Lost Faith- Trust and Confidence in the Military
A condition known as ‘cascading failure’ is something I ran across on occasion in the test world. Such a condition exists in a ‘system of systems’ and occurs when the failure of one or more parts leads to the progressive failure of other parts, which affect even more in turn until the entire thing crashes. It can be a slow-motion train wreak to watch.
Cascading failure exists in today’s military; it was started in the Obama administration. The last two years have magnified the failures to such an extent the American people now have lost faith in the military. This painful fact was brough to light by recent survey data released by the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.
Trust in US military remains below 50 percent: survey
Story by Brad Dress
About 48 percent of Americans say they have a great deal of trust in the military, slightly up from 45 percent last year.
Confidence in the U.S. military has plummeted in recent years. In 2018, about 70 percent of Americans said they had a great deal of trust in the institution.
The drop to 45 percent last year was the first time only a minority of the American public expressed confidence in the armed forces in the Reagan Foundation’s survey.
Government institutions have seen a steep decline in public trust over the years, most notably the Supreme Court after a conservative majority overturned the constitutional right to abortion in June.
But the Reagan Foundation said “no other public institution” in its surveys has “seen as sharp a decline in public trust” than the military.
A Wall Street Journal editorial board wrote in an opinion piece last month that “many Americans think the military is no longer an institution that runs on excellence, merit and individual submission to a larger cause.”
Of the seven U.S. institutions compared in the survey the military is the most trusted. Others included were law enforcement, Congress, the president, Supreme Court, public schools and news media. So there’s that. The military’s institutional rot began with Barry’s Pentagon appointees being progressive ideologues from the academic and political sector. These worthies were placed in charge of seasoned combat officers with decades of real-world experience. Senior military staff members suffered in silence as Barry’s minions transformed the military into a laboratory for progressive social engineering. This set the stage.
Nothing could prepare the military for what was to come. The Biden administration’s “woke” policies on race, gender, anti-extremism and LGBTQ issues have emasculated our military. SecDef Austin defended its diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs as “important.” Diversity is now a force multiplier. Professional training is squandered at the altar of Critical Race Theory. The unproven, untested and unnecessary Covid vaccine has only added to the malaise. On a macro level, Biden’s foreign policy has been another, albeit consistent, disaster. Small wonder the Army is in crisis mode for recruiting, and the other branches are dipping deeply into delayed entry candidates to make quota. These failures can all be traced to the opening days of the Biden administration, beginning with Afghanistan, and the train wreak began to cascade.
Deja vu all over again.
JMHO, YMMV
Category: "The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves", Big Pentagon, Dumbass Bullshit, Op-Ed
Sad state of affairs! And all self-induced. There was a time in the mid ’70’s when the military wasn’t all that popular, but this sure seems worse! The “stink-finger” of Obama and his lingering stain have really tipped the scales of misery in the military.
“Diversity is now a force multiplier.”
Yup, for our enemies… 🙄
Whenever I hear someone spewing that “diversity is now a force multiplier” nonsense, I ask them this question:
If you’re in contact on the ground and need close air support, do you want the most qualified Aviators dropping that ordnance “danger close” to you, or do you want the most diverse Aviators to give it a try?
Well said.
But…but…but…what if it’s Sammy (Mavericka) Brinton in a preggy flight suit dropping a chic Vera Bradley cluster roller bag full of oodles of leather doggie masks in canisters?
Now, you gotta admit, Mick, that’s absolutely gonna impress the hostiles, especially the submissive ones, doncha know? 😜
China’s excited…
Well yeah, now that Private Brucie-Jane is now put ahead of everyone else because of being a LGBTQWERTY quota despite being a burden on the rest of the Unit among other things while some hard-charger gets ignored in the name of “Diversity” and then gets dumped on when his motivation and give-a-fucks goes to zero from being shit on, and they wonder why the US Military has gone to shit under Joe Zero and Company?
“These worthless mofos were placed in charge…” FIFY
To paraphrase SgtMaj Basil Plumley (as he cocked an (GO) Army .45 Model 1911) “Gentlemen, prepare to defend yourselves”…and your Republic.
Khrushchev grins.
There will soon be a “Rainbow Ribbon” because you are the most wokest, anti cis, they/them in the Milifairy.
Well that will certainly add some verve and zest to the old ribbon rack.
May we assume that second and subsequent awards will be indicated by a little gold penis with appendages? 😜
well… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Service_Ribbon
Fabulous!
Can’t believe I forgot this one! I’ll knock out some pushups.
And… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_Victory_Medal
Which is why I never wore that damned ribbon. In addition to it being “rainbow”, I figured any soldier in UNIFORM already graduated an army school.
Hard times make strong men…
You know the rest. Everyone hold your DD-214 especially close tonight.
My (final) DD Form 256 goes unhung on the I Love Me Wall, in part because I remain on the rolls as a Retired Service Member, but also my wall will not be disgraced with that “man’s” name.
Yet, I have it on good authority the militia is still strong.
This We’ll Defend!
Well, no empire lasts forever. It seems the US is no exception.
We better not get into a war with China, lots of dead kids to test woke ideology. Won’t be my kids. I don’t have any faith in our political or military leadership anymore. As far as I’m concerned they have broken the faith with generations of veterans. Going to be very hard to get it back.
An extensive necktie party featuring the Clintons, Obamas, Bidens, Fauci, Soros, Zuck, Gates, et al may go a ways toward getting trust back… some.
Fauci would cry.
I lost faith in that traitor the second he told the Chinese he’d give them the heads up on our intentions and plans.
He should have been put against a wall for that.
What I find fascinating is that the loss of trust is nearly coorelated with political spectrum. On the left the concerns are racism and extremism in the ranks and on the right it is the progressive/ woke bullshit the brass are pushing.
The astonishing thing is that it is about equal numbers of people.
Glad I am out.
The dissatisfied are not talking about trigger pullers, probably not about anybody E6 and below.
I dunno.
The rank & file are much more entitled and finicky than they used to be.
They’re certainly not to blame for the systemic issues within DOD, but they are the most prolific face of it. If the general public is losing faith in the uniform, those who most often wear the uniform likely have something to do with it.