Well known military journalist, Michael Yon, has published a new piece that is both disheartening and a wake-up call for all Americans and others who depend upon a strong, competent American Armed Forces.
Well known military journalist, Michael Yon, has published a new piece that is both disheartening and a wake-up call for all Americans and others who depend upon a strong, competent American Armed Forces.
Unfortunately the spreading disease of political correctness has permeated the armed forces just like it did in all aspects of civilian life. Strength of character has been replaced with emotional well being and general standards have been lowered to encompass anyone that can walk and chew gum at the same time. I feel sorry for the majority of dedicated professional service personnel that must cringe when they encounter people like Master Sergeant Grisham and realize he’s part of the “new” army and there’s little they can do because feelings could be hurt and that’s no longer allowed. The damage done to morale is another story.
If history is any example the rot will continue. Rest assured possible future enemies will not be social workers concerned with feelings.
Yet in typical fashion, Yon belittles Grisham’s whole intelligence unit because they are in KAF and have a/c…which have precisely nothing to do with whether the unit’s chain of command was defective. There are good and bad in any organization, and someone who portentiously turns soldiers into a proper noun and pimps his own alleged experience in the field should know that, and exercise sounder judgement. By exercising such poor judgement, he undermines his credibility and ironically demonstrates the kind of ineffectiveness he excoriates others for.
Over the years, Yon has often acted like a drama queen, using his “dispatches” to pursue vendettas against public affairs officers, the Canadian Army battle group in AF, etc., who allegedly did not meet his performance standards. Some of his writing has been very good and he sometimes makes very valid observations, probably including this discussion of U.S. Army institutionalized chain of command failures, but in the aggregate, I increasingly started taking everything he said with larger and larger doses of salt, and finally pretty much gave up reading his often self-serving missives. This one would likely have benefited from a good editor trimming it down and eliminating the self-serving bits. But YMMV.
Speaking of not meeting standards, this rubbish comments system trashed my first attempt because I supposedly made an error in the Captcha code, but luckily I copied the text before hitting “Submit”. Decent comment interfaces do not, of course, lose the comment text simply because of such a minor error.
If you go back, then hit preview it will give you a new Captcha. I find it times out too quickly and agree it’s generally a pain in the ash. Yon,…yeah he runs hot and cold. He should do a article on the Commander in Chief to really get back on track 🙂
Yeah well, riddle me this…..who in the wide world of sport decided to make Military Bases “gun-free-zones”?
That’s beyond busted…THAT”S INSANE (Penn Jillete voice).
The way I figure it convicting Hassan (or whatever his name is) is only part way…..who ever made that “gun free” reg and/or enforced is/are (an) assessory for murder before and after the fact.
Also the loons who promoted the loon rather than involuntarily admitting him to the rubber room…for life.
RM, the point is a soldier who blogs from Kandahar without being disciplined does indict his chain of command, and therefore his unit. That’s the whole point of Yon’s article, that when low level monkeys screw up with impunity then it’s the higher ups monkeys who are at fault. Maybe the ranks in Grisham’s unit were not at fault but the officers were most definitely.
I understand your point and his point, but it is unfair to demean an entire unit and occupation specialty because they work in KAF with a/c. It’s childish and unprofessional to do that because it demeans the unit’s non-Grisham’s who are busting their asses to support the mission.
Yon has his moments but he started believing in his own perfection years ago and it shows.
Can’t say that I have any issues with Yon’s ‘issue’ with public affairs officers. In my last 13 years being somewhat involved with PAOs, I have only met two PA officers who were worthy of my time and respect.
The Public Affairs branch of the Canadian Forces is generally a last gasp effort of aspiring officers. They are in the PA branch due to complete failure from another occupation such as pilot or air traffic control or the combat arms. Apart from being complete dorks, the other thing they have in common is that they all have a university degree and are bilingual. Most of them are downright stupid people and couldn’t lead their way out of a wet paper bag. I used to enjoy watching them trip over their shoelaces 😉
But yeah, sometimes Yon knocks them outta the park and other times, well, it’s a dud.
I guess this is what happens when people forget is that the role of the military is to break things and kill people when necessary. Unfortunately, it seems that the intersection of the set of useful military skills and the skills one needs to be a politician today is the empty set. David Hackworth used to rail about “perfumed princes” who filled the halls of the pentagon and these are individuals who are far better at politics than soldiering. In the field of medicine, I’ve heard fellow doctors tell me that they’re relieved that physician X has been elected to parliament as that means they’re no longer risking patient lives through their incompetence. The politicization of the military has been a failure wherever it has occurred and I wonder how long it will be before every military unit in the USSA has it’s political officer, just like in the USSR.
Seems that Obozo likes to surround himself with military eunuchs who are ready to kiss his ass on command whereas a real soldier would give Obozo a firm boot to the rear. Sounds like it’s time for a major housecleaning in the US army.
The one place that should be free of political correctness is the military. This is a male organization and there’s no place for flagrant homosexuals or “transgendered” idiots. There are women who can meet the fitness requirements but any woman who intends to pursue a military career should be aware that there’s maybe a 5% chance she would qualify. Only 5% of soldiers who want to be Seals make it into that select group and there’s no shame in not being good enough to be in a very elite unit. Any female who tries to place the “discrimination” card should be booted out of the military immediately.
All true but trying to implement change is futile when the Commander in Chief is the biggest obstacle to efficiency and doesn’t have a lick of common sense.
Well said Loki. It gets scary when there is a possibility of there being political officers attached to military units. No doubt they will also be called Kommissar, but with a C rather than a K.
The Canadian military has the same political correctness crap as the US military.
Loki nailed it.
The rot starts from the top, because the President is the commander in chief.
It won’t improve until Obama is replaced by an adult who is committed to carrying out the presidential oath to protect the US Constitution.
Obama, who refers to the US armed services as ” my military “, is obviously the anti-Constitutional President, because everything in hs universe is ” I ” , ” me “, or ” mine”. That leaves no room for things as small as the general welfare of the people, or the constitution that protects their inalienable rights.