John T. Reed’s blog about military matters

Copyright John T. Reed U.S. military personnel are big on the notion that they work hard and are therefore entitled to play hard. Is that valid. Nah. It’s generally a bunch of self-destructive bull. Does the U.S. military really work hard? Sometimes. When? in combat in training that is physical like basic training, SEAL training, Ranger training in performing teams like the Blue Angels, Old Guard, Marine Corps Band What about the rest of the military? Are you kidding? It’s a government job. Someone once asked, “How many people work for the government?” The answer he got was about half...

Copyright John T. Reed The “wounded warrior” thing is getting on my nerves. I am going to criticize some of them and those who proselytize for them in part and those who cause them to become wounded. This is politically incorrect As a result, I will get crap for it. In most cases, the people who give me crap for it are the kind who say they hate political correctness. I hate political correctness. I am the gold standard of hating political correctness. I almost do not bother writing about a subject unless what I say is politically incorrect. It...

In this article, I am acting like the child who pointed out that the emperor had no clothesI am a West Point graduate. No doubt Navy people will scoff at the notion that I can comment intelligently about the Navy. I am undeterred by scoffing or résumé-based arguments which are intellectually dishonest. If there is an error or omission in my facts or logic, point it out and I will take appropriate action to correct and apologize for it. Otherwise, you tacitly admit that I am right and you are just trying to distract attention from that fact. This article...

In the 9/16/15 debates, Graham, Fiorina, and maybe Rubio said specifically that we need a whole lot more infantry. That is nonsense. You hear about people “fighting the last war.” Advocating infantry is fighting World War II in Europe. We would have won world war II in the Pacific if the only weapons we had used were submarines, planes, and aircraft carriers. We could have simply killed the enemy on the islands we needed by preventing each from being resupplied with water and food. It would have taken weeks for each. Was there infantry in the Pacific in World War II?...

CorruptionSassaman frequently mentions corruption among Iraqis. I have also seen that a number of military officers have been taking bribes from contractors and suppliers over there. For example, Sassaman had to make the local electric utility stop delivering electricity to residents who bribed Baghdad officials instead of to everyone in town fairly. We cannot be a part of that and it is untenable. It is one of the reasons we probably cannot nation build in Iraq. There is an organization called Transparency International which surveys the amount of corruption in all the countries of the world and publishes annual results....