality, we’re finally realizing that it’s the way of the land, it’s more closely synchronizing laws with human nature. It’s the old cogier that was a lawmaker in the 60’s that’s still there today that can’t take it, take being equal to anybody else.
Lets tackle that other headline. The Army Offers 1 1/4-Year Hitch one. What’s this remind anybody here of? Anybody? It screams Draft to me, though this time, instead of the government grabbing their balls, they offer someone the opportunity to draft themselves. I have issues with this on a variety of levels. For one, a soldier isn’t going to really start to learn his/her job until after the first year. That first year they’re being bombarded by the reality of their new lives and the people in charge of that life. Sure, they learn, but nothing but an expansion of fundamentals, a total refinement of those fundamentals. They don’t start to really feel like a warfighter until that experience has ground down the rough spots and starts it’s refinement. Another reason I have an issue with this is due to the fact that this very 1 1/4 year enlistment will most likely cause a higher attrition rate among soldiers, because they come in and already have a short-timers attitude. The new soldiers today are already a pain in the ass to deal with, with their ghetto attitudes and the I Don’t Have to Listen to You attitudes ingrained in them due to the years of previous bad leadership. It quite literally takes a few years to breed that smugness out of them to make them truly part of the team. Until that time, they’re out for themselves. So, lets give new kids a year experience, where they don’t truly have to do anything but suck up a year. This decision is going to cost us a lot more than we think. A soldier doesn’t become a true soldier until the time comes where he/she realizes they’re a part of an organism, not the organism. They don’t get anything out of the experience until then. What really irks me, I believe, is that our own government is hollowing our armed forces. This happened after Vietnam and during the cold war, it happened again right after the last Iraq/Kuwait conflict, coinciding with the fall of our enemy of the cold war. We’re now stretched as thin as we can be stretched, and still trying to hollow ourselves. We’re being made insignificant, even though we’re the only ones doing the job. There isn’t a spare to fall back on in this case. The lawmakers have to realize that any conventional force is going to be attrite’d by non-conventional forces, that attrition is going to affect our ability. Yet, we’re also helping attrite ourselves.
For a bunch of crusty old men, their sense in matters makes no sense. Should we have senility checks every year, like we have drivers tests every year, over a certain age? If one person, representing thousands or millions of constituents, makes dumb decisions, should there be any type of mandatory Show Cause hearing?
The stories I’m referring to are these: Women May Be Banned From 22,000 Jobs & Army Offers 1 1/4-Year Hitch.
Ok folks, now, the past year it has been mentioned by only Everybody, to include Mr. Rumsfeld, that we’re short on soldiers in certain positions while being overstrengthed in others. It also has been noted that retention is at a low point. Now, lets take 22,000 jobs away from people who have the job and the experience already, and then convince me that this is helping the cause in any way. Does this mean that I’d prefer to see women killed? In a sense, yes. They too want to serve, or they’d not be here. I haven’t heard any major outcry yet about the women who have lost their lives, gotten blown up in a truck via an IED. Why not? Probably because in the sense of Equality, we’re finally realizing that it’s the way of the land, it’s more closely synchronizing laws with human nature. It’s the old cogier that was a lawmaker in the 60’s that’s still there today that can’t take it, take being equal to anybody else.
Lets tackle that other headline. The Army Offers 1 1/4-Year Hitch one. What’s this remind anybody here of? Anybody? It screams Draft to me, though this time, instead of the government grabbing their balls, they offer someone the opportunity to draft themselves. I have issues with this on a variety of levels. For one, a soldier isn’t going to really start to learn his/her job until after the first year. That first year they’re being bombarded by the reality of their new lives and the people in charge of that life. Sure, they learn, but nothing but an expansion of fundamentals, a total refinement of those fundamentals. They don’t start to really feel like a warfighter until that experience has ground down the rough spots and starts it’s refinement. Another reason I have an issue with this is due to the fact that this very 1 1/4 year enlistment will most likely cause a higher attrition rate among soldiers, because they come in and already have a short-timers attitude. The new soldiers today are already a pain in the ass to deal with, with their ghetto attitudes and the I Don’t Have to Listen to You attitudes ingrained in them due to the years of previous bad leadership. It quite literally takes a few years to breed that smugness out of them to make them truly part of the team. Until that time, they’re out for themselves. So, lets give new kids a year experience, where they don’t truly have to do anything but suck up a year. This decision is going to cost us a lot more than we think. A soldier doesn’t become a true soldier until the time comes where he/she realizes they’re a part of an organism, not the organism. They don’t get anything out of the experience until then. What really irks me, I believe, is that our own government is hollowing our armed forces. This happened after Vietnam and during the cold war, it happened again right after the last Iraq/Kuwait conflict, coinciding with the fall of our enemy of the cold war. We’re now stretched as thin as we can be stretched, and still trying to hollow ourselves. We’re being made insignificant, even though we’re the only ones doing the job. There isn’t a spare to fall back on in this case. The lawmakers have to realize that any conventional force is going to be attrite’d by non-conventional forces, that attrition is going to affect our ability. Yet, we’re also helping attrite ourselves.
