Bad Planning As An Art Form
Yep, they're always fighting the last war. Or the one before that.
Back in 1981, I was a News Director in Houston at a small independent TV station and hosted the noon show. The famous author Gore Vidal was doing a publicity tour for his latest novel called "Creation." He arrived for our interview on the very day President Reagan was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. All through his tour, he talked less about the book and more about his opinions of Reagan.
Well, as I greeted him in the lobby, he asked the latest, and I said the President was in surgery. He looked perplexed and said, "Well, what do we talk about now? I'm not a ghoul." I suggested his book might be a good idea.
But he also made a comment I've never forgotten. He observed that this country began with leaders like Jefferson, Madison and Hamilton. And now we have this crowd.
"I think it may be proof that Darwin was wrong."
I thought about that as I read about the latest moves by the administration as regards the military. Now I wrote this week about the frankly doltish ideas from the President regarding military hardware...
Roger T. Gray
He doesn't like the latest technology in aircraft carrier design using electromagnetic catapults. He wants to go back to steam power, the equipment for which, of course, no one makes anymore. Why? Who knows? Nostalgia maybe? Some kind of steam investment, no doubt?
He doesn't like the look of modern carriers, preferring the WWII look with the vertical island structure moved to the middle of the ship.
He wants to bring back the battleship, the last of which, the USS Missouri, was built in 1944. Naval design, weaponry, and tactics have moved on since then, but the President has not. We have had actual naval officers in the White House who never dared try to design a ship.
Will somebody quietly remove the President's copy of "30 Seconds Over Tokyo?"
Look, I love war documentaries probably more than the next guy, but there is a reason soldiers don't march into battle with 1903 Springfields. Times have changed, equipment is more modern, and new sophisticated weapons have come along. So, it would be nice if someone would let the Defense Department and its El Jefe know that.
No, really. Just knock on the makeup room door and tell him.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine began a war that is still, obviously, going on. Most expected pitting a superpower like Russia against a much smaller military would mean a very short conflict. Planes, tanks, sheer numbers of men- Russia had it all. But the Ukrainians got crafty and changed the game.
I know Trump said they had no cards, but apparently what Natalie told him wasn't true.
Those large numbers of men? Russia has lost 1.4 million of them, 1480 of them just yesterday, as I sit down to write this on Thursday. In the last year or more, 80-90% of those were killed by slow-flying, inexpensive drones. Iran, meanwhile, has blown up US bases and ships in the Persian Gulf with drones, effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz.
Or Trump says it's open, or maybe it's closed or open again. Hell, all I know is I paid $50 for half a tank yesterday.
Oh, we have the technology to knock them down. Our Patriot missile system, which I first saw while covering the Gulf War from Israel, is very effective. It's also pretty pricey, costing $4 million apiece and taking 30 months to build. The entire Patriot launcher battery is about a billion. The Shahed Drone being used by Iran and Ukraine takes days to make and costs about $25,000 to build.
Using a Patriot to shoot down a drone is 100-200 times more expensive than the drone itself. It's this kind of math that can bankrupt a casino.
And obviously, they work, the Wall Street Journal reported...
The US Army's 3rd Armored Brigade faced Ukraine's 412th Regiment of Unmanned Systems Forces in the semiannual exercise 'Combined Resolve' and was beaten as Ukrainian drone operators breached American defences to locate and lock on to its armoured vehicles and soldiers.
Ukrainian drones located and locked on to US vehicles so quickly that they had to be sent back into the exercises —or 'respawn' in the language of war games— to keep the exercise going as the US Army repeatedly ran out of vehicles well before the exercise's scheduled end.
And in the real world, we are running out of high-tech missiles, having used nearly 80% of our stockpiles, which obviously leaves us vulnerable in other potential combat theaters around the world. So, what would any logical and clear-headed Defense Secretary do? Well, if you find one, let me know because we only have Pete Hegseth, and here's what he has done.
In a simply bone-headed move that is bound to delight Putin, the US Army has decided to disband its most specialized unit dedicated to drone and ground robot warfare.
Acting Army chief General Christopher LaNeve has ordered the 3rd Battalion of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment to give up its cutting-edge military systems, abandon futuristic tactics developed to counter the Russian threat, and transition into a conventional airborne infantry battalion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The administration refers to it as a "back to basics" move, you know, like building a battleship. We have an illustration of what that back-to-basics philosophy will produce.
The Journal continued...
Under this approach, the administration is replacing advanced technologies with older systems and future-oriented units with conventional roles —such as replacing the cutting-edge electromagnetic aircraft launch system on aircraft carriers with steam catapults— in the name of producing 'warfighters' and purging so-called wokeness from the military.
The decision comes as militaries around the world are adopting drones and integrating uncrewed aerial systems into their battlefield doctrines.
FirstPost reports...
The unit was the brainchild of General Chris Donahue, who commanded the US Army in Europe and Africa; General Randy George, the Army chief; and Army Secretary Daniel P Driscoll.
Previously, George had already set in motion the transformation of Army infantry brigades into more maneuverable forces equipped with reconnaissance and strike-drone units. In Europe, Donahue played a critical role in the adoption of drones, artificial intelligence (AI), and other battlefield tactics and technologies that are redefining modern warfare.
But Hegseth fired both Donahue and George in what critics describe as a bid to install yes-men at the top of the military. He has also increasingly clashed with Driscoll and sought to sideline him within the Department of Defense.
The machine gun in WWI changed infantry tactics that dated back to Napoleon. Aircraft carriers in WWII, you know the ones Trump likes, changed naval warfare and marked the end of big battleships, which Trump also likes.
In addition, Hegseth finds the staff of the legendary military newspaper "Stars and Stripes" insufficiently servile. He has forced the resignation of its editor of 30 years and the Ombudsman, who both oversaw the paper's independence from the Pentagon. The paper had recently reported the problems on board the USS Abraham Lincoln, and that bit of news was the last straw for Whiskey Pete.
The paper was never considered a house organ of the Defense Department and began some legendary careers, like Andy Rooney, who landed at Utah Beach and flew on missions over Germany in WWII.
But now it's too "woke," like drones, I guess, and the Secretary, apparently in a testosterone-fueled fit, has taken an ax to it. So, government by temper tantrum is not reserved for the Oval Office.
In fact, his every appearance lately is like Hulk Hogan before a WWE barbed-wire-chainsaw-death match. So, I don't know, maybe a little less T might be in order?
After all, Pete doesn't have Natalie to write calming little notes.
Now, he is part of the Texas Outlaw Writers, and if this doesn't pan out, the outlaw part will still work as he will indeed resort to robbing banks.