There’s a serious problem with the way the brass work with Afghanistan officials. The current SOP everywhere is to identify and vet all Afghans who come on post. Since the suicide bomber a couple of years ago, Afghans have been very restricted and must be registered before they can get in.
That said, these types of high-level meetings generally occur off post, and these security checks are not performed with regard to the security accompanying local officials. Asking to vet their guards is seen as a lack of trust and our officials (including military) have all bought in to “respect the local culture at all costs” dictum. In effect, our policy is more concerned with political correctness than safety or even the accomplishment of our mission.
The Middle East has a long history of corrupting “allies.” The above bio exemplifies the problem. Senior military officers have been inoculated against common sense. They may be great in the field, but their courage deserts them in the face of political agendas—whether cultural equivalency or sexual equality. It’s the frog-in-the-pot syndrome. Sheer exposure over time brings familiarity to even the most abberant practices or ideas.
It’s a larger problem than most admit, because it undermines that comfortable narrative we prefer that military equals conservative or apolitical to the point of sainthood. Our founders knew that humans are not saints and that’s why they instituted checks and balances and outlawed the very concept of nobility.
While we may not have titles, our dalliance with Middle Eastern “royalty” and the human propensity toward hereditary rule rather than Republic, has resulted in an elitist class in Washington that is indistinguishable from the tyrants parading about with crowns on their encephalitic heads. The stench of privilege that pervades our capital and even infects our military would be anathema to our founders.
In this case ‘respecting the local culture’ very nearly got the GO commanding in Afghanistan killed. I wonder if this event at the start of his tour will enlighten him.You are correct about the social science groupthink poison. That is what Trump meant when he said he wasn’t sure how long Mattis would be around and that Mattis was a ‘sort of Democrat.” This crap has been percolating for decades. Forty plus years ago when I was in uniform it was clear that there were different disciplinary standards for white ND Black servicemen. I had a black roommate for a while. Pretty OK guy but he constantly brought whores in on weekends, I had a weekend overnight security job so most of the time I didn’t have to worry if he was caught. I asked him once (since he wanted to be career military) if he wasn’t concerned about the consequences of smuggling a non military female into his quarters. He said basically “No man, they will just send to the Social Actions Officer and he’ll bitch at me a little and that’ll be it.” Now this has morphed into subordinating unit readiness to political correctness about social and sexual deviants, ethnic thuggery and crackpot feminist grievance mongering. Officers, even senior officers that strongly buck the social justice league posturing risk ending their careers, even senior officers. At the O-6 and above level a couple of senior officers just tells the guy who isn’t playing well with others to”Just put your papers in and retire Jack. Your embarrassing yourself and us.” So people like Mattis have swallowed these turds and smiled for so long they don’t really seem like turds anymore and a guy like Trump really shakes him up when is told ‘Get rid of the trannies and the he/shes now not in ten years.”
Very well put. This has happened throughout history. Roman commanders were subtly seduced and influenced by the alien cultures they encountered. There is little doubt that ultimately their perspectives, values and behavior changed. Historians argue that the Roman empire had become too large and diverse to be ruled by a uniquely, distinct Senate of Roman aristocrats and that an administration with a strong king like leader was an almost natural evolution. However the influences of first the Greeks and of course the Egyptians hastened the abandonment of Republican values.
The debilitating effect on the armed forces of “politically correct” behavior and posturing in an unfortunate consequence of a large force with a huge administrative staff in peacetime. Career officers who seek advancement see relatively little if any actual combat, which is the true proving ground of a military leader. Instead, as in academia, these intelligent people advance their careers being very attentive to prevailing trends and the opinions of their non military political masters. A modern commander in Afghanistan could design and execute a masterful plan to defeat the Taliban and achieve victory ( a term seldom used today) but if he was heard to make a disparaging remark about homosexuals, he would be sacked immediately. Commanders know this and as a result often put their troops at risk to conform with political, militarily unsound directives.
Frankly the American military operating in absurd alien places like Afghanistan and Iraq have little chance of accomplishing anything worthwhile. The danger is that the mindset of officers is being changed. There is the danger that they are being transformed from being wily, aggressive, courageous warriors into politically correct careerists. That is not a good legacy.
Yet as happened in Rome, it is foolish to believe that the military will not be affected by the changing culture and harsh political divisions of the society it purports to defend.