The most important tidbit, factoid, to remember about the Fall of the Roman Empire, is this: between 451 AD and 476 AD, the Empire lost its ability to convince people to die for it.
In 451, the Empire mustered an army of 100,000 to defeat Attila the Hun at the Battle of Chalons; by 476, the Empire could not muster a platoon to defend Rome itself, from the barbarians, crossing its borders, uninvited.
What happened?
The obvious answer is that the Empire was led by a series of Joe Biden type Emperors, who indulged in psychopathological decision making.
John Le Carre gave the following insightful insight: “a primary qualification of Psychopathology is a disregard for the consequences of one’s decisions.”
Joe Biden has made a number of psychopathological decisions relating to the American Military; the end result being that 25 years of Imperial Roman decline and decay has been condensed into three years of Joe Biden leadership.
The end result is that few Americans, capable of defending the Republic, are willing to die for the Republic, as led by Joe Biden.
2023 was an ANNUS HORRIBILIS, a HORRIBLE YEAR, for the American military; as the consequences of Joe Biden’s psychopathological decisions began to be revealed, in all their rotten rancidness.
The Republic has a volunteer military; in 2023, this is where Joe Biden’s Leadership has led it.
“Of the five Defense Department service branches, only two met their active-duty enlisted recruiting goals for fiscal 2023 -- the Marine Corps and the Space Force…. the Army, Air Force and Navy, fell short. Every service -- with the exception of the Marine Corps, which squeaked by, in some cases by just one person -- missed some element of its target numbers, whether from the reserve, National Guard or officer goals.
The military took a variety of innovative approaches to inspire young Americans to join up, including reviving the Army's 1980s slogan "Be All You Can Be," the Air Force loosening prior tattoo and drug testing policies, and the Navy rolling out record-high financial incentives up to $140,000. But those efforts ultimately did not push the services over the line of their recruitment goals.
… the service (AIR FORCE) missed its enlisted active-duty recruiting goals for the first time since 1999, getting only 24,100 of the enlisted airmen of the 26,877 it needed…..The Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard faced an even larger enlisted shortfall.
The reserve component pulled in 5,288 of the 7,765 new enlisted airmen it needed, more than 30% behind goal. It also filled only 1,195 of the 1,535 officer spots it needed, about 23% short…..It was a similarly dire situation for the Air National Guard, which filled 7,120 of the 11,745 spots needed for its enlisted Guardsmen, or nearly 40% short…..
The Air Force Recruiting Service has been working hard to turn the tide this year, issuing a variety of policy changes and new initiatives.
Those included offering medals and promotions for recruiting; streamlining the naturalization process so recruits can become citizens during basic military training; offering reserve bonuses for prior-service airmen; reinstating the Enlisted College Loan Repayment Program; allowing certain tattoos on the hands and neck; and even allowing some recruits who test positive for THC -- the psychoactive component in marijuana -- a chance to retest under a new pilot program.
….The Army came up some 10,000 new enlistments short, with officials telling Military.com they hit 55,000 of a goal of 65,000 new active-duty soldiers.
…..The Army Reserve also had dire recruiting numbers, gaining just 9,319 reservists of the 14,650 it needed, according to Army officials. It was a shortfall of about 36%.
…..Over the past year, the Navy has tried a mix of options to gin up recruiting numbers -- old tried-and-true ways and also novel methods. None of them enabled it to meet its goals.
The service spent millions on high-profile advertisements at events like the Super Bowl and offered record-high enlistment bonuses to recruits -- including tens of thousands of dollars just to quickly ship out to boot camp.
It was also generous in granting exceptions "to consider individuals who may have previously been disqualified" over "tattoos, single parents or positive drug and alcohol tests," according to a service statement about the recruiting results.
Last winter, the Navy even raised the maximum enlistment age to 41 and loosened entry exam rules -- both changes aimed at widening the pool of possible enlistees.
But the sea service still fell short.
For active-duty enlisted sailors, it reached 30,236 of its 37,700 goal, almost 20% short. It also recruited 2,080 officers, almost 18% short of its 2,532 officer goal. It also missed its reserve goals by a wide margin, hitting 3,000 enlisted reservists, or almost 45% short of the 5,390 it wanted. Reserve officers also fell short by 40% hitting 1,167 of the 1,940 goal.
…..In one of its more dramatic and unpopular moves, the Navy also tried to increase the working hours of its recruiters to six days a week and considered taking steps to extend the orders of recruiters already in place for up to a year. The backlash to those ideas, however, was swift, and they were abandoned after about a week.
….it's clear to the Department of Defense that Gen Z, those born roughly between 1997 and 2012, are key to the future of the enlisted force. What's unclear is what will persuade them to sign up.
This past July marked the 50th anniversary of the American military moving to an all-volunteer force, doing away with the draft, lotteries and conscripting young men into service. Since then, the military has had to work to make service a value proposition, offering a wide range of bonuses and benefits, as well as removing previous barriers to enlistment in order to hit the needed recruitment numbers.
…. the Pentagon has released studies showing that only 23% of American youth are eligible to serve due to being overweight, using drugs, or having mental and physical health problems.
And those in Gen Z who are eligible for service may not be encouraged to enlist by the same motivations of their parents' or even their grandparents' generations.
In a speech in April, Ashish Vazirani, deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said about 75% of enlistees have a family history of service. But that number is shrinking, as only 13% of younger Americans have a parent who served in the military, down from 40% in 1995.…..…military times.”
There has always been a limited pool of people willing to die for the Republic; just as there was a limited pool of men willing to die at the Alamo.
Joe Biden’s Military has embraced DIVERSITY, EQUITY and INCLUSION in the American Military, with a fervor which has made the women of the VIEW and MSNBC deliriously happy. The only problem with that, is that neither they, nor their viewers, will volunteer to die for the Republic.
The traditional pool of warrior volunteers, Christians, are repelled by the Joe Biden’s Military excursion into DEI and social engineering.
No member of a traditional warrior family wants to be either a sucker or a fool and die for a Republic which uplifts Kamala Harris, Ihlan Omar or Pramilla Jayapal.
Which means, in a very short time, the bulk of the troops fighting for the Republic will be migrants….can anyone say Praetorian Guard or Swiss Guard or Janissaries or Mamelukes?
THE ARMY-
A situation in Fort Sill, Oklahoma brings Joe Biden’s Military into stark relief.
Fort Sill houses the Army’s Fires Center of Excellence, Artillery.
Maj. Gen.. Kenneth Kamper was relieved of Command in 2023; he was a highly regarded artillery officer; who had been in command at Fort Sill since March, 2020.
Why was he relieved of his Command Post? Treason? Dereliction of Duty? Captain Bligh Command Tactics?
He went hunting too many times on base grounds.
Why would a General do that?
The obvious reason is, he likes killing things; which may be an attribute in the officer corps.
“Some complaints alleged Kamper did not follow the proper approval process and skirted local rules, according to two Army officials with direct knowledge of the situation.
Leadership with the U.S. Army’s Training and Doctrine Command, or TRADOC, fired Kamper because of “loss of trust and confidence in his ability to command,” Army spokesperson Cynthia Smith.
Kamper, an artillery officer, will remain at Fort Sill until he is reassigned, Smith said.
Fort Sill encompasses nearly 94,000 acres.
Fort Sill is home to approximately 20,000 troops and is central to the Army’s artillery and other long-range weapons training, including the Patriot air defense missile system, the weapons platform on which Ukrainian troops began training here in January.
Kamper is a two-star general officer rank and the highest permanent peacetime rank in the Army. He had been the commanding officer of Fort Sill since March 2020.....military.com.”
In Joe Biden’s Military, one of America’s top Generals is sitting around twiddling his thumbs; because he did not get approval to go hunting, on 44,000 acres. Readers, tell this Blogger; if you know of any Military in the History of the World, other than Joe Biden's Military, that would relieve one of its top Generals, for killing jackrabbits in Oklahoma?
The ultimate purpose of any Military is killing, not protecting jackrabbits.
It may not be a bad thing for a combat general to like hunting, or even to be obsessed with hunting. For it hones his or her predatory skills; in combat, it is better to be the predator than the prey.
If Ronald Reagan were running America’s Military in 2023, General Kamper would be transferred to Taiwan; the Communist Chinese would be informed, that he was transferred there; because he really liked killing, another General Patton.
THE NAVY
As a troublesome youth, on the streets of Brooklyn, this Blogger was impressed by his brother’s Mafioso friend, Crazy Joe Gallo.
In response, this Blogger’s parents sent him to Siberia, also known as Guymon, Oklahoma. When this Blogger asked his Father, what Guymon was like?
The Father answered: “You will be out on the range, under the stars, with nothing between you and the North Pole but old barbed wire."
On the ranch, in Guymon, this Blogger's boss was a Comanche. He had served in the US Navy during World War II.
His hero was the FIRST Native American to ever command an American combat ship, Ernest Evans.
Commander Evans assumed command of the destroyer JOHNSTON, at her commissioning on October 27, 1943, declaring to the assembled crew, "this is going to be a fighting ship. I intend to go in harm's way, and anyone who doesn't want to go along had better get off right now"
That was the first message from the first Native American commander to his crew….none left.
Evans was good for his word.
“The warship was lost during the Battle off Samar, part of the larger, sprawling Battle of Leyte Gulf on October 25, 1944….led by Ernest Evans, the heavily outmatched destroyer “charged into a massive line of Japanese warships in order to protect the American landing force attempting to liberate the Philippine Islands,”
….Enemy shells assailed the onrushing Johnston, striking the destroyer and inflicting widespread damage and casualties.
Despite being seriously wounded in the attack, Evans ordered a second assault.
With no remaining torpedoes and limited firepower left, Johnston’s brave but doomed attack continued unabated, firing 30 more rounds into a 30,000-ton Japanese battleship.As enemy ships began strafing the escort carrier Gambier Bay, Evans gave the order to “commence firing on that cruiser, draw her fire on us and away from Gambier Bay.” The Japanese responded in turn. “After two-and-a-half hours, Johnston — dead in the water — was surrounded by enemy ships,…At 9:45 a.m., Evans gave the order to abandon ship. Twenty-five minutes later, the destroyer rolled over and began to sink.”….Of the 327-man crew, only 141 survived. Evans was not among them. The commander was later awarded the Medal of Honor, becoming the first Native American in the U.S. Navy and one of two destroyer captains in WWII to receive the honor….military times.”
As the JOHNSTON was sinking; the crew of the nearest Japanese destroyer saluted it: “We didn't think Americans had that kind of bravery.,”
That was FDR’s Navy; where a Native American rose to command based on his courage, not DEI.
In 2023, Joe Biden named Admiral Lisa Franchetti, Chief of America’s Navy, over the objections of Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin.
As a DEI appointment of Joe Biden, her first message to the crews was sociological, asking them to look out for each other and not commit suicide.
How sweet.
Suicide is an occupational hazard of warriors, from Hannibal to Admiral Chester Nimitz, perhaps America’s greatest Admiral, to Scott Stearney to Jeremy Boorda, the first enlisted man to rise to head America’s navy.
Thanks to Joe Biden’s inept foreign policy, Russia and Communist China are married in a military alliance, closer than anything seen since before Richard Nixon.
Which brings us to the point: one’s military leaders should strike fear in the hearts of any potential adversary.
In appointing Admiral Lisa, Joe Biden obviously believes that the Communist Chinese Navy is led by a bunch of Randy Rainbows. A better assumption is that President Xi has found another Zheng He to lead his Navy; a Communist Chinese navy, which is now larger than the American Navy: “The Pentagon's 2023 China Military Power Report said China's navy had about 370 warships. The fleet is expected to grow to 395 ships by 2025 and 435 ships by 2030. The current U.S. fleet is smaller, with more than 280 vessels."
And the Communist Chinese know that; even if America built a massive amount of new vessels, there will not be enough American volunteers to sail them.
The Military is a nation’s bodyguard; Orwell’s rough men willing to do violence on behalf of people worried about inclusion. One’s bodyguard should frighten any opposition.
The countenance of Admiral Lisa does not frighten any of our adversaries' rough men.
If Joe Biden had indeed wanted to appoint Admiral Lisa to command of the American Navy, the least he could have done was improve her danger quotient; that could have been done by amputating her left arm, a la Admiral Nelson.
One armed Admirals strike fear into the hearts of all rough men.
The Czarist Military collapsed from the internal rot of the “Sukhomlinov Effect"; in which having a garish uniform carried more weight in promotions than warrior competence.
In 2023, the Joe Biden Effect had full bloom; an effect in which being an incompetent recipient of DEI rot got one promoted over military competence.
No warrior wants to willingly fight, kill and die under the command of an incompetent DEI favorite son or daughter. If the Republic wants to have a viable DEI Military, find some more male or female Ernest Evans.
Joe Biden is the worse President for the American Military since James Buchanan.
2023 was indeed an ANNUS HORRIBILIS for the American Military, as it dwindles away.
Admiral Lisa Franchetti and “Sukhomlinov Effect"
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