Recruiting and Retention Shortfall in US Military, Warning, Controversial topics within!

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Bearcat22

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I've seen a lot of comments and video of people saying "why I did not re enlist" and the number one reason is self serving and abusive leaders.
I read that these types often do not get demoted or punished, often because they are minority or female and that triggers problems if you even mildy criticize a minority officer.
Trouble is, that's only telling one side of the story. Wonder what these "toxic officers" would say about those under them who refuse to re enlist?

I was never in the military, but I vividly recall being seriously worried Reagan was gonna start a nuclear war. I end up feeling it was a con game on both sides. In the USSR they told people "hitler invaded us and unless we spend all our money on weapons, NATO will do it next". In the USA, similar propaganda, and I feel mostly just a scam to make money and inflate the military budget.

I came across president Eisenhower's warning about perpetual war and the Military Industrial Complex. Saw congressional hearings, officers saying "we don't want any more Abrams tanks" and the politicians forcing them to buy them anyway, so they could have jobs in their states. A creepy corrupt system. Crony capitalism. Do vets and current enlisted make their voices heard about this type of waste?

Should America's military try to play global police man / bully and be a tool of American corporations that have foreign investments? Would we be safer if we stayed home and minded our own business? For the cost of blowing people up, would it maybe be cheaper to make friends by gifting them some hospitals and schools?
 
CaliS said:
The government does not take care of those who serve. I'll stop there.
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I'd agree, enlisted are not the priority, the budget goes to crony capitalism weapons manufacturers, so the congressman
can claim he "created jobs" in his state.

How can there be such a huge bloated military budget but not adequate funding for vet health care? It is shameful.

Playing Devil's Advocate, though, they call it "serve" instead of work, because when you sign up you litearlly agree to give up
your life if need be. Kind of since always, the military has been the last resort employer of the impoverished and uneducated.
 
CaliS said:
In my humble opinion, the only war worth giving up your life for was WW2.
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Also a bit controversial, WW2. Conspiracy theorists cite the fact that FDR in private planned on that war while running on an election platform of neutrality. Also supposedly evidence that warning of Pearl Harbor attack about to happen was deliberately ignored.
Theory goes on to say that the New Deal wasn't working, so a war economy was necessary to recover. Pretty much what Germany did, they went into debt to recover, then had to go to war to pay it off
War is almost always about money.
 
WWII was every man's war. It involved at least 70 countries, at least 57 of whom were actively shooting at one another. That war was not a scam nor was it run on propaganda. Terrible things were occurring and people of good will had to put a stop to it. Sadly, it took far too long to achieve this. There are people on this forum who were directly involved in that war and no matter how they may try, the memories will be there forever.

Please do not attempt to trivialize it, nor those directly involved in it.

FDR did not count on that war to pull us out of the depression at all. Winston Churchill begged him to get us involved, but our Congress was having none of it. Meanwhile, England was being bombed daily for about 14 hours straight every single day for more than 6 months. That they did not capitulate drove Hitler even more insane than he already was.
 
IKE said:
Catchy handle....@Bearcat22 as in a Ruger Bearcat .22LR ?

View attachment 494992
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Nope I kind of like the look of the old sports car named the Stutz Bearcat, and I like felines, so kind of that.

As for guns, I've often wondered what our society might be like if by law every adult in a public place were
required by law to carry a loaded weapon out in plain sight.
Would people start being polite again, if their lives might depend upon it?
 
Bearcat22 said:
Nope I kind of like the look of the old sports car named the Stutz Bearcat, and I like felines, so kind of that.

As for guns, I've often wondered what our society might be like if by law every adult in a public place were
required by law to carry a loaded weapon out in plain sight.
Would people start being polite again, if their lives might depend upon it?
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I don't mean to be a Suzy Sunshine, but seriously, the best way to get people to be polite is to be polite. That's been my experience, anyway and I grew up in Los Angeles.
 
Lewkat said:
WWII was every man's war. It involved at least 70 countries, at least 57 of whom were actively shooting at one another. That war was not a scam nor was it run on propaganda. Terrible things were occurring and people of good will had to put a stop to it. Sadly, it took far too long to achieve this. There are people on this forum who were directly involved in that war and no matter how they may try, the memories will be there forever.

Please do not attempt to trivialize it, nor those directly involved in it.

FDR did not count on that war to pull us out of the depression at all. Winston Churchill begged him to get us involved, but our Congress was having none of it. Meanwhile, England was being bombed daily for about 14 hours straight every single day for more than 6 months. That they did not capitulate drove Hitler even more insane than he already was.
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Nothing has been trivialized by me Lewkat, that is all your emotional interpretation. There is a reason the title of my post includes a warning that it raises controversial topics. If you, or anyone else, is thin skinned, or emotionally / subjectively biased, then they and you have the ability to simply not read my posts.

I will invite readers to do their own research. I am confident that they will discover what is on the objective record,.

During his electcion campaign FDR promised the public to be keep America neurtral while in private documents he was planning on dragging America into yet another European war, contrary to the rule set by George Washington to avoid entagngling alliances with foreign powers.

Every American who thought it was worth doing was free to pay his own way to bring himself and a rifle to go volunteer to fight in Europe.
Where things get fishy is billions suddenly spent on war by forced taxation and slavery aka as "the draft:". Deficit spending on paper put people to work in America but at terrible cost.

War is a scam, and not to be proud of.
 
Murrmurr said:
A nation that refuses to recognize a threat to its way of life, and/or defend it, is doomed to lose it.
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Which is safest? Stay in your own house and mind your own business, or force your way into your neighbors house and start telling him how to live his life and raise his family because you think his religion and lifestyle are "a threat" to your chosen lifestyle?

Imperialism is not self defense.
9/11 was retaliation for decades of aggressive American foreign policy.

 
Murrmurr said:
Looks to me like the military's recruitment and retention issues are due to a lack of discipline and an understanding of teamwork and broader goals among our youth.
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Well please cite some facts to back that up. Persons of all ages are posting online that they are quitting. Were or are you a military officer?
Has anyone ever called you toxic or a bully? Ever been divorced?
 
Bearcat22 said:
Nothing has been trivialized by me Lewkat, that is all your emotional interpretation. There is a reason the title of my post includes a warning that it raises controversial topics. If you, or anyone else, is thin skinned, or emotionally / subjectively biased, then they and you have the ability to simply not read my posts.
Click to expand...

WW2 was not "every man's war". Look up the Zoot Suit Riots for example.

Bearcat22 said:
I will invite readers to do their own research. I am confident that they will discover what is on the objective record,.

During his electcion campaign FDR promised the public to be keep America neurtral while in private documents he was planning on dragging America into yet another European war, contrary to the rule set by George Washington to avoid entagngling alliances with foreign powers.

Every American who thought it was worth doing was free to pay his own way to bring himself and a rifle to go volunteer to fight in Europe.
Where things get fishy is billions suddenly spent on war by forced taxation and slavery aka as "the draft:". Deficit spending on paper put people to work in America but at terrible cost.

War is a scam, and not to be proud of.
Click to expand...
 
Bearcat22 said:
Which is safest? Stay in your own house and mind your own business, or force your way into your neighbors house and start telling him how to live his life and raise his family because you think his religion and lifestyle are "a threat" to your chosen lifestyle?

Imperialism is not self defense.
9/11 was retaliation for decades of aggressive American foreign policy.
Click to expand...
Who said anything about neighbors?

I'll rephrase: I didn't say anything about neighbors, but if my "neighbors" have designs on taking over MY home, I'm gonna defend it.

Again, if you don't recognize the threat, you're doomed. Fortunately for you, someone with power and authority will likely recognize it for you. So you can sleep well.
 
Murrmurr said:
Who said anything about neighbors?

I'll rephrase: I didn't say anything about neighbors, but if my "neighbors" have designs on taking over MY home, I'm gonna defend it.

Again, if you don't recognize the threat, you're doomed. Fortunately for you, someone with power and authority will likely recognize it for you. So you can sleep well.
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Nice theory. Im glad to fund the Coast Guard and National guard, not happy to pay trillions for phony wars about NONEXISTENT threats like the "weapons of mass destruction" lie.
War is a scam, the military industrial complex is a scam, and it was Republican President and WW2 Supreme Commander Eisenhower who first said so.
If YOU feel threatened by another country, feel free to use YOUR money to go there and kill people, leave me out of it.

 
Bearcat22 said:
Have you ever been mugged, threatened, assaulted or raped?
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The post to which I was responding made no mention of what you've listed above, but noted only politeness. That is what I responded to. What has or has not happened to me in my life is not relevant to this conversation and certainly none of your business, total stranger on the internet.
 
Bearcat22 said:
Well please cite some facts to back that up. Persons of all ages are posting online that they are quitting. Were or are you a military officer?
Has anyone ever called you toxic or a bully? Ever been divorced?
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You're a chump.

But anyway, I do have an example of our youth's lack of discipline and all that. It's actually pretty funny....

Last year, a young recruit was on maneuvers with his company. They were somewhere in a forest in northern Calif, I think. So, doing maneuvers, which is basically a war game, where recruits do a realistic enactment of a military conflict and enemy forces have them pinned down in this forest, and they have to get supplies and back-up forces and get themselves out of this situation.

His company is finally taking a break, and this young recruit gets on his phone and orders pizza delivery. :LOL:
 
Bearcat22 said:
Why such a lazy, hasty and rude reply, Kate?
You could instead find, quote and offer contrary evidence., make a worthwhile contribution.
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Anyone ever mention reading the room to you? I'm not lazy and certainly not rude. I said what I needed to say with my graphic as we often do here. I only bother with "worthwhile contributions" when I feel that interaction would be... well, worthwhile.

Arguing with someone who joined only a few hours ago and came in gunning... nope, not gonna do it.
 
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