For whatever reason, my last few writing samples I’ve offered have been all “me.”  Perhaps I have a stronger ego than I believe I do.  Perhaps I’m opening up the inner workings of my mind to a group of good friends.

So, it’s time to get back to the reason we’re all together every few weeks, the one thing we all have in common, the military establishment.  In a nutshell, I am terribly concerned about our military and its war readiness in perhaps a unique world threat posture.  No, we’re not approaching 1917 when there were a multitude of political and diplomatic reasons for us to jump into World War One to aid our European allies.  Nor is it the late 30s and early 40s when we were drawn into World War Two, having been horrified by the actions of what Roosevelt called, “The apostles of greed and racial arrogances.”  No major decision is ever made in Washington without some consideration of politics.  But we self-ascribed ourselves by saying “God is on our side.”  This time, we felt we had a moral obligation to put an end to the Holocaust in Germany, Germany Light in Italy and God knows what in Japan.  Then the misunderstood Japanese called our bluff at Pearl Harbor.  Nor are we obsessing about the march of Godless Communism in participating in a “UN action” in Korea.

And we are not the paranoid folks “fighting” the Cold War.  Having been in the Strategic Air Command for all of my four years in the Air Force, I think we had the best global conflict cards until the Soviet Union caught up with us and eventually outbuilt us in nuclear armament.  No, this is 2023, and I am as frightened as I’ve been since we learned to “duck and cover” in elementary school.  What I call the International Federation of Bad Guys seems to have fomented war in at least three widely distributed areas.  Various components of the Middle East, Iran being the most terrifying currently, have drawn us into conflict.  Those bad guys gave us 9/11, the Air Force and Marine barracks slaughter and the protracted war after 9/11.  Seemingly we will always need to have a close eye on the Middle East and be ready to take action against some of its countries.  We are fighting a proxy war against our longtime nemesis, Russia, in Ukraine.  And we need to be ready to defend our ally Taiwan when and if China attacks in an effort to take advantage of Taiwan’s many successes (e.g., chips) under the guise of reunifying their country.  Only Kim Jung Un seems to know if North Korea is still an active threat.  Or perhaps his sister.

Surely there are other less pressing needs for US involvement at various spots on the globe.  Africa, for example, always seem to be in turmoil.  If one is to believe the proclamations of one of the two major political parties, our most virulent enemies of our country is within our country, malcontents who are dissatisfied with those governing or our very form of government.
I would add one other close to home.  Los Invisores are walking through our southern border in record numbers.

But I asked about our military state of readiness.  Let me try to answer my own question.  We’re not ready.  For a lot of reasons.  At least from my point of view.  No one in uniform today has ever won a war.  Worse than that, all the services seem to be wasting time and our dollars teaching nonsense as part of the Administration’s ‘woke’ orientation.  I’m pretty sure everyone in uniform today knows there are two sexes, not 72 or whatever the wokesters claim today.  And vive la difference.  Those with Y chromosomes are well aware that nothing they can do will make them pregnant.  Singular pronouns are he-him-his-she-her-hers.  Plural are they-them-their.  End of story.  No others need apply.  To refer to a person in plural pronouns violates a rule that most of us learned in third grade.  I’ve never seen any statistics on the promotion of homosexuality and cross-dressing through ‘drag’ activities, but, to the extent that they take up valuable training time, it is reprehensible that they are being presented.  I won’t get into debatable moral precepts, but my religion, for one, should be condemning this type of activity and I’m not sure they’re doing so.  I’ll blame weak leadership at the top.

But I am sure military service isn’t a daily parade led by rainbow flags.  “Don’t ask, don’t tell” seemed to work well when it was the law of the land.  There have long been unintended consequences of close quarters work.  Let’s not make them intended.  We have mandated sexual harassment and discrimination training for years.  Something most of us probably didn’t experience while we were ‘in.’  And that’s a good thing.

Does all this mean we’re not prepared to address our global challenges?  I would assert there are several less frivolous reasons.  We can’t fly the SR-71 because we can’t afford to.  The B-52 is our most reliable heavy bomber, and it’s almost as old as I am.  The B-1 and B-2 have both had operational readiness concerns.  A replacement for the B-52 is being developed, but it probably won’t be operational until the “BUFF” is nearly a century old; no military airframe has been in the air for anywhere near that long.  The Navy seems to have operational concerns, and we are down by an inordinate number of ships since we were last at fighting weight.  Sometimes it seems as if we’ve sent all of our Army armament and material to Ukraine.

Time to panic?  No, time to budget. I sent a letter to our veterans’ group in which I asserted the current administration does not place its military budget at or near the top of its pressing priorities and I received instant negative feedback.  Slightly off topic, but I am distressed that all our President since the Bushes have been draft dodger.  In a country that has traditionally elected ex-military officers as commanders-in-chief.

Back to the topic at hand.  There’s never been more reason to worry than now to worry.  And ask yourself if we should quit asking ourselves whom we’d like to have a beer with and find a commander-in-chief who’s a hardnosed executive who can serve as a war president.  We have had the singular advantage of fighting in wars ‘over there.’  The exception was Pearl Harbor, which most Americans had never heard of and couldn’t have found with a map.  Now, our enemies can reach us fairly easily, and not just a protectorate a million miles away where we park our battleships.  We’ve found out in Ukraine, Israel, etc. that defensive systems can knock some missiles out of the air, but not all.  Now I have to get back to my pushups and sit-ups in case they need me.