After nearly a decade under President Faily McWorsethancarter, can our military win a fight with North Korea? Because if it is unable to perform the basic task of ensuring that the people commissioned to lead our troops in the defense of the United States are actually loyal to the United States, how the hell can we reasonably expect it to be able to conduct high-intensity combat operations against a Nork Army that prioritizes fighting over political correctness?
We can’t.
I don’t enjoy saying that – it gives me no pleasure to have to wonder whether the Army I served in both in active and reserve status for close to 28 years is broken. And it’s not just the Army. The Marines and the Special Ops community, well, they seem to be holding on to the standards the rest have forgotten, but the Navy and the Air Force – they’re broken too. Our military – in terms of strategy, equipment, and leadership, is in crisis. American troops will die if we don’t fix it.
Hell, they already have.
We have a Navy that can’t even sail its few remaining ships without running into giant cargo vessels. I come from a Navy family. You should call my dad, the retired lieutenant commander, and ask him what he thinks about the Navy’s current level of seamanship. It will not be a happy chat.
It is, in fact, a disgrace. Our sailors, the precious young men and women we commissioned officers are charged with leading and protecting, are dying because our officer corps tolerates incompetence. One collision is an accident. Two is a lifestyle.
And yeah, they’ve fired some admirals, and that’s a good start, but the problem is a cultural rot, not just one ‘ed-up command. The Navy focused on things besides its mission – “to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas” – and in the last few months that misplaced focus has killed 17 sailors and taken two major vessels out of action in the Western Pacific at the very moment we are on the edge of war.
Did you know several senior Navy officers are being or have been charged for corruption? Corruption. Graft. Bribes. Hookers. Senior leaders, and they’re scumbugs – criminal scumbags. But hey, the Army has its problems too. General Petraeus…sheesh, what a punch in the gut it was to see him use the Army values as a latrine. Then there was the 82nd Airborne general court martialed for using his billet to build himself a sex harem. And how about the colonel who played games with contracts and ditched his wife to marry an Iraqi chick – the Army was so upset he got a reprimand and to keep his pension. No jail time.
Let me say that again. No jail time. Yeah, that would totally have happened to a sergeant who did the same thing, according to several high-ranking unicorns in the Judge Advocate Office.
Want to know what generals and admirals don’t get in trouble for? Failing to win wars.
The military senior leadership has turned into a fraternity, where they cover up for each other and make sure everyone graduates with a gentleman’s “C”. And it’s not even a fun fraternity – the senior leadership is painfully politically correct, parroting all the right buzzwords and receive wisdom of our failed ruling caste. Many of these people are courageous on the battlefield – they’ll happily charge a Taliban warrior wielding an AK-47. But they quake in their boots back home in the face of an enemy they don’t understand and that can destroy their careers – the Social Justice Warrior. That’s why you don’t see them saying what every damn one of them knows is true – that women, despite their heart and commitment, are a net liability in ground combat units, that trans troops are an expensive distraction and damaging to morale, and that the insane focus on “diversity” programs sucks up priceless training time and fuels, rather than quells, discord in the ranks.
But they don’t dare object. That’d be risky. And these are the senior leaders who we will allow to lead our sons and daughters in battle if Korea goes hot. How’s your confidence level?
And we have now reached the pinnacle of the military’s moral bankruptcy with the revelation that one Second Lieutenant Spenser Rapone is a communist. Not like a wannabe communist, not like a routine college-years liberal dummy, but a full-on, dictatorship-of-the-proletariat communist.
While at West Point.
Yeah, and the Academy knew. The chain of command knew what this guy was, because he told them (Army alumni have done the job the MSM, which probably sympathizes with this idiot, has failed to do, digging up plenty about him and putting it out on social media). But the Academy let this creep slide through anyway. They let a guy who unequivocally stated his hatred for this country get a security clearance. (Sound familiar? The Air Force’s Worst Airperson of the Century Reality Winner, anyone?) Then they gave Rapone a commission as a United States Army officer. And they did it knowing who he was, because in the leftist-loving environment Obama created, they were terrified to throw the bum out on his Marx. Hell, he felt comfortable enough to post this all on social media, and the Army chain of command didn’t act until we outside the military made a stink and it had to do something.
You’ve seen the photo of this disgrace wearing a Che t-shirt under his uniform and showing it off. Question: Who took the photo? He was with other cadets so some other cadet saw it and did nothing – doesn’t West Point have an honor code, or is honor now a microaggression? Imagine how interested CNN and the Democrats would suddenly be if his undergarment icon was Hitler, or even Robert E. Lee, instead of the racist, gay-murdering dorm room darling of the campus commies.
“But, he has a right to express his…”
No, he doesn’t.
A United States officer cannot be a communist, or a Nazi, or a jihadist. These vile allegiances are incompatible with military service, and we are under no moral obligation to enter into a suicide pact by letting these vermin into our officer corps. Haven’t enough people died, like at Fort Hood, because the chain of command was too cowardly to risk getting called jihadiphobic to get rid of an insider threat?
Apparently not. Well, we’re not obligated to keep this America-hating cretin in either.
There’s an investigation going on to gather evidence to see if charges are warranted. If charges are filed, 2LT Rapone will get the due process rights punks like him would deny to others – including due process rights Democrats would deny college students accused of sex abuse.
Here’s what Colonel Schlichter would have done – actually, I would have dropped him into the bowl long before now and flushed, but let’s assume I got one of those 3 a.m. phone calls that begins “Sir, there’s been an incident…”
First, I’d call that little rat into my office, state that information has come to my attention that has caused me to lose confidence in his ability to lead, and temporarily relieve him of his post. I would assign him to a position that does not require him to supervise enlisted soldiers or interact with NCOs. After his social media posts attacking non-commissioned officers, the backbone of the Army, that would be me doing Millennial Neidermeyer a favor.
Suitable jobs for him as the investigation is underway would include “Deputy Officer-in-Charge, Volleyball Distribution” or “Assistant Combat Boot Warehouse Inventory Counting Operations Officer.”
Next, I would call my S-2 (intel) officer in and tell him to pull Rapone’s security clearance. From that moment on, the closest thing to classified material he’d get would be the brigade Christmas Secret Santa exchange (I’d ensure he got assigned to the Command Sergeant Major because I’m kind of evil).
Oh, and I’d order this moron, in writing, not to use social media, and specifically, not to access, delete, change, close, alter, remove or in any way change any of his social media accounts. Sadly, it appears some of his accounts are now locked, indicating that the Army probably did not think to do this to preserve evidence. I hope they got CID to get a warrant and grab his electronics; I doubt they did that either.
If what appears true is true, Soon-To-Be Mr. Rapone needs to do time before he’s booted – you can’t have LTs posting obscenities about the SecDef and let that slide and still have a disciplined Army. But the real story isn’t this one loser. It’s not even the other losers who knew what he was and said and did nothing. It’s the chain of command.
We need to know exactly what the faculty and staff at West Point knew about Comrade Cadet Rapone’s treachery. If they did know – and I bet we will find out that he was counseled in writing about it – every officer from his first line supervisor to the USMA Superintendent must be relieved and reprimanded. West Point is supposed to be the heart of the Army, but we may find that, after the pernicious influence of Obama and his ilk, it won’t even take its own side in a fight.
This is a symptom of a bigger disease. The Army, and the military in general, has lost its way. Fortunately, we have a president who actually loves America and a Secretary of Defense who is a warrior. They need to set the standard and make examples – you get more of what’s rewarded, less of what’s punished. Let’s reward leadership, not careerism. Let’s demand moral courage, and not tolerate careerist cowardice. The lives of our troops, and our country’s survival depends on it.
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