I’ve had a number of people ask me what I think happened that caused our senior military leadership to go from being the most respected institution in America to being a bunch of banana republic narcissistic self-serving politicos.
There are so many ways to answer that, but I think the answer lies in some cultural shifts that have taken place over the past 30 years that made officers think they are woke politicians instead of steely-eyed warriors (and what happened to the senior officers drifted into the senior NCO ranks like an infection).
To wit:
1. The promotion of the concept of “interagency.”
After 9/11, a huge amount of emphasis was placed on better coordination between the DoD and other federal departments like State and the CIA. The idea was simply to produce better coordination across domains. But instead of the State Department becoming more like the DoD, the DoD started thinking like the State Department.
Historically (pre-1990s) there was a healthy tension between State and the DoD. Turning our senior officers into wannabe State Department grandees who get invited to Georgetown cocktail parties destroyed that tension and wrecked the warrior ethos of the military. (Although not “high ranking,” Alexander “Chow Thief” Vindman is a stellar example of this phenomenon.)
2. We sent our promising O-5s and O-6s to advanced degree-producing programs at Ivy League universities and made advanced degrees a key promotion criteria.
Think Dave Petraeus. The idea of the “warrior scholar” is nice in the abstract, but in reality what we did was infect our senior leaders with the woke mind virus.
3. The service academies and War Colleges tried to be like Ivy League universities and built a civilian cadre of professors who think and act like a Harvard scholar.
The result is the same as #2, except because the service academies are involved the woke mind virus starts at the very most junior officer levels with cadets at West Point, the Air Force Academy and Annapolis.
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How to fix these cultural issues?
-Dramatically cut back on interagency activities except for strict intelligence functions.
-Eliminate advanced degrees as promotion criteria. Stellar service in combat and line units/ships/planes will be the overwhelming consideration for promotion.
-Eliminate all DEI programs of every kind at all levels. Demonstrated adherence to DEI principles will be a “do not promote” criteria.
-Cease all advanced degree-producing programs at civilian universities for line officers (docs, lawyers, chaplains and scientists can still go).
-Fire 100% of the civilian faculty at the service academies and War Colleges.
-Greatly reduce permanent military faculty at the service academies and War Colleges and limit them only to very specialized areas. Rotate accomplished line officers through these schools as instructors.
-Refocus the service academies on disciplines related to warfighting and engineering. Eliminate any and all courses and majors that end in “studies.”
-Completely revamp the curriculums at all War Colleges so there is a laser-focus on strategy at the national and theater levels.
-Mirror all of this in NCO professional development programs.
There is so much more to be done to fix our military, but from a cultural perspective I believe this is a great start.