When examined objectively, the U.S. military has shown itself to be criminally incompetent at sub-national conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is because the military-industrial congressional think-tank (MICC-TT) racketeers long to relive a large, WW2-style nation-state war.

Furthermore, after WW2, people like Army LTG James Gavin realized that small, limited wars require a different set of equipment and tactics and thought perhaps the light forces could tackle this assignment:

However, we know now in the aftermath of Vietnam that the light forces are infected with a narcissism that inhibits them from fully adapting to small, sub-national conflicts that require a SMOTHERING of violence through light tracked AFV mechanization, BATTLEBOXes (Gavin's KIWI pods) and combat engineering means to control the terrain and stop enemy combatant infiltration. To get these SNC forces we need to create a Non-Linear Battlefield Stability Corps (NLB-SC) composed of ADULTS not young punks with itchy trigger fingers eager to kill "ragheads":

However, this still leaves the large armed services in a state of unreadiness and incompetence. We will focus here on the ground forces that infected totally by narcissism waste all their time on "training" which is really a metaphor for some kind of bullshit harassment and/or I'm-tougher-than-you masochist event with no functional relevance to actual war tasks that need to be perfected to a high state of excellence.

The vain marines are the most incompetent of all; treating people like shit over barracks games and narcissistic vanity is not RELEVANT to what we need to do. I have explained this for years:

also fails to see the overall bigger truth that volunteer militaries attract weak egos (USMC primarily narcissism) and the greedy (much of the U.S. Army) as Dr. Dixon explains in On the Psychology of Military Incompetence. ADULTS don't need ego approval from anyone; and the Army is slightly moving away from the rite-of-passage BS towards total immersion into COMBAT TASKS which is what we really need. I have been both enlistedman AND officer in BOTH the USMC and Army--something few perhaps no one has done. In both organizations, barracks "From Here to Eternity" BS (watch the movie) permeates because its weak egos feeding off weak egos.

"From Here to Eternity": How the U.S. Military Wastes Time and is Perpetually unready for Wars

www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnVZRgiOw-o

My high school and college football teams were more professional, we didn't "train"---WE PRACTICED what we were going to do on game day. I would abolish the "t" word and PRACTICE WAR. "T" is all about this BS self-loathing that the article is obsessed with; events designed to "gut check" when what we need is a FUNCTION CHECK and FUNCTION IMPROVEMENT. One thing former U.S. Army Vietnam officer and West Pointer John Reed has right is that this masochism has to go and he advocates returning the DRAFT in order to get real adults into the force that just want to get the job done:

Reed concludes that most volunteers in the current All Volunteer/Victim Force/Farce are defectives:

www.johntreed.com/militarydraft.html

Two actual case histories

I went to two high schools. At one, a guy I'll call George was the biggest social outcast in my class. If someone wanted to tease a girl, he might say, "I heard George is going to be your date for the prom." His yearbook write-up probably showed absolutely no extracurricular activities and commended him for his "nice smile." Your high school yearbook probably has a number of Georges. They probably enlisted in the military in disproportionate numbers.

George told me he spent his free time during high school sneaking through other people's backyards in his neighborhood at night to train himself for the military. When he graduated, he joined the marines-an all-volunteer outfit at the time. At times during its history, the marines had to draft people.

On the other hand, my best friend in junior high was very popular and athletic-MVP of his high school's various sports teams. Call him Jake. He got drafted into the Army.

When I was a platoon leader in the 82^nd Airborne Division, I felt like I was surrounded by thousands of Georges. Jake did not volunteer for either the Army or the paratroopers. He served his country including a tour in Vietnam. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge, which is one of the few military decorations that I have great respect for. Many military decorations are worthy of far less respect than laymen afford them.

"Georges" volunteer for the military for all sorts of inappropriate reasons:

* to overcome inferiority complexes

* to prove their manhood

* adventure (one of the marines convicted of murdering an innocent Iraqi said he joined to have adventures he could later tell people about. The Navy's recruiting slogan was once, "It's not just a job, it's an adventure.")

* to be able to brag that they had killed another man

* to brag that they were combat veterans

* to wear a uniform

* to get medals for bravery

* to put distance between themselves and the locale of bad or embarrassing past behavior

* to stay out of jail (during Vietnam and before, judges would sometimes offer a convicted criminal the choice of enlisting in the military or going to jail-When I was a company commander, all of my cooks were parolees from the Leavenworth military prison.)

* generous benefits like retirement after 20 years with half pay plus lifetime free medical care and PX and commissary privileges (undeniably a mercenary motivation, although not necessarily the only motivation)

Draftees are in the military for one very good reason:

* they figure it is their duty

Reed goes on to explain on his web page we need to have universal service so we can more "Jakes" into military service who do not have some inner vaccuum they are trying to fill, who realize they are complete ADULTS who just want to get the job done as best as possible:

* fairness regarding the distribution of responsibility for national defense to all categories of Americans including economic status, education, regional, and ethnic groups

* better quality military personnel including non-criminals and people used to getting results in the business world

* avoidance of persons attracted to military service for inappropriate reasons to acquire persons with skills that are needed but which the military cannot teach

* to ensure that the military is representative of the American people

* to make every family more interested in whether we should go to war thereby reducing the number of our wars

* to minimize bureaucratization of the military

* to avoid our military personnel being dominated by one region, currently, the South

* to avoid our military being dominated by one religious group, currently, Christian fundamentalism

* to avoid outsourcing our defense to a "day-labor" military of alien would-be U.S. citizens

* to make the U.S. less reluctant to use military force when necessary

* lets the military leaders focus on winning the war rather than keeping recruitment and re-enlistment rates high

* lack of a draft lets young men veto a Congressional declaration of war by "voting with their feet" not to volunteer, an intolerable transfer of responsibility and authority by the Congress

* lack of a draft turns our military increasingly mercenary and intolerably expensive as more and more money is required to induce adequate numbers of enlistments and reenlistments

* lack of a draft forces such inappropriate policies as preventing volunteers from leaving when their enlistment is up, longer combat tours, promotions of unqualified personnel, forcing non-infantry to become infantry and non-Army military personnel to be assigned to the Army, extraordinarily strict discipline to stop increased AWOLs and desertions

He's right on-target since today's Volunteer/Victims are told to STFU since they "volunteered for it", (Meaning you signed up for bullshit, which of course you did not) they are easier to send in to bleed in no-win wars that are good for corporate profits.

One example: since I didn't play Pop Warner football, I didn't know how to hit so I lead with my head down in my junior year in HS, very dangerous. My head hurt. A typical USMC fuckingegomaniac would say "stop being a pussy" because EVERYTHING IS ABOUT PENIS SIZE. Wrong. One day, the varsity coach saw what I was doing and showed me how to hit with my HEAD UP; wow! I didn't know this. Hitting was now actually fun and it didn't hurt. I was then able to translate my speed to tackle opponents first.

We are doing so many STUPID THINGS in the Army/Mc we have over 1, 000 detailed web pages on it all. All driven because we don't have a QUEST FOR EXCELLENCE IN WHAT WE DO BECAUSE WE ARE HUNG UP ABOUT OUR WEAK EGOS.

www.combatreform.org

Read our web page above and it describes what I'd do and what we need to do--COMBAT IMMERSION and stop the 19th century parade ground BS once and for all. First, we must reject NARCISSISM as the guiding principle in any of our culture with a functional, moral U.S. Army Ethos:

www.combatreform.org/usarmyethos.htm

Next, we need to teach every Soldier from Day 1 in enlisted and officer training ACTUAL WAR WEAPONS EFFECTS:

www.combatreform.org/cluelessarmy.htm

Then every damn day needs to WAR PRACTICE by not having ANY BS barracks to mop, clean or polish or lawns to mow using the BATTLEBOX system:

www.geocities.com/strategicmaneuver/battleboxconcept.htm

And none of this WAR PRACTICE will be wasted on barracks BS and deprive our men of sleep and alertness:

www.combatreform.org/sleeplessarmy.htm

One last thing.

"Discipline" is another BS code-word for you to shut-the-fuck-up (STFU) and not THINK and accept your institutional status as FECES to be sacrificed as cannon-fodder in the militarism "pyramid of ego". Its all a cruel lie. We do not need blindly obedient, fascist, lemmings eager to self-validate and die for immoral and incompetently handled "wars".

www.combatreform.org/militarismsucks.htm

What the American people need from us is to WIN; to do this our people must GROW-UP and be THINKER-DOERS for the RIGHT REASONS; and this must include a repudiation of NARCISSISM that any one of us is better than any other human being on the earth--you know all that "all men are created equal" stuff that being an American is all about--that contradicts U.S. military egomania.

www.combatreform.org/usarmyethos.htm

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