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The Purge Is Picking Up Steam
All of us who have served in the military know the drill; when a (lawful) order is given, that order will be carried out even if we think it’s a load of bull. And, many times, we knew that we might have to “sell” that order to our subordinates, as long as it was not at the cost of our own credibility. If we could not do that, then it was time to look for another line of work.
Last week, at the 11th Space Warning Squadron, at Buckley Air Force Base, CO, a Space Force O-5 (Lt. Col.) found out what the price was for not “toeing the line.” LTC Matthew Lohmeier was relieved of command of his squadron due to “loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead” (which is the all-purpose reason for such actions in the military).
The real reason? A “70-page booklet of talking points” concerning “extremism” that was given to Lohmeier with the expectation that he immediately disseminate it to his troops. For Lohmeier, it was a bridge too far. He slapped together a self-published book titled, Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest and the Unmaking of the American Military and, somewhat unwisely, proceeded to discuss the book on a podcast. (Interestingly enough, the book is becoming a best seller on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble; highly unusual for a self-published work.)
As we all know, in the military, the nail that sticks out is swiftly pounded down. In Lohmeier’s case, his beliefs were determined to be wildly out of touch with the prevailing view in DOD, so it was determined that his career had to be shelved.
We can only expect more of the same. With the creation of a new post at the Pentagon (“Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”), there has come a clear mandate that all “extremists” must go immediately. I believe that person, Bishop Garrison, will become the military’s Torquemada and will ruthlessly expel any military member, from O-10 to E-1, who is deemed to have “extremist” views. (Particularly troubling is the newly-minted category of deviancy known as “Patriot Extremism.” What?)
Will the purge reach the levels of Pre-WWII Stalinist Russia? Stay tuned.
Published in General
The American military is concerned about having soldiers who are too patriotic?
If one is not patriotic, why would one join the military?
I’m reminded of the 70’s in the Catholic Church… candidates for the priesthood who were by-the-book Catholics had a hard time getting into seminaries. Too dogmatic. Not pastoral enough. Look where it’s got them.
Because they can’t find a better gig with a useless degree etc?
When do they create this job at the company level?
Zampolit worked so well for the Soviets….
That’s one of the questions. The other is, what sort of people will be left in a military who will go along with this cr*p?
Reminds me of a Rita Rudner bit, “I hired the Vegan Moving Company, but they couldn’t lift anything.”
Now that is a very good point…
On the plus side, if the military is being turned into regiments of Soy Boys, they won’t have much capability to keep the main population in check.
We must have diversity in the ranks.
In order to accomplish this, standards will be lowered until everyone qualifies to be a ‘Special Forces Operator‘.
This will ensure that the USA has the largest Special Forces in the entire world.
This is also known as the ‘Gnomes Underpants Plan’
The Diversity Officers will be the ‘Elite of the Elite‘ and will be sent into battle first.
I mean, what could go wrong?
Almost makes me wish for war.
All of a sudden Gilbert and Sullivan starts playing in my head -“I am the very model of a modern major general…” and “I thought so little they rewarded me by making me the ruler of the Queen’s Navy”
Men who can’t lead in strength resort to cruelty.
It’s amazing how fast we are tobogganing down this slippery slope.
( ps I bought his book on Amazon if only to help keep it at #1)
We are so going to get our a## handed to us if we engage an opponent like Russia, China or even Iran.
But that might be the only thing that can get such nonsense swept away.
Doc, one thing that I keep getting back to, is that guy was the commander of a Space Warning Squadron which suggests to me that his organization is not comprised of a bunch of dummies. So, we have the problem between military “leadership” and the rank-and-file that I’ve mentioned before: “You expect us to be intelligent enough to operate and maintain the most complex systems but you still demand that we be so dumb that we don’t know when you’re blowing sunshine up our a&&es.”
Needless to say, it’s not a good situation.
Well… it’s interesting to think about. We often say that the military would never go along with orders to attack its own people, for instance. It is one of those restraints on politicians’ abuse of power, especially with respect to the 2nd amendment.
I think the road we’re headed down involves 1) eliminating the US as a global military superpower, and 2) establishing that separation necessary for the military to dehumanize ordinary citizens. Both of those outcomes would be disastrous for the United States.
I think it’s the newest incarnation of an eternal military phenomenon.
“I’d like to have two armies: one for display with lovely guns, tanks, little soldiers, staffs, distinguished and doddering Generals, and dear little regimental officers who would be deeply concerned over their General’s bowel movements or their Colonel’s piles, an army that would be shown for a modest fee on every fairground in the country. The other would be the real one, composed entirely of young enthusiasts in camouflage uniforms, who would not be put on display, but from whom impossible efforts would be demanded and to whom all sorts of tricks would be taught. That’s the army in which I should like to fight.”
― Jean Lartéguy
Boss, as usual, you’ve captured the essence of the situation. Sometimes, it seems to me that the “display” military is growing in numbers and the “real” military is declining in both numbers and influence.
Maybe the second army could swing by Rita Rudner’s house on the way to their deployment and haul all the furniture out for the vegans – it’d only take them a minute and they wouldn’t break a sweat.
Here’s the thing. Currently serving officers do not get to write and go on podcasts with attacks on their Commander in Chief and their DoD superiors. McMaster was free to savagely attack FORMER leaders in Dereliction of Duty. Major, and then Lieutenant Colonel Ralph Peters was free to write articles that did not directly challenge the authority of those over him in a series of Parameters articles and in his early military fiction, which criticized from behind the veil of fiction. When Peters eventually wrote a Drug War critique in fictional form, Twilight of the Heroes, that was just a bit too pointed and a bit too thinly veiled, his career ended.
No one is supposed to roll the way Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier did. Period. As I have detailed, there have been exceptional cases of generals engaging in domestic politics in the 20th century. They were the exceptions proving the rule. Lohmeier should have filed an IG complaint and should have sent a memorandum up the chain of command raising concerns about bias and politicization of our military with far left programs.
He should have followed the disciplined example of Major, then Lieutenant Colonel Martha McSally, who eventually defeated the Secretary of Defense in federal court, ending the outrageous policy of ordering American fighting women to follow Saudi oppressive laws of dress and of not operating vehicles.
Officer is fired for political reasons?
What stops the next president from hiring him back?
to a higher rank?
and empowering him to identify the toadies for investigation and purging?
While we’re at it, why didn’t Trump hire these guys?
https://rense.com/general96/listof.html
I believe that there will one day be a change of polarity in the “loss of trust and confidence in ability to lead” among the desk rangers of the DoD.
Concur wholeheartedly. He had to know that he would flame out over his public comments. If he didn’t know, then he was so ignorant of his operational environment that he should not be entrusted with command.
Really this term of “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” is a euphemism for the institutionalization of window dressing for raw, aggressive political enforcement of a single point of progressive view. Regrettably it has infected the military with the Biden Admin, but is elsewhere already. DEI’s are intuited elsewhere to review organizations for compliance within an organization for whatever the current dogma is for Progressivism. It seems a rather effective system which appears to be trending omnipresent for intimidation and weeding out dissenters, hold over’s, or resistance types.
I noticed in Finance a new term “ESG” used to assess and make determinations in financial affairs if you are not already familiar. ESG seems to have been rolled out as the hot new buzz word in recent months that has dove tailed into various discussions as to how this or that has an effect on ESG. Even though it is simply referred to ESG in stands for Environmental, Social, Governance.
In a flood of karmic serendipity, I just this moment found out that the USSOCOM official site has a “Diversity and Inclusion” page. One of the “recommended” pieces of professional reading was this piece of drivel.
A workmate, SEAL guy, posted this comment on the site:
Someone from that D&I office wrote him and told him he needed to take down his comment. His response was artistically profane, and can’t be posted here because of the CoC. It can be loosely translated as “pound sand, My Friend.”
As a lady, I have often used “pound sand” to avoid less genteel but more accurate words. Should you see “pound sand” in my comments, you will know I am not really at the beach. Also, your SEAL workmate is spot on and full of that type of “toxic masculinity” that real women admire in real men, not to be confused with pajama boy lefties that throw f bombs like beads at a Mardi Gras parade at anyone who dares disagree with them.
Wake me when a 4 star resigns.
Man, it’s a pleasure reading what you people write.
Give credit where credit is due. The targets of our condescension practically write our material for us.