What do you think of the American military?

Question

BCA6010 · Accepted Answer

It's easily the most horrifically mismanaged component of the US government, and unlike most other contenders for that title, it's a fundamentally vital component that can't just be disbanded and remade or forgotten about. It's very much a top-down leadership problem at its core though, which also means the people with the ability to make necessary changes are the ones causing the problems in the first place. With a deep dive into history and doctrine, you can trace the systemic problems back to the World War 1 era, and more recent problems to politicization of the senior officer corps, which has had a trickle-down effect all the way down to squad and team leaders (and their equivalents). In theory, elected leadership could help out, but since the overwhelming majority have never served in the military, and most of the ones who have did not do so in a relevant capacity, they generally let problems fester indefinitely until it just becomes culture. There was a huge scandal that broke early in Trump's term in which it was discovered that literally hundreds of generals and colonels had been knowingly falsifying reports to presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump about situations overseas and regarding military readiness, and it got almost completely swept under the rug even though it should've resulted in prison time for pretty much everyone involved- I've known soldiers who were sentenced ~60 days in the slammer for far more minor offenses more accurately attributed to laziness than malfeasance.

When you look at the mindset of both the senior leadership and the politicians throughout the years, a glaring problem especially post-WW2 is that nobody is willing to define what victory or even goals look like when the military gets deployed, and there seems to be an obsession with going to extreme lengths to paint a fantastical image of being knights in shining armor, willfully ignorant to the fact those only exist in ceremonies rather than battlefields. When you spend entire operations on the defensive with no plan to completely annihilate your enemies, you WILL lose eventually, even if you're killing your enemies twenty times over your own losses. With this in mind, the US has gone into most major conflicts in the last 75 years with a best case scenario of stalemate (like Korea), or their allies buckling immediately after withdrawal (South Vietnam, Afghanistan), and pretending they can do the same thing again next time with better results. Despite being by far and really the only country on the planet that can coordinate an effective shock and awe campaign that it has really only done twice (Gulf War, Iraq Invasion), it instead treats its military like a militarized police and security force, and basically frustrates itself into repeated failures, and would have much more success going in hard, accomplishing its goal, and getting out. If you ask pretty much any special operations veteran especially in the Army and Marine Corps what motivated them to try out in the first place, they'll say it's because big Army/big corps doesn't take its war fighting role seriously enough.

On the other hand, the US military is by far the biggest deterrent of acts of war against both itself and its allies. The US Navy alone has more power and force projection capabilities than every other navy on the planet combined, and also operates the world's second-largest air force, second only to the USAF. When a country has the means to strike back with conventional weapons with everything from precision bombs, cruise missiles, and paratroopers any place in the world in under 18 hours, the chances of a direct attack from another country are basically zero unless they have a deathwish. There's a lot of wasted money in the military budget, but it isn't just for show either.

Slingblade1126 · Accepted Answer

That they're trained to kill people and they're very effective at it.

Flower7 · Accepted Answer

I feel like they are idolized more than they should be. People forget that they’re just ordinary human beings who are doing that job for money.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

The last one isn't an American soldier, clearly a Muslim. The others a terrorists.

OldWorldOrder · Answer

2nd and 6th images are not American troops. Just saying.

Anonymous · Answer

Well it’s not just some people in the American military that harms civilians. I’m pretty sure there’s other people in other Militaries around the world that do these things.

Anonymous · Answer

Soon as they let homosexuals open in public, tattoos, and women in combat, it’s all been downhill. by the way that last pic is not even American military. It’s called war, it’s never pretty.

Cubus · Answer

They spend way to much money on viagra for soldiers.

DARKCLOUD1945X · Answer

Military is great it is the assholes running it that suck

JamesRandiDebates · Answer

Same as police. Zogbots doing their masters' bidding.

Agape93 · Answer

Over funded and over rated.

jshm2 · Answer

It's the worlds best armed, and resourced, gang.

Anonymous · Answer

There are bad apples in every bunch.

Northernlights25 · Answer

Well isn't this propaganda at its most obvious.

Lord_Saddler · Answer

Cowards and terrorists.

CloudMassacre · Answer

I don’t support the military

Birbman · Answer

Unnecessarily overfunded

888theGreat · Answer

weaker since they let homosexuals and women in

NJuniorDev · Answer

I found these photos very biased

jimmy2 · Answer

They got a lot of tools to make war with

Anonymous · Answer

A bunch of trigger happy rednecks

OddBeMe · Answer

Bloated.

What do you think of the American military?

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