PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
RELEASE: WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1998, AND THEREAFTER 

CULTURAL DESTRUCTION IN THE MILITARY
        If First Woman Hillary Clinton had succeeded in her first-term attempt to socialize U.S. medicine, she would have done us all a great harm. But not nearly as great as she has done by putting her feminist allies and rank political opportunists in charge of our country's military.

        Hillary's appointees have succeeded in their assault on the last bastion of heterosexual males. This raises a question: Just how tough were our fighting forces if a handful of anti-male, anti-military Pentagon appointees could destroy the military culture?

        The answer is that for many years we have had two military cultures: the warrior culture below the rank of general officer and the political hack culture of the brass. Warrior-spirited men could make it to Lt. Col. or occasionally Col. rank, but precious few could sneak past the back-stabbing politics that is the turf of general officers.

        The Clintons took advantage of the breakdown from the top in the military culture. The day another star meant more to a general than military pride was the day the military lost its leadership. There is nothing the rank-in-file can do when their putative leaders desert them for career reasons.

        Except quit. Atlas is shrugging in the U.S. military. Naval and Air Force pilots are refusing large bonuses to re-enlist, and recruiting rates are sagging. The fleet is undermanned, and the Navy and Air Force are far below their full complement of pilots.

        The Clinton administration has seized on the high attrition rates to attack the departing pilots as greedy and soft. Pentagon spokespersons claim that military pay and extended deployments cannot compete against commercial airlines for pilots. The Pentagon claims that once taxpayers train pilots, the pilots quit for higher paying jobs and a cushy lifestyle.

        Like everything else the Clinton administration says, this, too, is a lie. Pilots and personnel from other warfare specialties are leaving the services because of the calculated destruction of the warrior ethos and distrust of senior officers.

        A warrior culture does not mean, as Clinton's feminized Pentagon thinks, bloodlust and a desire to kill. It means a comradeship and esprit de corps that is the heart of an elite fighting unit. Unlike a business partner, a fellow corporate executive, political ally or, in this day and time, even a spouse, a pilot could trust his wingman. You were there for each other. Every member of the squadron had confidence in the competence and integrity of every other member.

        Robert E. Stumpf, former commander of the Blue Angels, recently described what it was like to be a fighter pilot before the ready room became a place for sensitivity training. At a conference at the Center for Military Readiness, Commander Stumpf described "a comradeship so powerful that it extended through us to our families. It was really a wonderful phenomenon and the heart of why we wanted to stay in the service. It certainly transcended material compensation and comfort."

        This comradeship, essential to a military culture, has been chased out by the double standards that have accompanied the imposition of quotas to achieve gender equality. Experienced pilots are required to qualify preferred trainees regardless of whether they meet established standards. Other experienced pilots are denied deserved promotions in order to achieve race and gender balance.

        The result is distrust, resentment and demoralization. For a decade, pilots have observed the failure of general officers, the Joint Chiefs, and Congress to defend standards, professionalism, the military culture, and the careers of junior officers.

        As Commander Stumpf told his audience, future general officers are identified early "and groomed in the political mode, rather than in the warrior profession of tactics, warfare proficiency and military strategy. This leads to more distrust and resentment as the anointed ones get the choice assignments to ensure their continued upward mobility. As the political protigis become senior leaders, the cycle is repeated."

        Gradually politics has squeezed the military ethos out of general officers. Instead of being a counterbalance to the feminist assault on the military, the generals are the feminists' cohorts.

        The destruction of our military's culture is intentional. Commander Stumpf is a case in point. He epitomized the culture. For this reason his career was marked for destruction in order to birth a new culture in which no pilot can trust his wingman. When the brass sacrificed the Blue Angels' commander to sexual politics, it signaled all junior officers that resistance to a feminized military was futile.

        The pilots got the signal. The pilot shortage is their response.

        To find out more about Paul Craig Roberts, and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
 

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COPYRIGHT 1998 PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE, INC.