PRUDEN: A grim message for the generals

 

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

There’s a reason why Barack Obama is  mistrusted in the ranks of the military services. He doesn’t smell of the hive,  and it shows. Bees recognize a hostile intruder when they see one, and so do  soldiers, sailors and Marines.

Many of these soldiers, sailors and Marines feel betrayed by the senior  officers of the services, beginning with the commander in chief. The old customs  and traditions that have held the services together through war and peace have  been scorned and trashed, replaced with the politically correct attitudes and  regulations that gag real men. Even saying so is a sure way for an officer to  ruin a career. The men in the ranks understand this, too.

The Army's Center for  Army Leadership at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., asked 16,800 commissioned and  noncommissioned officers whether they think “the Army is headed in the right direction to prepare for  the challenges of the next 10 years.” Their answers, as reported by CNS.com,  ought to be enough to scare a commander in chief straight. His defense chief,  too. But it won’t, because they’re exactly the men responsible for the survey  results.

Only 26 percent — 1 man in 4 — say they think the Army is on track to continue as the scourge of  evildoers who yearn to do the republic ill. Nearly 40 percent say the service is  headed in the wrong direction, and 36 percent say they don’t have an opinion  (and no doubt if they did, they’re smart enough to keep it to themselves).

The pessimists — or “realists,” as they might be called — cite two reasons.  One is the hollowing out of the military as proposed by President Obama,  and the other is the stifling effects of the politically correct run amok. They  don’t understand why the men entrusted to manage the Army go along without protest with the nonsense  mandated by the White House. Generals and  admirals, just like shavetail lieutenants, know who punches their tickets.

Both President Obama and Defense  Secretary Leon E. Panetta are continuing  to “evolve,” but to what end we yet know not. This year, the president decreed  that the armed services, hollowed out or not, “must” celebrate “Lesbian, Gay,  Bisexual and Transgender Pride Month,” and Mr.  Panetta cheerfully agreed: “During Gay Pride Month, and every month, let us  celebrate our rich diversity and renew our enduring commitment to equality for  all.”

You don’t have to pass on Gay Pride Month to wonder what taking pride in  what’s in a gay soldier’s skivvies has to do with the fighting spirit that is  the mark of an army ready to meet a foe. Speaking of “equality,” Mr.  Panetta has not yet ordered a month set aside to celebrate the contributions  of black soldiers, Hispanic soldiers, lady soldiers or the soldiers descended  from Scots-Irish forebears who have shaped and led the Army from its origins in the Revolution.

A public display of affection — a “PDA,” as it was called in the “old” Army — has traditionally been discouraged in the ranks,  discouraged long before anyone thought to ask and when there was nothing  scandalous to tell. The Army has always had  unforgiving rules about personal conduct. Commissioned officers have been  court-martialed for adultery. Cuddles and kisses were nice, but not necessarily  on the firing range or in uniform and on the street. Discipline, dignity and  self-restraint were always recognized as crucial to good order.

But now gay soldiers (and merely cheerful soldiers) are encouraged to march  in uniform in gay-pride processions, to carry aloft the flag, ribbons or even  one of the 5-foot papier-mache penises so popular in San Francisco parades.  Gens. Philip Sheridan, John J. Pershing and George S. Patton would not recognize  their Army.

Barack Obama, whose views have only  recently “evolved,” probably doesn’t think very much about the military, except  when he’s on duty with SEAL Team 6, hogging credit for chasing down bad guys in  Afghanistan. In modern America, as politicians like Dick Cheney and Bill Clinton  have shown by example, military service is a grim task to be avoided. Even with  expert coaching, in eight years as commander in chief, Bubba never learned to  properly return a salute. But like President Obama, he was eager to report for photo-op duty  with authentic heroes.

The men in the ranks are as dedicated and as eager to serve as their fathers  and grandfathers ever were, and they deserve selfless leadership from the top.  High-tech weaponry, wondrous as it may be, and politically correct  attitudinizing, as warm and fuzzy as it may make generals and admirals feel, are  never substitutes for leadership. That’s the message in the Army’s  leadership survey. Mr. Romney, take note.

Wesley Pruden is editor emeritus of The Washington  Times.

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Replies

  • Howdy.

    it's WAY past time for those CAREER OFFICERS who care MORE about CAREER THAN THEIR SWORN OATH TO THE CONSTITUTION to either STAND UP OR GET GONE.

    i still feel the 2NR PART OF the on going revolution is fixing to CRANK UP because SOMETHING DAMN WELL NEEDS TO HAPPEN TO SAVE THIS REPUBLIC, and i DIDN'T SAY GOVERNMENT.

    the Military does NOT NEED FAGS OR LIBERALS.

    Semper Fi.

    Jim.

    • Exactly Jim, It IS beyond past time to throw out this COMMUNIST system, and BRING BACK OUR FREE REPUBLIC!!!!!!

  • Problem is America does not need the likes of Obama and crew! 

  • Let start off by saying that our military is to protect the people and not the government. BO has never served in the military and he is currently avoiding his daily briefings, does he really believe that he is so intelligent that he knows everything or maybe it's that he has psychic abilities. It is because BO's power continues to go unchecked that our military leaders are either afraid to challenge him or to voice an opposing opinion. I do not support any kind of homosexual behavior however, it is not my place or in my power to condemn them either. The idea of celebrating this depravity is nothing more than a means of proliferation. BO supports the gay community and its proliferation for the votes as he supports anything to get votes and then throws them under the bus. He will not be satisfied until this is his "America" and it won't be pretty.

  • IT IS TIME TO ADMIT THE COMMUNIST HAVE TAKEN OVER OUR GOV. FROM WITHIN ( SEND IN THE MILITARY NOW AND BE READY TO BACK THEM UP ).

  • Obama is a GLOBAL RE-DISTRIBUTION> America is the 1%, rest of the world is 99%. 16 + Trillion DEBT will be payed back to other countries. If you understand that, you understand his policies and actions in office!

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