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!