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The Annoyed Man wrote: Sun Aug 22, 2021 8:24 am ...
There’s at least pound of gold in the following article, explaining how a generation of fruit salad generals might fail to give solid advice to corruptible politicians, and why those political mollusks might refuse to act on the few precious nuggets of good advice they did receive. It offers a thorough explanation, going back hundreds of years.
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news ... -lee-smith.
...

Ibn Khaldun showed that every ruling establishment, what he called “royal authority,” will eventually bring the house down on its own head. The luxury and corruption that are the inevitable consequences of civilization replace the stern ways that forged the tribe’s assabiya. And setting out to destroy group solidarity intentionally raises the stakes considerably for the ruling power.

For our elite, the fall began during the tail end of the Bill Clinton presidency when Democratic Party strategists augured that they’d soon have a permanent hold on power thanks to urban intellectuals, young single women, racial and ethnic majorities, and the LGBT community. What is described as a coalition is in fact a mélange of clients with varying and sometimes opposing interests that can only be held together by stoking a communal hatred of the national majority—the white middle class.

It was hardly a coincidence that this demographic was the source of the wealth that the establishment was busy transferring to themselves and abroad, through initiatives like the North American Free Trade Agreement. The elites rationalized their impoverishment of the white middle class by claiming that they were dying anyway.

Julian Assange speaking in 2011: "The goal is to use Afghanistan to wash money out of the tax bases of the US and Europe through Afghanistan and back into the hands of a transnational security elite. The goal is an endless war, not a successful war"

The United States has spent $83 billion training, equipping, and even paying Afghanistan’s security forces since 2001, a mammoth amount.

philip964 wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 10:34 am https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... an/619807/

“I eaves dropped on the Taliban what I learned”

Atlantic so it’s liberal. But worthwhile reading.

“600,000 rifles and machine guns; 76,000 vehicles

Grayling813 wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 4:59 pm

philip964 wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 9:12 am https://donsurber.blogspot.com/2021/08/ ... etnam.html

Afghanistan learned the lesson of Vietnam. Don’t be the last guy to die in a losing war.

While Milley was reading Marx and Mao, the Taliban leaders and the leaders of the Afghan government we set up were reading about Vietnam.

ScottDLS wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 5:31 pm

Grayling813 wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 4:59 pm

I thought I remembered from my Navy days, that if you had too many ribbons, you wore the top 3. I only ever had two myself, so no concerns.

powerboatr wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 1:03 pm

ScottDLS wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 5:31 pm

Grayling813 wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 4:59 pm

I thought I remembered from my Navy days, that if you had too many ribbons, you wore the top 3. I only ever had two myself, so no concerns.

as a sailor, yes the top three ribbons were the norm unless local policy dictated otherwise....HOWEVER ,,,,,,,
my last command was the most politically correct command in the navy. it was the largest class A school for airdales. Our CO had us wear ALL of our ribbons to show the new folks something??? its was a money suck, ribbons getting caught in all kinds of stuff, (lab coats, seat belts, etc) so we were allowed to go flat magnetic facsimile made of some plastic materiel that had ribbons printed on it and held in place from behind with a magnet

best 30 dollars i ever spent on uniform items
i would think this talking head general would have them as well
biden and his staff and joint chiefs and sec of defense should be held on charges of failure of oath or office and maybe working with terrorists

ScottDLS wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 1:45 pm

powerboatr wrote: Tue Aug 24, 2021 1:03 pm

ScottDLS wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 5:31 pm

Grayling813 wrote: Mon Aug 23, 2021 4:59 pm

I thought I remembered from my Navy days, that if you had too many ribbons, you wore the top 3. I only ever had two myself, so no concerns.

as a sailor, yes the top three ribbons were the norm unless local policy dictated otherwise....HOWEVER ,,,,,,,
my last command was the most politically correct command in the navy. it was the largest class A school for airdales. Our CO had us wear ALL of our ribbons to show the new folks something??? its was a money suck, ribbons getting caught in all kinds of stuff, (lab coats, seat belts, etc) so we were allowed to go flat magnetic facsimile made of some plastic materiel that had ribbons printed on it and held in place from behind with a magnet

best 30 dollars i ever spent on uniform items
i would think this talking head general would have them as well
biden and his staff and joint chiefs and sec of defense should be held on charges of failure of oath or office and maybe working with terrorists

I had the National Defense Service Medal (i.e. the there was a conflict going on, but I wasn't there medal) and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon (3 years on sea duty). Never wore them shipboard unless I was OOD in port with whites or blues. Otherwise I was wearing "wash khakis" or engineering coveralls.