With our conventional ground forces pulling out of combat, the basic training that had gotten more demanding will fade away. This will kill our troops when they must fight:
When American troops entered combat in large numbers during the 2003 Iraq invasion it quickly became clear that many troops were not ready. The reason for this was simple, but generally ignored by the media and politicians. It all began in the 1990s when basic training was changed from a conditioning process that turned undisciplined civilians into disciplined soldiers into something far less. Discipline is essential for military operations. In life and death situations, failure to act promptly and efficiently when ordered to will get you, and others, killed. ...
In effect, 1990s basic became the old, but kinder and gentler, female version that taught you how to wear a uniform, march in formation and provided some familiarization with basic infantry weapons.
This change in basic training had a profound effect that no one wanted to admit. Basically, the troops were much less disciplined and required much more supervision. ...
All that began to change after September 11, 2001 and the change accelerated after 2003. The combat deficiencies of non-combat troops became painfully obvious during the advance into Iraq. But now the trend is to back off on training and go back to getting the troops less ready for combat, so that we can repeat the same cycle again and again. What goes around comes around, it surely does.
I had the advantage of going to Army basic training during the Cold War when the Soviet threat was taken seriously. The Army wanted soldiers, not summer camp graduates. It was no summer camp.
This scene from Glory is instructive:
When I saw this with my then-wife, she was horrified that the colonel was so "mean" to the recruit in the reloading scene. That said a lot given that she really liked Broderick. I explained to her that it would have been no kindness to the recruit to be "nice." I explained there are many ways to die in battle--even when you don't make mistakes--and your own lack of training is an avoidable way to die. Avoid it.
But we won't avoid it. We'll go easy on recruits. Nobody will really notice until a new Task Force Smith gets sent in to battle hardened soldiers who did not get a certificate from an Army Fantasy Camp experience. The damnedest thing is that our Army knows this is what will happen. Yet it will happen.
UPDATE: Thanks to Stones Cry Out for the link.
