The current population of field grades will be a real problem

potato byproduct

Grievance and revenge as organizing principles

there's a longitudinal study to be conducted on the attitudes of surge-era (both IZ and AFG) JOs who stayed in after multiple draw downs and how those attitudes shaped the post-GWOT Army

As a GWOT vet I scorned officers who only wanted to see the line on the graph going up and to the right, and green gumballs across the board.

How foolish I was to think that the institution couldn't trend down and to the left, with nothing but red gumballs as far as the eye can see

The phrase "Hollow Army" has been at the top of mind lately

Will they introduce an evening lecture series at basic training consisting of The World According to Dort?

Possibly!

Correct. If you want to do war crimes, Service Chief isn't the priority billet. However, if you want to change the institution's culture to match your uh... peculiar...values, Service Chief is a good place to start

Hi Civ-Mil scholars, American and Comparative, what books would y'all suggest about oversight on military affairs?

I am not talking about SH, Feaver, Janowitz, and Schiff. More of the recent, process oriented, case studies or cross national stuff.

Feel free to suggest your own?

Isn't there a time limit on how long you can sit in as "acting"

I'm not a politics or Senate knower but I can't think of a single reason for a Dem to vote Yea, and yet Fetterman is gonna do Fetterman things

how many Senate Dems will vote to confirm POTUS's chosen replacement for Bondi, I wonder

┏┓
┃┃╱╲ in
┃╱╱╲╲ this
╱╱╭╮╲╲house
▔▏┗┛▕▔ we
╱▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔╲
follow appropriation law
╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓ ╲╲
▔▏┗┻┛┃┃┗┻┛▕▔

Anyone at Treasury or DHS who follows an illegal order to process pay should be aware that they are placing themselves in legal jeopardy

You think POTUS is going to remember to pardon each and every one of y'all?

super excited for President AOC to fund the Woke 2 agenda by decree, since that is how things work now

I doubt anyone has ever changed anyone's mind online

My wife likes to get into it with people online - I don't - but I'm also not going to tell a black woman not to bodyslam racist assholes in the comment section

Since ~2016 the vast majority of this type of thing has been stuff I have seen online, from people I once knew but now am only connected to online. I won't see these guys ever again IRL, so I just remove them from my online life and they're gone forever

Oddly enough during my active duty career, in the thick of the GWOT, the discriminatory behavior I witnessed was not against Muslims but rather straight up anti-black racism

It is as American as apple pie

I should have specified "a leader of American soldiers"

the last time I encountered blatant racism I invited the guy outside the JOC to discuss it and that settled the issue

I wish I had had that wherewithal the first couple of times, I'll regret that for the rest of my life

I just started looking for machine presses and copper wire in my platoon AO and hey presto found an EFP factory

I can't remember if I ever told my EFP factory story on bsky, but my takeaway from a year of trying (and failing) to stop EFP teams was that they were way faster than us

The only way to stop them was by cutting off the supply chain, which is how I found an EFP factory on the outskirts of Sadr City

Great thread

it takes a few times to get used to the feeling of the floor falling out from under your feet as you realize that someone who is ostensibly smart and capable doesn't view all humans as equally worthy of dignity and respect

Well, he's a competent soldier. Not sure one can be a competent leader and a racist

Another guy I know, an extremely competent leader who is highly decorated for valor, straight up told me he is racist. I believe he is currently a battalion commander

A guy I know, who is waiting on his star, just thanked ICE for being at the airport in a fb post about going on a family vacation

tangentially related: over the past few years I have discovered that people I served with, colleagues, linkedin connections etc are unrepentant racists or religious fanatics who very much approve of everything going on, and yet I hesitate to openly name names.

I'm not sure why. Maybe I'm a coward.

Ed Balls is another classic

It's either the Gerry Adams timer tweet or the Cars 2 eating beans in the theater tweet (you know the one)