USAF Academy Graduation is always a great day to celebrate the career start for a new cadre joining the military with all opportunity and possibilities in front of them. Congratulations to all of them!
I can’t help but wonder if these graduates will lead our military to new heights through decades of selfless service and duty around the world characterized by fealty to our constitution-or whether they represent the beginning of the disintegration of the military that has kept this country safe since it was just an idea.
Having SECDEF Austin as the commencement speaker sends a special message that humble beginnings can lead to exalted heights in service to this country: and that message should not be diminished in any way, shape or form. The military remains a great cauldron in which ordinary citizens serve with limitless possibilities in the most integrated element of our government.
But it also sends a signal that reinforces the idea that failure is not disqualifying and that some military and Americans seemingly escape accountability in the face of egregious incompetence. The message for graduates of all the academies must be based upon the code of selfless service-duty, honor, country-and the ethos of do not “lie, cheat or steal-nor tolerate those who do.”
I personally find Austin lacking when it comes to those attributes-specifically selfless service. Leaders who lack the introspection or the self-discipline to hold themselves accountable by doing “the right thing”- notwithstanding that sometimes means receding from the limelight and letting others take up the sword and the battles and leadership-are similarly leadership examples.
I would argue that Austin stands out in regard to the above for all the wrong reasons. He oversaw the rise of ISIS and the Islamic Caliphate on his watch while Commanding General-Combatant Commander-United States Central Command, and also the recent absolute debacle that unfolded-and continues to unfold as we discover more about how inept this whole operation was-and continues to be-under his watch in Afghanistan.
In both cases he should have been fired or resigned-we also have what must be described as his woke and racist commentary against the military that was debunked out of hand by his former peers, now subordinate commanders at TRANSCOM and Strategic Command-among others- with the only government official embracing a ridiculous figure of 10% of the military being white supremacists being his own dog-whistle blowing diversity chief who somehow knew better than military commanders with over 120 years of experience among them. His down day was frankly ill-thought through-poorly executed-and a trite kowtow to wokeness that portends badness for our military going forward.
Austin and his cohort in incompetence GEN Milley are now dealing with the ramifications of some 100 days that have passed by since they told congress that any Russia-Ukraine conflict would be over “within 72 hours.” Not to make more of this than it is-people can be wrong-but imagine our congress finding themselves authorizing half again the amount of money these two “leaders” oversaw leaving behind in Afghanistan nearly 100 days after this invasion was supposed to be over.
I can’t help but think of the malfeasance associated with the terrorist attack and tragedy that was Benghazi that was also likely adversely affected by erroneous and pre-conceived notions of how much time was available to take actions that could shape the outcome.
These are the same two “military experts” who touted the success of our security training and preparations for a 300K strong Afghan security force that at best faced some 75K Taliban. The Afghans were equipped with the best arms and weapons American citizens could buy them.
On the heels of their testimony to oversight of how shocked they were to see the Afghan government fall in a mere 11 days-notwithstanding the warnings about the re-emergence of the Taliban that reportedly controlled 65% of the Afghan countryside and all of the checkpoints on the lines of communications leading into Kabul-they supported an operation abandoning Bagram-an Army’s worth of ground equipment-and staging what was billed as an orderly withdrawal but became a “Custer-like” last stand at Kabul International Airport-while allowing the Taliban to set the terms and timeline of withdrawal.
I fault and hold both these men-as well as US CENTCOM Commander McKenzie- responsible and accountable for not putting their reputation-jobs-selves on the line when it turned into an absolute debacle. The three of them should have resigned-moved on-for being absolutely wrong in these cases-or been fired because they fell on their sword advising against these catastrophic plans: I don’t believe there is any viable other option.
I can’t help but think these graduates and todays military will benefit best from an emphasis on the study of military and US history-the good and the bad-to plot their futures and to provide North Stars to focus on as they take their place as leaders in our military at this moment in history. There is perhaps no better study to undertake than civilian control of our military, although that highlights what a sorry mistake it was to select somebody like Austin and waiver him into the position of SECDEF.
These exceptions to the rule of civilian control over our military can be counted upon one hand-and I would argue two of those examples were misplaced-bad ideas-worst practices-but that’s a discussion for another day.
The US Air Force Academy has been a leader in many of the diversity initiatives and Critical Racism Theory in recent memory. Some might consider that a good thing, but what I take issue with about this mis-placed emphasis is not the diversity aspects-after all, the military has been conducting mandatory training on variations of equal employment opportunity forever-it was among the first mandatory training one attended when reporting to a new unit back in the 70s. My issue is that each additive course like this takes away from something else-there are only so many hours in the day. What have these graduates given up in favor of being exposed to Marxist, racist dogma that we citizens have a right to expect would be provided via an opposite message that derides and exposes the lies and failure of this system to provide any benefit whatsoever to all those who touted this style of government in the 20th century-with no single successful example to cite?
Every minute spent on racism training is a minute not available to focus on topics of import-leadership, military history, citizen service, the citizen soldier and more serious topics necessary to get these leaders primed to take their place in front of our sons and daughters.
May they serve with honor and distinction, characterized by selfless service and the leadership American’s sons and daughters deserve-writing new chapters in the long-storied history and tradition of the US military.
25 May 2022
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I signed up for the Army in ’76. I received not one minute of equal opportunity training. Not one minute. They didn’t waste our time with that. Everyone had the equal opportunity to die for our country. There was only one color to be ocncerned with, that was Army green. We are not ready to fight and win the next war.
Thanks for reading. The Army I joined in 1975 was still reeling from the 1968 and 1973 race riots. In our first EEO training session in ~April 1976-three fellow (black) soldiers I was close to were almost embarrassed by the silliness of the training-they wanted to know who these classes were for-what they were intended to do: pretty much a total waste of time but evidence that politics has always driven Army social issues to a great degree. By 1982-as the Army completed somewhat of the first phase of rebuilding the institution after Vietnam with the all-voluntary military-the gal reviewing my Officer Candidate School packet advised me I had only one chance to make the cut-finish first out of the 14 candidates. Department of the Army was levying quotas across the Army and for III Corps and Ft. Hood, there would be at best 3 candidates selected-1 would go to the top-rated soldier, the other two would go to minorities-whether female or black soldiers or a combination.
47 years after I joined Obama started a trend that politicians and leaders have managed to elevate into an issue that is definitely going to disrupt unit cohesion, teamwork, readiness and mission performance. You see it playing out with each of the service academies.