CSotD: Little Things Mean a Lot
Skip to comments
The art of war is of vital importance to the State. It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin. — Sun Tzu
Some follow Sun Tzu, some read von Clausewitz, the best study both.
And then there’s Pete Hegseth, who apparently follows gladiator and kung-fu movies and, as Anderson suggests, thinks the master plan involves testosterone rather than knowledge, to the point where, at yesterday’s appearance before Congress, Senator Tammy Duckworth, who is low on testosterone but high on credibility as a veteran of war, was appalled and infuriated to reveal that our Secretary of War, as he styles himself, could not even name the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and, when asked, guessed several countries that are not part of that critical alliance.
Instead, having stalled the promotions of women and minorities to senior positions, Hegseth has announced that all soldiers should be tested for testosterone levels and offered supplemental treatment to bring them up to whatever level big brave spermy warfighters should have. Koterba is not the only observer who considers this ridiculous.
Though not everyone is laughing. Someone pointed out that, however much Hegseth wants to tilt the balance towards white men of great sperminess, three of the four Americans killed in the Iran debacle in recent days were minorities, one of them a woman.
Some observers, like Slyngstad, find it curious that Hegseth has come out against trans military members and allowing gender-affirming care for those who feel they need it, but is making gender-affirming testosterone treatment a highly recommended response for soldiers who fail to meet a predetermined endrocrine level.
Hegseth’s theory of war was celebrated in the lyrics to Colonel Bogey’s March, but that’s not only a long way from Tipperary but even farther from either Sun Tzu or von Clausewitz.
Sack joins in the ridicule, but there is a place for Hooah in training young men to go to war, because a 19-year-old can be persuaded to do things a 34-year-old would question, and the purpose of boot camp is to get those young soldiers to obey without pausing to ponder their orders.
That’s not a judgment, just a fact. The judgment is that, given a system that requires immediate, unquestioning obedience, the person giving orders has a very high obligation to be knowledgeable and responsible.
That’s not only morally important but tactically required as well. Ill-conceived orders not only lead to disastrous defeats on the battlefield but lead to poor morale in the ranks. In extreme cases, incompetence in command, either in specific tactics or in overall leadership, can inspire mutiny, fraggings and friendly fire “accidents.”
Having wandered into a war that was only supposed to take five days but is now in its fifth month, Dear Leader needs to find a way to sell a war he started without consulting Congress. He contends that most Americans support his war, but the polls show barely a third are behind the effort. Even Fox cannot get approval to the 50% mark.
The President has pointed out that we lost more troops in Vietnam and Iraq, but we had ground troops in those conflicts and greater losses were therefore predictable. Also, neither was a triumph for the United States, and it seems an odd boast that we haven’t yet had that many deaths, given that we haven’t much progress to show.
And the answer to these stagnant efforts is not, Greenberg contends, more testosterone.
Trump’s stock response to criticism of his Iran adventure is to ask if the questioner wants to see Iran develop nuclear weapons, a question that (A) assumes they were on the brink of doing so, a point in extreme doubt and (B) ignores the fact that he tore up a multi-nation agreement to prevent that, which included monitoring of their peaceful development program.
Now, Noth points out, Trump is not helping to promote his leadership with a deal that allows Saudi Arabia to begin developing nuclear power, nominally for peaceful uses but apparently without any oversight should they go other directions. Noth further pushes his point by noting that the deal is being made with the man who ordered the murder and dismemberment of an American reporter.
Noth further questions American foreign policy with criticism of arms sales that put highly developed weaponry into the hands of nations that are not our close allies and that may have other alliances that could compromise the security of our defensive technology.
Not all of our problems are overseas, however, and Goris makes a point of the gathering public disapproval of ICE, and particularly a spate of killings that have cost more lives than have been lost in the Iran war. He contends that Americans are no longer willing to accept evasive explanations for the killings.
Branch is more direct in his criticism, particularly referencing the repeated claims that shooting victims had “weaponized their vehicles,” a charge disproven in the case of Renee Good, but that has been advanced in a number of other ICE shootings.
Now the Guardian has looked into these accusations of attempted vehicular assaults on ICE agents and, in a substantial report, found little support for the contentions:
(M)ost of those claims have fallen apart under scrutiny, with the accusations consistently disproven by evidence or rejected in court. Only one of the 26 cases has resulted in an assault conviction, according to court records and information shared by prosecutors.
Branch points out the problems that ensue when people feel they can no longer trust their government or feel safe within their country.
To repeat, those who give orders have an obligation to be knowledgeable and responsible. The world has seen the chaos and failure that can ensue when unquestioned patriotism is combined with an absence of good judgment.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
Comments