The Grand Illusion
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been insisting that the armed forces of the United States need to return to a “Warrior Ethos,” along with removing women from any number of positions and eliminating anyone who isn’t “straight.”
Personally, I have a real problem with that crusade, and the way he’s approaching reforming the armed services is, in fact, an unthinking crusade. He’s also assuming that males of a certain physical type are the only ones with the “correct” mindset.
War is no longer, if it ever really was, just a massive struggle of big-biceped males. Even the Bible makes that point in the story of David and Goliath, where the slight shepherd boy destroys the giant with his skill and his sling, and in fact, back then most armies had slingers. And, so far as being gay, Richard the Lion-Hearted was, and he was certainly a “warrior,” if not always wisely, which might also suggest certain drawbacks to the “warrior” mindset.
Modern warfare requires an enormous array of skills from its soldiers. Even in World War II, infantry soldiers, who took seventy percent of the casualties, only represented fourteen percent of overseas forces.
In the Vietnam era, when I flew H-34s, each hour of flight time required between five and ten hours of maintenance, and I wouldn’t be here today if those techs hadn’t done their job. Today, for every hour of flight time, an F18E/F Super Hornet requires twenty hours of maintenance. The F-14 required 40-60 hours, one of the reasons it was phased out. An aircraft carrier requires 5,000-6,000 personnel onboard to support the operations of between 64 and 80 aircraft of various sorts, with roughly 180-200 pilots and NFOs.
The armed forces don’t require or need macho-muscled males to fill every position, and in terms of flying, women and shorter men can actually handle gee forces better than tall brawny males. While there are certain specialty positions in the military that require great muscular strength and abilities, they represent a small fraction of the skills necessary in a modern military force.
At a time when the United States is relying on an all-volunteer military force, and when the military is often failing to meet recruiting goals, does arbitrary and unwise removal of soldiers, sailors, and others make sense, when their only “detriment” is that they don’t fit an outdated “warrior” image?
I’m sorry, but it’s pointless to show that Trump’s policy decisions make no sense. They don’t have to make sense, they just exist as motivational sound bites.
As long as the MAGA faithful cheer at this “warrior” talk, the mission is accomplished.
That’s a very good point.
I’d say one should consider the source of those statements (Hegseth, or ‘kegsbreath’as I’ve read in some other posts regarding his past behaviors) to discern the compensating nature of them. Hegseth seems a particularly flawed individual like many that have been recruited into Trump’s orbit.
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It was something I read a few decades back in some mil sf. Don’t remember the book or the author anymore. And I can’t quote it exactly, either!
But it was something to the effect that warriors charge in, swords swinging, while soldiers stand in ranks, showing their discipline, and from behind their shield wall chop the warriors to pieces.
I sincerely doubt Hegseth, along with the rest of the Trump Maladministration, has a soldier ethos. But a warrior one? Oh, you bet.
Their goal is to weaken the military and make it follow any illegal orders they give. The anti-vax push does the same thing. Without vaccines the military is more susceptible to illness.
Based on Hegseth standards, he probably would not want Audie Murphy(5 ft 5 in, 112 lbs).
He’d probably also be very suspicious of Marion Morrison, even (or especially!) after the name change to John Wayne.
That’s comparing apples to oranges. John Wayne was an actor who never served in the military. Audie Murphy was the most decorated american war hero of all time.
Ronald Reagan was also an actor