I speak from my own personal experience, and from those that I keep in contact with. Also the Marine Corps Times and similar sources. I do not claim that there have been deaths specifically attributable to social programs. The budgetary issues are reality. There is a serious budget-driven equipment problem in the USMC. It is a good point that the F-35 contributes mightily to the problem. But there is still the matter of how to spend the remaining resources. It is very much the feeling of the troops on the ground that combat readiness and survival are not as high on the priority list as they should be. There are certainly those just resistant to change, either because of prejudice, or because they hate change. Those folks would be complaining either way. What I am talking about is a loss of morale much deeper than that.
It may be voluntary but thereâs a large amount of desperate people that enlist because they feel they have no other options in life. They are poor, uneducated, or otherwise marginalized and are sucked in by the promises given to them from recruiters and television commercials saying that the military is a path to success in life.
I donât think everybody who serves is a hero (and like you I think the automatic hero worship of those who serve is at best disingenuous), but I certainly respect what they do. As a pacifist, I couldnât do it but Iâm glad there are people who do.
This isnât Facebook.
Again, individuals I have few problems with. I have quite a few friends (including a Buddhist teacher) who are vets and served, for a variety of reasons but usually âbeing young and naive.â I have little respect (well, none) for the institution though.
Well, that doesnât really address many of my direct questions to you, but Iâll take it as given that youâre walking back the aggressive (and apparently inapplicable?) criticism of other commenters in your initial comment.
Is it possible that the loss of morale has more to do with the US military including the Marine Corps being used more as mercenaries, as suggested by @anon81034786, than it has to do with political correctness?
After all, I think a lot of the disrespect you sense for the armed forces is really a lack of respect for the mission as opposed to the personnel.
Not only that, but I imagine for many personnel itâs hard to look seriously at the justifications for and circumstances around Afghanistan and Iraq and not seriously wonder whether youâre being ordered to risk your life for what donât seem like entirely the right reasons.
Your initial comment seemed to contain a great deal more hyperbole than serious argument, and I suspect that the influence of âpowerpoint presentations on microaggressionsâ and ânew uniform designs for transgendered troopsâ on the morale of the rank and file is probably a little exaggerated as well.
Youâre thinking of the Army.
I do not care in the slightest about what sort of genitalia, if any, that the people I serve with possess, as long as they are doing the job, and doing their part. I have certainly served with Female Marines, some of whom were badass warriors. Which is a good thing. If trans individuals serve, my personal preference would be that they wear some appropriate combination of existing uniform items, and that the funds earmarked for exploring new uniform possibilities be spent to put a few broken aircraft back in the air, or upgrade some worn out combat gear.
Some U.S. soldiers themselves have this same reflex. I once read a guest opinion written by an active Army soldier (I canât recall his rank but it definitely wasnât âPrivateâ) who pretty much said âWhat service are you commending? The âIraqi Freedomâ campaign was unnecessary and a total fuck-up that ultimately was a _dis_service to the citizens of both the U.S. and Iraq, whose freedom we were purportedly defendingâ.
It was a blistering piece that stopped short of saying âFuck offâ to everyone who mindlessly does the sort of hero worship you describe.
So there was no real reason for you to bring trans people into the discussion but you did anyway.
Thank you for clarifying that.
I donât understand this statement. Why would there need to be special uniforms for trans service members?
Yes, I should walk back my initial outrage. I can be over sensitive to criticism of the Corps. I have to agree that pointless missions with vague goals contribute to the unease and low morale.
Endless powerpoint presentations about social topics are a real thing. No expense is spared to bring those presentations to the folks in the field.
I donât know why transgendered troops need special uniforms. I do know that there are people who are presently working on uniform concepts for them. I have seen some of the message traffic. I do not know the details of the personnel or equipment budget for those now working on those issues, but as it is a priority of SECNAV, I doubt that they are trying to be frugal.
Without specifics or evidence, and given your apparent propensity for hyperbole, itâs difficult to judge how seriously I should take your perspective on this.
A quick google search reveals no evidence of this, so again â without evidence, Iâm left taking your word for it, and as a result of our previous interactions, I am fairly skeptical of your say-so.
so you are telling me that people who sign up to kill other people for a living are not very good people?
I am looking for it.
If this can help stop a few rapes, then itâs a good thing. Note that I donât claim that Marines have more of a problem with this than any other group; itâs just that rape happens everywhere, unfortunately.
Microagression training requirements-
"A. Organizational Trust.
LDAC Issue: Many diversity issues appear to be linked to leaders not modeling inclusive
behaviors or unknowingly acting in ways that promote disrespect or bias
toward certain groups (also known as micro-biases or micro-aggressions).
Action 1:
TLDAC members will research and author articles on leadership, diversityand inclusion that can help leaders at every level
understand behaviors that could be perceived negatively by various groups.
Action 2: All units with LDACs are reminded, as per Ref D, to conduct training on this topic for their unit before 30 September 2015. "
How about sexual orientation?
This is bad, why?
So, itâs just like the real world? I donât understand why institutional bureaucracy should bypass the Marine Corps. If marines canât handle endless PowerPoints, then I truly worry about their mental fitness.
And thatâs what bureaucracy does. People have to study stuff to justify decision-making, which could be the decision to not change the uniforms. Iâm not trying to pick an argument, but there are many other decisions that our armed forces make or donât make that have nothing to do with transgender issues. I guess thatâs why many of us all puzzled as to why the issue of uniforms for transgender forces was even your first pick?
Is that why âInfantrymanâ sounds like a synonym for âman-baby?â
I asked the Marine I have working for me and he was pretty much, âCan they do the job? They going to follow an order if itâs given to them? And give an order when required? Can they fire their weapon properly? If so, I wonât give a shit.â
