The US military now reflects the selfishness and fragmentation of US culture. Welcome to the looting-the-treasury phase of imperial decline. By Christopher Roach.
Who would fight for the new society?
We know that recent efforts at recruiting have been a disaster, amplified by the mass expulsion of troops who refused the COVID vaccine.
While things carried on for a while out of habit, eventually the patriotic, mostly white, rural Americans who formed the backbone of the military started doing an about face. Polls show that fewer veterans now want their kids to follow in their footsteps. Conservative Republicans, once the most stalwart supporters of the military, have lately become more critical and less trusting.
The reason for these trends is obvious: the military leadership has lost its way and its moral compass.
As the ruling class ethos has shifted leftward, military leaders have become imitators and flatterers of the powerful. That is, top military leaders have decided to move away from the military’s traditional nonpartisanship and color-blindness and instead identify with the managerial class leftism and identity politics of Washington, D.C. This is why they have gay pride events and talk about “white rage.” They confused this ideology with the values of the country as a whole.
Admiral Rachel Levine
Declining interest in service by conservative and white Americans is not irrational. Why fight for a governing class that hates you, deems you the central political problem, seeks to humiliate you, and disrespects your ancestors at every opportunity? …
White men within the military are subject to a rigged game, where it is harder to get ahead, and the old standards of excellence no longer matter. This will only get worse without a dramatic reset in the culture of our military and political leaders.
It’s only in the early stages:
Right now, at least superficially, the military seems like a good place for whites and men, especially compared to politically correct corporate America. White men are overrepresented in the military leadership compared to universities, large corporations, and other institutions fully committed to the au courant value of diversity.
But this is because military leaders’ demographics are a lagging indicator; those at the top mostly reflect the composition of the service in the 1980s and 1990s, when today’s senior officers joined and when the country’s demographics were very different. Such opportunities are unlikely to continue 20 years hence, when who advances among the current cohort will be shaped by diversity dominating every decision.
Look at big-city police departments for the level of leadership quality one can expect from diversity-driven personnel decisions. …
Mercs:
A retired Marine Corps aviator was arrested in Australia for lending his expertise to the highest bidder: in his case, the Chinese government. Apparently, a sizable cohort of British pilots are also in on the act. According to CBS News, “the foreigners train Chinese pilots in Western air combat techniques, offering firsthand knowledge of how the Royal Air Force and other air forces fight.”
This only seems unusual if one ignores the broader mercenary trend among the American armed forces. Many follow a path like Lloyd Austin. He was an undistinguished general with no obvious talents, the combatant commander for failed military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Nonetheless, he went on to become a millionaire at Raytheon after his retirement because of his access to decision-makers. …
Only a nonpartisan, color-blind military can protect the republic:
In exchange for the prestige and prerequisites of military service, one thing is absolutely essential: loyalty to the country, the Constitution, and the American people. Without patriotism, the military becomes a very sophisticated gang, one that easily can be turned against the American people. …
It is unlikely the military or any institution by itself will unite the country, when the country is disunited by the ideology of diversity and racial spoils, which encourage a zero-sum, mutually hostile internal politics. …
Along with these disunifying ethnic politics, the culture of graft and self-dealing within the military only further erodes noncommercial values such as patriotism, integrity, and service, which were more pronounced parts of the military’s culture before the institution of the [all-volunteer force].
It would be nice if the laws we already had were enforced, and the culture of the military would frown upon the flagrant cashing-in with defense contractors, overseas regimes, pseudonymous writers, and other interested parties. But this seems unlikely.
While in the past the military served to increase national unity with its treatment of members as interchangeable, ranked by a culture of high and color-blind standards, the ideology of “diversity” only encourages ethnic loyalties to remain dominant and primary, a substitute for our national identity as citizens. Rather than contributing to national defense, affirmative action and pursuing diversity accelerates national division.
The military now reflects the selfishness and fragmentation of our culture. Welcome to the looting-the-treasury phase of imperial decline.
“Diversity is our strength,” say the comrades. We should have paid more attention to who they meant by “our.”
