Again, this shows you know nothing about the Military and I find it rich that you think you presume to educate me on a subject I'm intimately familiar with. NCOs are the backbone by which missions get done. We are an NCO dependent force. From ships, planes and to front line troops. The Fudge Factory can issue directives all they want, but if the NCOs don't implement them then the whole house of cards implode. General MIley is a complete disgrace to the uniform. I've never seen anyone so blatantly betray a US President and keep his career. I'm sure that is to be rectified immediately once Trump resumes office. That is...unless Miley retires, which I'm almost certain he will.
I'm not presuming to educate you, but you overstate the influence of the NCO's on their ability to affect the political level issues/decisions, which is where the problems are and where the rot is the worst.
A great NCO corp cannot make up for the level of corruption, political bias, and open/flagrant disregard for the Constitution, as we have seen from the brass over the past few years.
And this is so much more than just Milley; he is a symptom, not a cause, and let's not pretend he's alone in how he thinks among the US brass. Even freaking Mattis showed he cared more about appeasing people suffering TDS than he did about helping Trump actually accomplish anything.
Also, you acting like Trump is shoe-in and like the DoD brass will actually listen to him if he attempts to fire them. Unless there is a purge of the State Dept and FBI first, purging the rot from the DoD brass will be next to impossible. No amount of NCo's attempting damage control on the unit level is going to change the trajectory of the US political landscape or DoD policy.
Are you kidding me? You're using that? Where ever soldiers are stationed they spend their money. most of the German populace didn't want us to close down our bases due to the positive effect we've had on the local economies. I didn't mention it as it isn't relevant to a political argument or one concerning the Deep state. Its just an effect of having a large concentration of people in one place, who have money, and spend it.
Yes, that footprint does have benefits to local economies; towns can die if a base closes down.
The DoD footprint domestically is plenty large, and plenty influentual, and that translates into political pull as well. Just think of appropriations fights over base closures and getting parts plants; that is a fight that is very political.
There is some cross purpose symbiosis, I will readily admit. But its far more complex than that. Far more than you are willing to admit as it would undercut your argument. Most soldiers don't have love for the Intelligence Community. At least in my experience. Sure higher level units (Special Forces) are constantly working with them, but mainline troops cant stand them for the most part. Hell, even our own S2 sections get more than bit suspicion and grief. Just ask
@Zachowon .
Simply put, soldiers are not mindless drones. And you thinking of them in such fashion is beyond disingenuous.
I'm not calling them mindless drones, but I am saying NCOs/Enlisted do not have much political pull or leverage against the powers in DC, if the DoD decides to force policy from on high. They can mitigate the worst bits at the unit level, if they are lucky, but they cannot force a policy reversal without sympathetic officers and politicians assisting them, and there are not many of those in DC with real power anymore.
At best, the enlisted ranks can try to lodge court cases against bad policy, which is just as much a slow roll, long odds play as suites against bad policy in the civie world when the leadership wants it to happen.
As for the intel groups and MIC; grunts may not like them, but DC does, and all we have to do is look at shit like Epstein's connections to DC/intel community to see how bad the rot has become. Sigint grunts and the NRO are not the movers and shakers that can control and destroy politicians the way their compatriots in the FBI and CIA do, so good behavior by Sigint grunts and the NRO won't fix the rot in the intel community or fix it's perception. This is just the like 'Back the Blue' fetish the Right has, while the same Blue line effectively takes marching orders from the same people in DC and academia who hate the Right and weaponize intel agencies against it.
I disagree. Though we are teetering on the edge. When Biden tries to dissolve Congress or the Senate and arrests the Supreme Court, then you can say we've gone full banana republic. As of now we're inching closer. Joe is issuing Executive order after executive order and he's getting blocked left and right in congress. Yes, he has this one legislative win, but that came only after 2 years and it may cost them everything from all the pushback he's getting. He wont win in 2024. But winning is only part of the equation. Republicans need to fight and fight hard. And that means investigations and criminal prosecutions.
You haven't seen some of the polls since the student debt forgiveness was floated; it's halved Biden's disapproval among independents, and the Right's insistence of focusing on Trump for 2024 is not playing that well with moderates.
Ben Shapiro had a good insight on this; American's vote AGAINST things, not for them.
Primary enthusiasm amongst the GOP base should not be misconstrued for being great general election material, assuming the Dems and RINO's don't just brush rigging and election fraud under the rug again.
Making 2022 about revenge for Trump/the Right, instead of about how bad Biden is doing and all his fuck ups, is not going to help the Right among the undecideds, even if it plays great to choir.
Which is why the Raid on MAL shows very clearly we are a banana republic, not what you are worried about. Biden won't dissolve the Senate or arrest SCOTUS, he'll just add more seats to SCOTUS/ignore ruling Andrew Jackson style, and redo voting laws to make it much harder for the GOP to ensure the integrity of the electoral process. The Dems need the veneer of legitimacy to keep the sheep in line, and know how to offer the right gibs to get people out for them, while the GOP's best hope is to try to turn Hispanics and African Americans against the Dems in the long run, while banking on dislike of Biden to hurt the Dems in the short run.
And unfortunately so many people have utterly bought the idea a Red Wave is assured, just because Biden is so bad they feel, that they don't take much time to get outside the Right Wing bubbles and see how things like student loan forgiveness or the MAL bullshit are playing among those who mostly consume mass media and buy the lies.
All your hopes of unfucking the country seem to be resting on a 2022 Red Wave and Trump winning in 2024, while the Dems have mulitple pathways to either neuter or withstand the plans the GOP loves to broadcast as 'we're so much more rational and moral than the Dems' to a populaces that cares less about rationality and morality than stock prices, gas prices, and what the celebs and talking heads think.
I'm not so naive as to put any money on a Red Wave or Trump 2nd term out of hopeful aspirations and political cycle assumptions. Which is why I am not operating on the assumption Milley is going anywhere anytime soon, unless to be replaced by someone even more woke and loyal to the people behind Biden.