Cutting the Military - Déjà vu all over again

Well it appears that we are poised to relearn yet another nasty lesson at the hands of Democrats (Socialists, Liberals, Progressives, whatever).  In their zeal to spend money on things that we don’t need and in ways that our Constitution never intended, President Barack Hussein Obama plans to savagely cut our military end strength. 

Our Armed Forces are the envy of the modern world and have been so for about a century.  Our young men and women enter into that tradition when they don the uniform.  The overwhelming majority of nations have no such tradition and as a result their Armed Forces are little more than uniformed mobs.  Even so called "modern" nations cannot compete with the military that America can field.  I mean quality as well as quantity.  Man-for-man (or woman-for-woman) we can whip any outfit in the world. 

However now after handing President Obama conditions that he didn’t earn and victories that he had no part in crafting, he levels his guns at the American soldier and Marine.  His administration intends to focus the Nation’s treasure on things (research and development) rather than people. 

One of the things that surprises me most when discussing this topic is that people do not understand how long it takes to create a viable military unit.  Sure the privates and sailors who populate an infantry battalion or ship might only have been in the service for 6 months, but the rest of the unit or crew have a lifetime of experience.  It is often said that the backbone of any military organization is its non-commissioned officers – and I assure you that is true.  You can’t make a sergeant in a year or two.  It takes years that include formal and informal schooling, practice, and supervised experience.  His or her actions are monitored and evaluated by their seniors so that their performance is constantly critiqued and improved. 

What about those seniors?  The First Sergeant who is the enlisted leader in every Marine infantry company is the product of nearly two decades of such training, feedback, improvement, and life experience.  Those that can’t meet the lofty expectations of a Marine First Sergeant have gravitated to other lives as former Marines or failed to be promoted and eventually left for other lives.  When mobile training teams start training the fledgling armed forces of emerging nations like Iraq or Afghanistan, there may be old guys around, but they aren’t steeped in the traditions of their service, they haven’t been molded by years of superior service, and they have not demonstrated their commitment to the Nation and their service.  You can’t just “make” or even “train” a First Sergeant, you need to start with a superior person and put them through the entire infrastructure of traditions, schools, experience, practice, and leadership to “make” a First Sergeant. 

What of the officers?  Similarly, the Lieutenant that stands in front of an infantry platoon for the first time, may have only entered the service eight to ten months before, but he is product of either the military (those officers who rose through the ranks) or society where he or she came through a college or military institution.  Those people self selected themselves for a life of service, difficulty, and perhaps danger due primarily to their love of country.  They didn’t pursue a position due to class, clan, or religion, but out of patriotism.  Officers are also trained, groomed, and molded by schooling, practice, criticism, and other experiences to take on ever increasing responsibilities.  That young lieutenant who stands in front of a forty man infantry platoon at the age of twenty-two may in 16-18 years stand in front of a one thousand man infantry battalion.  He will succeed not because of who his daddy is, or what church he attends, or what political party he belongs to, but because he has proven himself over and over again.  He commands an infantry battalion because he also commands the trust and confidence of his seniors and his peers.  You can’t make such a man overnight. 

Now we stand ready to jettison all that experience for the false promise of peace.  Haven’t we been through this before?  The “War to End All Wars” - World War I comes to mind.  Can no one in the Obama regime envision a war with Iran?  A country with 545,000 active duty servicemen and 650,000 reserves.  Might those 100,000 soldiers and Marines Obama intends to dump come in handy during such an event?  You go to war with the service you have – didn’t we just learn that lesson? 

Every time I think that things have gotten as bad as they could get, Barack moves the goal post.