Do Americans have reason to be confident that our so-called military leaders have the ability to win wars that an era of great power competition requires?
[American] war colleges, with important and respectable exceptions in terms of faculty and courses, are primarily designed to bring mid-career officers into the political-military world of international politics and foreign policy, of defense decision making and analysis. These are not the hatcheries of the elite war planners and scholars of war that we need.
I've specifically mentioned my worries about Navy leadership. But I fear our military in general has technically proficient flag officers with the skill set of mid-level managers rather than war leaders. Victory in Afghanistan was in our grasp--and our leaders threw it away.
These star-studded mid-level managers clearly have many substitutes for victory. And our people won't sacrifice lives and money to fight and win those big wars if our leaders are seen as clowns.
Taking care of the troops certainly isn't a priority (tip to Instapundit):
A bipartisan group of Congress members blasted the Pentagon over “reprehensible” conditions in military barracks, citing troops living amid mold and contaminated water and, in some instances, forced to clean up “biological waste” left behind by the suicides of fellow servicemembers.
In a scathing letter addressed to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, lawmakers accused the Pentagon of failing to “provide the most basic oversight and care” of barracks at 10 installations cited in a recent report and called it a “failure of leadership” by Austin “that cannot be ignored.”
And yet we don't take the needed action that might halt the rot.
Have a super sparkly era of great power competition.
UPDATE: You know, I bet we don't have a weakened military because it is woke. I bet we have a woke, weakened military because its senior leadership has forgotten its purpose. I'm starting to think senior flag officers should have two acceptable higher education majors: engineering and military history.
UPDATE: Are multiple stars just the internships for the real jobs?
More than 80% of the highest-ranking military officers who left the service over the past five years moved into jobs working for the defense industry, according to a new think tank report.
NOTE: TDR Winter War of 2022 coverage continues here.