Our Treasured Military, Used for Political Capital

Dear Officers:

It is now confirmed. The wolves are among the flock, deep inside the comfort zone of the Pentagon, and the proverbial blood is flowing across all ranks and branches. Dignity, comradeship, and trust are being slaughtered within the ranks of the military. Not just in the active ranks, but also among the retired corps. The carnage is robust and festering; without as much as a whimper.
In three short years, the grip of the politically liberal vise has gained much momentum. Now command and control is best defined as fractured, discordant, and abysmally petty. In the hands of many using politics, posturing, and intimidation tactics, unyielding political weapons are being employed in a full assault on the high standing and code of honor of each soldier that wears or wore a uniform.
One such manifestation of this erosion of the fabric of our military is the Major Nadal Hassan rampage. Hassan, a soldier with an extreme ideological bent was repeatedly and deliberately overlooked because of his Muslim roots to the point that he killed his fellow soldiers on a military base here at home when he should have been stopped long before this heinous event.
This is but one symptom of a now common practice to over-look possible collateral damage because of political correctness run amok. This new battlefield, on our own soil, is due to fear of reprisal, failed leadership, silent voices, the ‘steady paycheck mentality’, and utter apathy.
The most recent event in this politically correct environment is the Army’s sensitivity program forcing combat veterans and NCO’s to participate by wearing fake breasts and empathy bellies under their uniforms. This is now taking place in conjunction with a worldwide program developed in 2008 that demands sensitivity among men for their pregnant female counterparts. This amounts to an almost deliberate mission to crush the esteem of men in uniform. The Commander in Chief and the Senate either approved this program or assumed default approval positions by not stepping in and halting it.
The examples continue, and now there is new text and definitions for hostilities and what constitutes imminent danger. These have worked to alter the hazardous duty pay-scale for troops to save $255 per month, per assignment, all to meet the eventual $1 trillion Department of Defense austerity objective over ten years. Ironically, the pay-scale of those with desk jobs in Washington DC is not affected.
Facing live fire, IED’s, SAM missiles, and asymmetrical enemies and other weapons, on any battlefield or in the air, is in fact imminent danger! These are dangers that must not be dismissed by decision-makers for the sake of job security, bloated and wasteful government elsewhere, and political ideology.
Then there are the events where political capital earned great dividends. Yes, Osama bin Laden has been sought for ten years, and when he was discovered in a compound in Abbottabad, Seal Team Six was sent in by Obama and the rest is history. Or is it? Since that day, the story has been trotted out on numerous occasions, often for political gain. Whether it was a State of the Union speech, a stump speech, or the incessant ‘talking points’ uttered by the Vice President, White House staffers, and certainly not last, the Obama apologists and ardent supporters on media talk shows.
Months later, in Wardak, Afghanistan, an RPG ambush occurred. Why? Because the enemy knew they were coming. How? Because the media knew – the White House and others told them, and then the world knew. This event meant the death of thirty eight similar elite forces and some Afghans aboard a Chinook helicopter. Once again, worldwide airwaves caused in part many sons and daughters without fathers, wives without soul-mates and parents mourning as they have out-lived their sons.
Topping the use of the bin Laden episode for political gain, we have the incredibly bad decision by the White House and the Pentagon to release highly sensitive material. To who was it released? Not an ally for use in the battle on terrorism, rather, it was granted to a movie producer for the production of a big screen project scheduled to be released in October, begging the question, by whose authority?
There is a body of rules that the Commander in Chief and the Secretary of Defense must enforce, yet these rules are ignored – another egregious chapter in military history.
Our youth join your branches of service, they endure boot camp, then perhaps flight school, or sniper school, or intelligence training where upon graduation, the hearts and minds of a new fraternity become faithful masters and stewards of your craft. The goal of these efforts is to triumph together in the common cause of protecting all our national security interests. Soon, with promotion, when each bar, star, and pin is earned, there is pride, esprit de corps, and a custom to uphold and defend, the culture of courage that is taught within the armed services. Journeys are before each member wearing the uniform. These culminate in mission objectives to be achieved, victories realized, and the continuation of the annals of success in American history.
All Officers, from current and past eras, must mentor each among you to nurture the integrity, the will, the scope of defense for the protection on America. Your history, your experience, your knowledge as officers is a very precious instrument required to restore the honor of the Armed Forces. You are called upon to muster and inspire the rank and file at the Department of Defense.
The White House and all agencies must trample the pages of the UCMJ no longer. This callous disregard is a threat to the moral character of the uniform and the narrative belongs to you officers. You must rise up and begin to correct these defects. You are obliged to restore and adopt a posture to cure this twisting of your command and control while setting aside the division, the dissention, and the politics.
Requests for retirement have reached a level so high that it has become policy at the Pentagon to respond with a stamp of “not approved” to keep the numbers up while augmentation is attached, as they plan to pare back at the same time.
As one analyzes the words of people with standing at the Pentagon carefully, it is apparent that opposing sides have been drawn with regard to loyalty, oaths, and political correctness. Missions are assigned that create leadership divisions among the corps, regardless of branch. We are on a feeble and soft foundation today as America embarks on an epic conflict in the Middle East, Asia, and perhaps even South America. The United States military cannot perform on this fragile footing. She has come too far and gained too much through the expense of her blood and treasure, we cannot be idle.

You can no longer be taciturn with your interaction to the civilian leadership that has mandated a cultural thought process that is in complete opposition to the legacy of the military doctrine.
General Robert E. Lee authored a letter to General John B. Hood in 1863, shortly before the Gettysburg address that read, “I agree with you that our Army would be invincible if it could properly be organized and officered. There never were such men in an Army before. They will go anywhere and do anything if properly led. But there is the difficulty, proper commanders, where can they be obtained?”
Senator William F. Knowland noted that:
Article I of the Constitution gives the power to declare war to the Congress and not to the Executive, We are apparently now, drifting into a twilight constitutional zone where the executive can put us into war, the fourth largest in our history, without a Congressional declaration or a Congressional resolution recognizing that a state of war started by others already exists.
When Congress acts under its constitutional power, every statement for or against the resolution are part of the Congressional Record, and the press and the public are fully informed. The roll-call vote shows how each Member voted. This is responsible and accountable government.
If five or seven men can meet in a closed session in the Blair House or the White House, and put this nation into the fourth largest war from a casualty standpoint in our history, without their statements and recommendations being recorded or available, and without their positions on this matter being known, we have the war-making power transferred from the Congress, operating in the open, to the Executive, operating en camera. That is not, I submit, either responsible or accountable government.”


The time is short, restoration is in dire need. You must leave behind the whimpers, find the fire in your voice and you must force multiply for the sake of America’s future days, for we can no longer tolerate the shame and indifference. Those buried in the hallowed grounds of Arlington and other cemeteries across the land, with or without the caisson, under the glory of our Nation’s flag, are a tribute to the old guard and sentinels for America. Should they speak from their marble headstones, they would ask as I do, how can you be silent anymore?

Respectfully yours, a mere faithful civilian,

Posted in Citizens Duty, DOJ, DC and inside the Beltway, Terror and tagged , , , , , , .

Denise Simon