And I am seeing a LOT of articles full of notions coming out of Proceedings these days about what we could do, what we should do, stuff and things.
Even Lehman's article about how we made it through after 'Nam was a huge disappointment. (Though the interview on the podcast was much more encouraging)
Ships rusty, double slamming deployments to appear 'unpredictable,' hyperfocused on non-warfighting training and webinars. I don't get it Sal. I just don't. Hell, recently it was national news when the 11th elevator on Ford was accepted as working by the Navy. An elevator!
I'm with you on accountability. Optempo, Afghanistan withdrawal, building a fleet that isn't needed and NOT building a fleet that is needed. Lehman mentioned the added delay in projects due to having to clear them with the Joint folks.
I sit here in a port city, one that used to build boats. One that decommissioned boats after WWII. One that, the last I can remember, built a smallboy for Saudi Arabia in the 70's with solid gold faucets. ( I know in Seattle, Todd built a couple after and has an LCS in drydock) Bremerton used to build ships.
I look at the landscape and think of what it would take to do a post Pearl Harbor emergency build and cannot see how it would be done today. And even if we got the steel and facilities, we would NOT have all sorts of fancy electronics available for them. We would be right back down to Mk 1 eyeball through a sight, pounding out rounds, torpedoes and depth charges in primitive fighting styles very quickly. Hope we kept the plans for Liberty ships and got oral histories from the surviving builders to help us along.
Awareness and accountability seem to be missing Sal. Even as a deckplate sailor, I see the need to clean some house up in the chain. Better to do it now than to have to court martial the cleaning later.
Makes one wonder what today's budgetary choices might be had we not 'invested' in two simultaneous land wars for 2 decades... But that's beside the point.
Where do we go from here? Rob the Army's piggy bank, put the USCG on rotation, mandatory standalone multi year Defense budgets - all underpinned by 'leaders' who are willing to make the case publicly, focus on weapons that provide asymmetric advantages for US vis a vis China and Russia and never, ever, field another ship that isn't armed to the teeth.
First, it's not the wish of leader cadre -- CIA, D-R UniParty, Big Think Tanks, Big Philanthropies, Big Schools, Big Banks, Big Industry, Big Defense (mil and civ) -- to build the things you want because it's not their intent to protect a region of the globe formerly called United States. They have other plans altogether. Extract and control, yes, protect and enhance, no, because that would be silly from their POV.
We say, think, and write "we" assuming "we" out here are the same as "we" in there (leader cadre). That assumption is just entirely unjustified by facts on the ground (or, if you wish, in the water and air) and, at this point in time, borderline insane. If you want to get mad at someone, get mad at yourself for thinking things like "What are 'we' doing?" and "What do 'we' need to do?. You're mad because you know you can't do anything to get done what you want done even if you knew everything that should be done, which you do not. You're mad because you are frustrated, a common and very human experience and condition.
Second, I think a systems guys at, say, 60k feet up, would ask what this deliberate decrepitude signals. I think he would say it signals the end of a system, and I think he would say the system ending is the post-WW II inter-nation order, not The United States of America. I think he would say the way of success ahead is in remembering matters spiritual. I think he would say something along the lines of:
"Quit your bellyaching and leave off being angry. It clouds your judgement. Design, develop, and try to deploy a fresh inter-nation communications system AND new United States self-defense structure, ones appropriate for modern conditions. And mission all of that to protect access to fair and reciprocal lines of communication -- spanning and employing space, air, fire (electricity), water, and earth -- used in trade by US citizens and their counterparts, citizens of nations with whom US citizens wish to do business."
Third, "we" ain't dead, yet, but "we" sure is deaf for decades. "We" can regain hearing, sight, and intelligence. All those assets remain inside "us," if in degrees of atrophy.
Elected leaders are more focused on diversity and inclusion. America no longer has the guts to be a fighting force. The defense acquisition process is boggled down with bureaucratic B.S. Military branch "class desks" are filled with people from academia that have no clue of how the military complex works or operates. People in this country actually believe we can live in a utopian society. It won't matter when we're all dead and gone because we couldn't fight back.
America is evil snd therefore its military needs to be weakened. The people who believe that run our countries major institutions.
We have commies who are more commie than the ChiComs.
So Patriotic ChiComs
Vs
CommiesUSA/democrat socialists Who despise their own country.
Mad, I am....
And I am seeing a LOT of articles full of notions coming out of Proceedings these days about what we could do, what we should do, stuff and things.
Even Lehman's article about how we made it through after 'Nam was a huge disappointment. (Though the interview on the podcast was much more encouraging)
Ships rusty, double slamming deployments to appear 'unpredictable,' hyperfocused on non-warfighting training and webinars. I don't get it Sal. I just don't. Hell, recently it was national news when the 11th elevator on Ford was accepted as working by the Navy. An elevator!
I'm with you on accountability. Optempo, Afghanistan withdrawal, building a fleet that isn't needed and NOT building a fleet that is needed. Lehman mentioned the added delay in projects due to having to clear them with the Joint folks.
I sit here in a port city, one that used to build boats. One that decommissioned boats after WWII. One that, the last I can remember, built a smallboy for Saudi Arabia in the 70's with solid gold faucets. ( I know in Seattle, Todd built a couple after and has an LCS in drydock) Bremerton used to build ships.
I look at the landscape and think of what it would take to do a post Pearl Harbor emergency build and cannot see how it would be done today. And even if we got the steel and facilities, we would NOT have all sorts of fancy electronics available for them. We would be right back down to Mk 1 eyeball through a sight, pounding out rounds, torpedoes and depth charges in primitive fighting styles very quickly. Hope we kept the plans for Liberty ships and got oral histories from the surviving builders to help us along.
Awareness and accountability seem to be missing Sal. Even as a deckplate sailor, I see the need to clean some house up in the chain. Better to do it now than to have to court martial the cleaning later.
Been watching this for 12 years. We are in a competition but only one side is competing.
Makes one wonder what today's budgetary choices might be had we not 'invested' in two simultaneous land wars for 2 decades... But that's beside the point.
Where do we go from here? Rob the Army's piggy bank, put the USCG on rotation, mandatory standalone multi year Defense budgets - all underpinned by 'leaders' who are willing to make the case publicly, focus on weapons that provide asymmetric advantages for US vis a vis China and Russia and never, ever, field another ship that isn't armed to the teeth.
First, it's not the wish of leader cadre -- CIA, D-R UniParty, Big Think Tanks, Big Philanthropies, Big Schools, Big Banks, Big Industry, Big Defense (mil and civ) -- to build the things you want because it's not their intent to protect a region of the globe formerly called United States. They have other plans altogether. Extract and control, yes, protect and enhance, no, because that would be silly from their POV.
We say, think, and write "we" assuming "we" out here are the same as "we" in there (leader cadre). That assumption is just entirely unjustified by facts on the ground (or, if you wish, in the water and air) and, at this point in time, borderline insane. If you want to get mad at someone, get mad at yourself for thinking things like "What are 'we' doing?" and "What do 'we' need to do?. You're mad because you know you can't do anything to get done what you want done even if you knew everything that should be done, which you do not. You're mad because you are frustrated, a common and very human experience and condition.
Second, I think a systems guys at, say, 60k feet up, would ask what this deliberate decrepitude signals. I think he would say it signals the end of a system, and I think he would say the system ending is the post-WW II inter-nation order, not The United States of America. I think he would say the way of success ahead is in remembering matters spiritual. I think he would say something along the lines of:
"Quit your bellyaching and leave off being angry. It clouds your judgement. Design, develop, and try to deploy a fresh inter-nation communications system AND new United States self-defense structure, ones appropriate for modern conditions. And mission all of that to protect access to fair and reciprocal lines of communication -- spanning and employing space, air, fire (electricity), water, and earth -- used in trade by US citizens and their counterparts, citizens of nations with whom US citizens wish to do business."
Third, "we" ain't dead, yet, but "we" sure is deaf for decades. "We" can regain hearing, sight, and intelligence. All those assets remain inside "us," if in degrees of atrophy.
Elected leaders are more focused on diversity and inclusion. America no longer has the guts to be a fighting force. The defense acquisition process is boggled down with bureaucratic B.S. Military branch "class desks" are filled with people from academia that have no clue of how the military complex works or operates. People in this country actually believe we can live in a utopian society. It won't matter when we're all dead and gone because we couldn't fight back.