Grampy: "I don't care if the negotiations are over, honestly. I really don't care. I couldn't care less."

[slightlv]

34. I agree with you... especially about a full accounting and reprioritzation,

but one thing you said really stood out to me... that's the US has been shown to be a paper tiger,

exposed as weak, incompetent, and unprepared for today's warfare.

We've been saying the same thing about the Russian army, too. Isn't it weird that the two countries who were said to have behemoth, terrifying, unbeatable militaries, have been shown to be so incompetent and acting illegally in the conduct of warfare. It goes to show you CAN throw good money after bad... and the result will always be the same -- eye opening to the people of the world. After this, our military will be thought of on par with any military from any other country. The only one people seem to still be leary of is China's... they, at least, have millions in manpower.

As for being unprepared for modern warfare, I can't help but think this was done purposely to our military people. One of the first things cut from the military once trump was back inside the oval office was military training. The military colleges used to have excellent training materials and instructors. The courseware was intense and in-depth, both in history and context. The guest speakers, many of whom have been mentioned here on DU in the past, were excellent additions to classes. I actually sat in on a few of the speakers engagements. And even those who were taking the courses online from Afghanistan and elsewhere found instructors and support people (like me) ready to engage and help anyway we could, no matter how hard it was to maintain the line. trump and kegsbreath stripped most of this from the DoD. Our military people are the poorer for it. And the vignettes we used to highlight the training exercises with other countries emphasized not only strength, but the lawfulness or illegality of certain situations and actions. In fact, this was stressed throughout the courseware. While I didn't write any of the courseware, I got in online in a readable and searchable format, and helped to design intricate, online tests on each of the classes. I would put our classes up against any college classes anywhere until trump got hold of them. While I don't know how stripped bare they are at the moment, I do know the timeframe to get a class online from the very first outline diagram to actually ready for use has been shortened. My coworker (who was with me doing this for 20 years), can barely get the stuff online in time for the first class... that's how stripped things are. Instructors were first weeded out by qualifications that used to be enabled by experience, instead of by degree. (They got rid of all the non-PhD's and experience meant nothing after that). And then the by products of trumps "renovations" of the entire DoD started taking hold and people just quit. It was no longer worth the effort any longer. People were not recognized for their contributions, and where once you earned your GS level by merit, other "things" started to mean more, while things we thought were important (like cooperation) were cast aside along with those who believed in such things. I didn't want to retire when I did... I loved my work and I loved working with soldiers... especially those overseas... no such thing as telework, tho... which shows how backwards they went after trump. It was all "butts in seats" or you aren't working. As it is, I'm glad it happened when it did. I'd have never made the first few months of trump as ruler of the U.S. I have a big mouth, lots of opinions, and personal military experience, myself. And I'd fight for what "the guys" needed from us. None of that is rewarded any longer. This is one of the reasons we are in such a bad condition as we're now in, IMO.

One thing that threw me into an absolute tizzy was expecting that a guy who was checking groceries one week was expected to go from that to active duty war in a four week period (if they were lucky enough to get that much training), and perform like he'd been active duty all his life. I worked specifically with National Guard and the Reserves. They were cheated in one way or another so many times, especially under Bush Jr. We always were more or less cannon fodder; but especially starting with Bush, that cannon fodder was emphasized in a uniquely republican style. BTW... have I mentioned how much I hate Republicans now?!