IMAGINE

 I was interested to see if Ashe Schow is still writing these days and found myself at the Washington Examiner to have a dekko. I did find this interesting video there which with the media's usual want of perception and true understanding was enough to ruin the day. If you watch the quick video you learn something you might not want to know.

It baldly states that since the inception of the program 28,000 people have graduated from this course of instruction that helps unfit and stupid candidates to pass the most basic military tests after 3 months of super high intensity training. We’re almost talking the old see lightning, hear thunder tests. Imagine that. The military has been lowering its recruiting standards for years and accepts almost anybody as a member and yet they have a 3 month long program for people who fail to meet even that low standard so that they can then go to Boot Camp and be the future warriors the Nation needs. I snicker at the methods used in Ukraine to drag cannon fodder into the ranks but his is simply amazing. We don't really have a lo-tech military anymore. I mean, if you're too stupid you will starve to death trying to tempt MREs out of the wrappers.

The other thing about those numbers graduating? The video claims 28,000 graduates from this dismal course with over a 90% pass rate. Imagine that. You are working with a truly sad herd and yet 90% of them make it over the fence and graduate and then become the platoon commander's nightmare and the Army will turn around in a few years and find that these graduates are all that they have left.  George Carlin springs to mind; "Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that." The Armed Forces are picking the best of the bottom half and sending them off to pre-boot camp for 3 months hoping that will fix the Army, Navy and Air Force.

What do you think reader? Is that going to work in the short term, mid term or long term? Nah.

It makes you miss those old ads where they were looking for the best young men. I hesitate to mention it but making up shortfalls in the ranks by adding unfit is no way to win a battle or the war. It’s semi-OK to pretend that adding physically weak and weak minded soldiers somehow makes a herd of bodies a lethal war machine but those who have been there know better. This falls into, “the bad drives out the good.” The ones left doing 175% of the heavy lifting for the same pay and benefits as the ones who do nothing aren’t going to persevere because they soon realize that it will always be this way. 

Pretty soon you find nothing but incompetent NCOs, company officers and generals and you soon dimly come to realize that with this mix it is impossible to fight and win wars. For those not following recent events since 1994, that’s where we are today.