Yes, it’s election day and most of our attention will is focused on news about turnout and later the actual results. However the administration has signaled a new round of hostilities with Iran starting as early as this week. Against that prospect, the results of of polling by the grassroots veterans’ organization Common Defense Civic Engagement just published in the Military Times should give all Americans pause. Our elected and appointed leaders should take note but sadly they won’t, which reinforces what the article reveals.
For those who don’t know the Military Times is an independent and respected news outlet. It’s also the parent publication for service centric publications specific to the major branches of our armed forces. You can learn more about the flagship publication here. It’s been around longer than just about anyone who might read this, having started out as The Army Times in 1940. They cover a range of issues pertinent to both active duty goings on and Veteran’s affairs. Since they are independent Petey Boy Hegseth can’t interfere in what they report. If this or any administration is unhappy with them, they don’t care.
The reason I explained that is that Hegseth has to be blowing a gasket. If Trump read he would too but given the cocoon of sycophants around him it’s unlikely he’ll learn about the the Military Times article reporting the findings of a new study that’s a devasting indictment of Hegseth’s poor leadership and management of the DOD. The headline is a damning indictment not only of both civilian and even some military leadership but also of a country that elected those who have been systematically destroying so much of what has made our armed forces the most powerful in history:
79% of Veterans and Service Members Say Politicians and Society Are LeavingThem Behind: Poll
As a veteran myself I am part of that seventy-nine percent. Too few Americans serve and therefore don’t fully realize ‘thank you for your service’ is too often mere words. With the elimination of the draft in favor on an all volunteer military even with all those who signed up after 9/11 only a small percentage of people have served or are/have been military families. However in my lifetime our armed forces were a model for providing opportunities and promotions based on merit. Your heritage and skin color, and increasingly your gender didn’t matter nearly so much as whether you were more capable than your peers. We all know what’s happened since Petey Boy Hegseth was put in charge. He might as well bluntly say ‘If you aren’t white male and if not a Christian Nationalist or open to fully adopting that set of beliefs we don’t want you. AND we’ll get rid of you as soon as we can.’ Well, as the the linked article indicates a disturbing number of people are looking to getting the hell out. From the data reported it’s clear why:
“Veterans know what real leadership looks like: you take care of the people under your command and you keep politics out of the mission,” said Jose Vasquez, U.S. Army veteran and executive director of Common Defense.
“Right now, nearly 8-in-10 veterans and military families say they’re being left behind, and active-duty troops are telling us that politicization is pushing them toward the exit. That’s not a talking point; it’s a readiness crisis,” he added.
I’ve seen reporting here and there expressing concerns about losing a lot of experienced people, especially in M.O.S.s (Military Occupational Specialties) where training replacements takes lots of time and money. Not to mention several or more years attain experience that is being lost.
Putting it plainly, there’s widespread distrust in leadership, especially the civilian leadership. While faith in top officers seems on the face of it ‘ok’ even that is nowhere near what it should be. Active and former troops (and families) don’t like much of what they’re seeing including the increasing politicization of our armed forces. If you consider yourself a good American and patriotic I challenge you to click on the link and read the article. I’ll bullet point some key findings of the Common Defense study that should make everyone feel sick inside:
- 53% of active-duty service members want to separate from service sooner because they said the military is becoming more politicized.
- 45% said policy changes or uncertainty under the current Trump administration had also made them consider separating sooner
- 44% cited the quality of housing or base facilities as impetus for an early exit—the same proportion that cited leadership and unit culture as affecting their longevity in the military.
- 67% agree that decisions affecting service members are being made for political gain, not mission readiness, compared to 25% who disagreed.
- 50% of veterans and active-duty service members said they disapproved of Trump as commander-in-chief, while 47% said they approved of him. Hegseth’s ratings were similar – about 45% of respondents said they approved of him, while 50% said they disapproved.
Again I’d like to note the Military Times isn’t some newish, minor publication. It and it’s service centric publications are widely read in the military/veterans community. Being independent of the DOD with their own funding if they have something critical to say they say it. They wouldn’t have published this if they hadn’t examined the polling information Common Defense gave them and found it to be credible. The poll was conducted in mid-September and if I had to bet if taken now the results would be an even stronger. I’d also like to emphasize one last point regarding that 79%:
Of the 731 active-duty service members, veterans and military families that responded to the survey, 48% strongly agreed with this sentiment and 15% disagreed.
If Team Trump does indeed ramp up the war with Iran, it’s going to do so with a clearly demoralized armed forces. And a support network of families and veterans that are also demoralized. That’s bad in a way those who’ve never served can’t fully appreciate. Leadership, good (preferably great) leadership is essential to accomplishing the mission however small or large. When I was on active duty I had leaders who as the old saw goes I’d ‘follow through the gates of hell’, but also a handful that I would have felt would needlessly through their own lives, or mine and fellow jarheads into a wood chipper out of stupidity, incompetence and worse, false bravado. If you’ve read this far think about that last sentence – anyone come to mind?
We’ve dangerously depleted our stores of missiles and guided bombs, and ground down people and equipment in an impromptu war of choice. By so-called leaders in our government who were boneheaded enough to think that attacking and controlling Iran wouldn’t take much more effort that blasting drug running (?) boats out of the water or choppering in to capture the former leader of Venezuela. And worse, a set of Joint Chiefs who didn’t have the backbone to put on the breaks. To tell Hegseth and Trump ‘No, this is a bad idea and IF you want to go ahead give us specific military goals and time to put together a plan.’
They damn well knew how stupid war with Iran would be but rather than resign en masse rather than meekly let ‘Warrior’ Pete and Trumpty-Dumpty posture on the world stage they gave in. No wonder morale is as low as Trump’s approval rating. So what we’ve got is a military that justifiably feels used for political grandstanding and they’re letting it be known they’ve had enough of such leadership. I dare say they are also weighing the fact they serve a country where despite the dumpster fire of his first administration and Jan. 6 half the country was willing to put Trump back in charge again. Instead of the vast majority of Americans saying ‘not only no but HELL NO!’ to Trump, only half the country was willing to vote to avoid this mess. I can’t blame those on active duty saying such a country is no longer worth the sacrifice they were willing to make.
*** Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
It would’ve been interesting if the publication had asked “Are you planning to vote more for Democrats or Republicans, all things being equal?”
I’ve got this awful feeling (especially given that a mind-boggling 47% of respondents approve of Drumpf–despite all the other negatives in the story) that a sizable chunk of active-duty military AND veterans AND their families will stick pick the “generic” GOPer over a “generic” Democrat. And I honestly don’t believe a lot of them will be picking even specific Democrats over their GOP opponent.
It is truly sickening and disgusting – the degradation of the military and out country as a whole. I honestly don’t know what will come next for us, even if the democrats gain a majority.