Thank you for your Service — You’re Fired

I often hear on my radio commercials featuring Michele Obama and Dr. Jill Biden asking those listening to hire a veteran. It is part of the Show Your Stripes series in partnership with iHeart Radio stations across the United States. The White House website has an entire section titled “Joining Forces“. In bold letters is this 2011 statement with accompanying graphic: “President Obama believes that no veteran should have to fight for a job at home after they fight for our nation overseas.”

These programs are all needed because President Obama is firing our military by the tens of thousands. He has created this crisis that now threatens our very national security.

Richard Thompson, President of the Thomas More Law Center, in a column titled “Thank you for your Service — You’re Fired: Pink Slipping our Army Captains a Threat to National Security” writes:

While we watched the commander-in-chief drinking beer and playing pool last week, we learned that 1,100 Army captains — some in harm’s way on the front lines in Afghanistan—were receiving pink slips notifying them they were fired. How demoralizing, heartless, and stupid.

These captains now must lead and care for the Soldiers entrusted to them in combat, dodge the bullets and IEDs, and at the same time worry about finding a job when they get back home, that is, if they ever do. As one Army wife posted on MilitaryFamily.org, “On some level I knew the draw downs were inevitable, but I guess I never expected to be simultaneously worried about a deployment to Afghanistan and a pink slip because my husband’s service is no longer needed.”

This is another stark example of domestic politics trumping our national security interest.

The experience and knowledge about the enemy and counter insurgency these officers have gained is irreplaceable.

The very Army leadership we are eliminating are the leaders we most desperately need to retain. Why? Because they represent three critical talent streams that will be essential in our next war (and there WILL be a next war, and it will likely be sooner than anyone wants):

• Courage – They are among the bravest volunteers. Any captain or major currently with 6 to 10 years in service would have had to have raised his/her hand around 2004-2008, when the current war was at its worst. Iraq was in sectarian flames, and a resurgent Taliban was attempting to retake Afghanistan. This was followed by the surge to fix Iraq and Operation Medusa in Afghanistan to save Kandahar from the Taliban. All of this and these young Soldiers still said, “I’ll go. Send me.”
• Experience – This war has been largely a platoon leader and company commander’s fight. These Soldiers have been the point of the spear for years and are at the pinnacle of their professional relevance in our ongoing global war against Al-Qaeda. We are now going to dump a major chunk of irreplaceable talent out on the streets.
• Talent – These are now some of our most agile and adaptive leaders. These young leaders have mastered the art of coordinating nearly all elements of national power to achieve our nation’s global aims – not just military force, but diplomacy, economic resources, education, and information in an effort to defeat an intractable enemy and provide space for innocent civilians to carve out a new country.

Given the recent events of China threatening its Pacific neighbors, an emboldened and bellicose Russia threatening Ukraine and inserting itself in Latin America, Iran ever closer to nuclear weaponry and a Middle East now descending into a virtual free-fall of Islamist inspired chaos why would anyone inside the White House be stupid enough to press ahead with these drastic levels of military cuts? It is tantamount to willful negligence on the part of our nation’s political leadership.

Read more.

The U.S. Army is currently at 510,000, well below the Clinton Era Army. The current cuts are aimed at reducing it to 490,000. And the most recent defense budget proposal from the Pentagon, now working its way through Congress, calls for an Army of 450,000 soldiers.

Yet at the same time the Department of Defense is seeking to recruit transsexuals. Note this poster in the Officer’s Club at Vandenberg AFB, California (right). Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel:

United States Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel told ABC News he believes the policy prohibiting transgender people from serving in the military should be reviewed.

“I do think it continually should be reviewed,” Hagel said in an interview with ABC News reporter Martha Raddatz that aired on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. “I’m open to that, by the way. I’m open to those assessments.” Hagel didn’t say, though, if he thinks the policy should be overturned, according to the ABC News report.

Additionally, Hagel said transgender people serving in the military is “an area that we’ve not defined enough.” The military’s policy banning out gay and lesbian service members, “don’t ask, don’t tell,” was repealed by Congress in 2010 and ended Sept. 20, 2011. As for transgender service members, the issue “is a bit more complicated,” Hagel said.

“Again, I go back to the bottom line — every qualified American who wants to serve our country should have an opportunity if they fit the qualifications and can do it,” he said. The defense secretary said he is most concerned about providing transgender service members with the proper medical care when they are sent to “austere locations.”

As the world becomes more and more dangerous, the United States is unilaterally disarms itself. Americans and U.S. facilities and companies, at home and abroad, become increasing more vulnerable to attack. A dangerous cock-tale for those who would do us harm.

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