vxbush 2/24/2025 7:11:47 AM

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JCM 2/24/2025 8:01:20 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 1:

It is to this observer completely believable. There has been a sharp division for a long time between the REMFs and the operators.

The "start" was with Clinton, but the rot goes back farther.

JCM 2/24/2025 8:31:48 AM

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Reply to JCM in 2:

I would put the real start of the Pentagon's decline with McNamara and his "whiz kids" who decided to run the military like a business. And not in a a good way. McNamara ran it based on the "bottom line" only, and still failed miserably at that. He never considered that the US military has an objective to defend the country. He and his cadre lost us Vietnam, in their zeal for the bottom line cost more on boondoggle projects that cost more and took far too long.

That established in the Pentagon a political climate of political REMFs like Milley who check all the political climber boxes but avoided the real work of the military like the plague. That really took off with Clinton, Bush did nothing about it, Obama it wa on steroids. Trump 44 trusted that the people occupying the 5 sided wind tunnel competent and got burned.

Trump 47 learned and is cleaning house.

JCM 2/24/2025 9:04:39 AM

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Reply to JCM in 3:

Example: the TFX project which turned into the F-111. McNamara decided it would save money to do an assembly line like a Ford car, where he came. And add and remove options according to trim level or customer order. He simply would not listen to the the customer. He and his whiz kids were smarter than all the knuckle draggers in the military who actually used the damn things.

The requirements for a the plane by the various branches were so different, and McNamara so obtuse and inflexible. Jamming the divergent requirements into one airframe spiraled the cost and development time. That is just one of the biggest example.

McNamara tried to run the Vietnam War like an accounting spreadsheet. Denied the boots on the ground, and air, any real ability to fight and got thousand of our troops killed.

It took Col. John Boyd,  and the fighter mafia to break the aircraft development system of McNamara. Boyd's formulas gave us role specific aircraft, the F-15, F16, and A-10. Which so excelled at the roles even 50 years after development they still are best in class.

The larger problem of people like McNamara in the Pentagon still exists. The best proof is the Afghanistan withdrawal. Milley should be doing life in Levanworth for that Cluster Fuck.

buzzsawmonkey 2/24/2025 9:11:00 AM

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Occasional Reader 2/24/2025 10:41:14 AM

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Reply to vxbush in 1:

I find it easy to believe they were plotting ways to “resist“ what Trump wanted to do. I find it very difficult to believe they were plotting an actual overthrow.

Occasional Reader 2/24/2025 12:24:38 PM

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JCM 2/24/2025 2:51:59 PM

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What have they been hiding?

Ethics watchdog flags senator helping wife rake in millions for nonprofit

Occasional Reader 2/24/2025 3:27:55 PM

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Reply to JCM in 8:

 Gambling at Rick’s??!!!