I am a 65 year old retired Navy Supply Corps Captain and retired businessman from Fairfax Station, Virginia. I served in the US Navy from March 1963 until September of 1990, over 27 years. This posting continues the discussion of how the Bush AdministrationGÇÖs failure to heed the lessons of Viet Nam has led us to the point where we must repudiate its leadership and hold Republican incumbents accountable at the polls. Please read on for this 27 year veteranGÇÖs analysis.
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Today I conclude my analysis of the unheeded lessons of Viet Nam. My list of unheeded lessons is by no means exhaustive, but I believe they make the point that the Bush Administration and the Republican controlled Congress failed in their obligations to the country and the Armed Forces despite the clear lessons of Viet Nam. A failure that means they have forfeited their right to govern; a right that must be reclaimed by the citizens of this country. I also believe that every veteran by virtue of his or her honorable service to the nation has earned the
right to question, criticize, and dissent from the policies of the Bush Administration without being accused of GÇ£moral confusionGÇ¥ and appeasing the enemy or having their loyalty and patriotism questioned. The final two unheeded lessons are:
GÇó GÇ£Hollowing OutGÇ¥ of the Armed Forces
GÇó No accountability for failure
GÇ£Hollowing OutGÇ¥ - When I left USS Intrepid in 1969 I served on the staff of the Atlantic Fleet Naval Air Forces. My job was to oversee the outfitting of carriers with aircraft spare parts and components in preparation for deployment. By that time the GÇ£hollowing outGÇ¥ was apparent. Shortages were the order of the day and non-deploying units were routinely cannibalized to make the deploying units as ready as possible. In 1971 I was transferred to the Naval Aviation Supply Office where I was responsible for managing the inventory of spare parts and components for the A-7 Corsair II aircraft. The shortage of money to buy and repair items was part of my daily life as the consequences of neglect and the resulting GÇ£hollowing outGÇ¥ continued unabated. After a two year hiatus at Duke University for my MBA I reported for duty in Washington in 1976 as a staff officer responsible for Navy-wide budgets for buying and repairing spare parts and components. Again, my job was to manage the shortages of money as inventories continued to decline and the backlog of components requiring repair steadily grew. I could go on, but suffice it to say the Navy was a GÇ£hollowed outGÇ¥ force and the situation did not improve until the Reagan buildup.
I think the following first person story from Lt. Colonel Daniel Sullivan, United States Marine Corps (retired) best illustrates the GÇ£hollowing outGÇ¥ that is underway today. I repeat it here in its unedited entirety:
I watched as almost every last infantry unit in Okinawa and other pointy-end forces throughout the theater departed to take up arms in Iraq, a completely different theater; stripping away the resources promised the theater commander in the Joint Strategic Capabilities Plan. Paper tiger? Hollow force? Certainly for any immediate response to a developing strategic or operational challenge in the Pacific. The entire theater was left uncovered for months at a time without a MEU*, despite what the JSCP, RumsfeldGÇÖs document, promised. We had to beg, borrow, and steal a MEU bound for SW Asia to respond to the tsunami in SE Asia because ours was already on the ground in Iraq.
Units deploying from home station on rotation to Okinawa, found themselves suddenly redeploying to an entirely different theater. Individuals who were transferred to Okinawa on permanent assignment with families in tow, found themselves ordered for months at a time to Iraq to augment various staffs, leaving their wives and children twice displaced. Equipment readiness was a story in and of itself. All a shell game. As a result, it is impossible to measure the add-on cost to the effort in Iraq.
I participated in sessions for security concepts that we had no idea how we were going to execute if the plans we wrote to support them were ever ordered. We wrote some pretty imaginative plans that only Stephen King could rival. But, the Secretary has surrounded himself with sycophants who either are woefully inadequate military professionals (they accepted our plans) or who wonGÇÖt say the truth because that would be professional suicide.
And I havenGÇÖt even talked about the way our allies and potential coalition partners view us. At the behest of a strategically challenged administration Secretary Rumsfeld has crippled the national security posture apparatus. They have thrown out the GÇ£Win-Hold-WinGÇ¥ doctrine and replaced it with the GÇ£we can respond to any challenge at anytime, anywhere, throwing anything at it and bully our way to successGÇ¥ philosophy that is working so successfully in Iraq. GÇ£Hold-Borrow-Rattle the SaberGÇ¥ is the new reality.
*Marine Expeditionary Unit
No Accountability for Failure GÇô In Viet Nam no high-ranking officer or senior civilian got fired.
During the Iraq War the only high-ranking officer or senior civilian that got fired was General Shinseiki, Army Chief of Staff, for daring to tell the truth about the forces levels required to secure Iraq. Enough said.
This failure to heed the lessons of the past has caused the unmitigated disaster that is Iraq. It is a record of gross incompetence and the most callous form of neglect and misuse of the Armed Forces by the Administration and their lackeys in the Republican controlled Congress. They have truly forfeited their right to govern. Tomorrow I start publishing George AllenGÇÖs dismal record of complicity with this AdministrationGÇÖs record of abuse of the Armed forces.
His summary:
After careful consideration, I realize that I lack the moral bankruptcy, cowardice, and fiscal recklessness to call myself a Republican. I've decided, I am an American.