The general and admiral squid games

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The Defense Secretary has summoned hundreds of 3 and 4 star admirals and generals to a surprise big meeting in Virginia next week.

intercst

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Administer the loyalty oaths?

Pete

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Not only is this unprecedented, it is exceptionally dangerous to have quite literally all of the most senior military together in the same room at the same time.

Roughly 1000 generals and admirals are expected to be in attendance. The cost and the logistics of this alone warrants extreme scrutiny.

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We actually have “hundreds” or 3 & 4 star Generals and Admirals?!

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Apparently we have over 800 generals and admirals.

intercst

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Yes, but “all generals/admirals” is different that 3 and 4 stars. Onesies and twosies are a dime a dozen. 3’s and 4’s are (at least I thought) way less common

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I’ll say. Imagine you were a foreign adversary and wanted to decapitate the US military.

This is what happens when you put a weekend talk show host in charge of the largest military on the planet.

But yeah, I’m gonna guess it’s “you do what the CiC says, no matter what”

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from the article:
The meeting comes as the Trump administration has fired a slew of high-profile general and flag officers since taking office in January, in many instances due to Hegseth’s campaign against diversity-related issues, but often also for unspecified reasons. Hegseth also ordered the Defense Department in May to cut the number of four-star generals and admirals by at least 20%.

So a mass firing pour encourager les autres?

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There are 37 four stars and 146 three stars across all branches of the military.

intercst

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My now very recently retired Colonel friend told me his guess:

This is about replacing the hierarchy of power and chain of command as it has existed for decades with something….novel.

This is about “If POTUS orders troops to Baltimore, St Louis, Denver, and San Jose you will obey or you will retire now.”

And whatever else.

Obey.

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Perhaps the president wants to show them the Venezuela invasion plan?

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Quite possibly, as he wants to be seen to be in charge and giving orders, never mind throwing overboard an extremely refined evolve chain of command system….

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If that really is the case then those Generals have it coming ha ha. That is a well known tactic used whenever you get a new high level commander. (I’m sure new CEOs and equivalents do it too) Just come in and look as ignorant and irresponsible as possible listening to nobody and forcing everyone to drop their real jobs and do a bunch of stupid “new requirements” just to “authort” yourself on everybody.

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Your Colonel is correct. Thus far, we have seen the decapitation of leadership in most agencies and the installation of loyalists. This will be another step in that direction, so there will be no resistance to use of the military for any purposes.

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And so what happened?

DB2

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POTUS and SecDef (SecWar he insists) blathered (just try to summarize it!) but two things stuck out to me:

  1. they are determined to invade blue urban areas of the USA as part of military training….

  2. they want the military to look and feel much more like it was portrayed in movies made in the 50s and 60s.

Go figure.

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Here is the best commentary (by military guy with loads of experience) on the Quantico event:

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I never served in the military.
I listened to the whole presentation.
I liked it.

I also listed to the Gaza War end proposal.
I also liked it.

Does the IDF do DEI?

The Captain

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They sure do; even more than the US did.

They even have a program for the disabled!

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Captain, the USA as a fundamental Constitutional matter, never ever uses the Federal armed forces against the states or people except during Civil War. Maintaining civil peace is up to the separate National Guards of each state under the commands of their respective Governors within their territories. This was done so as to INSURE that no President would ever use their power as Commander in Chief to enforce their own policies or opinions on the states or the peoples of the states. This doctrine has been observed and preserved as foundational to never allowing a President to become a tyrant over the electorate.

I grew up on USA military bases, and that rule was in my blood by the time I was 7 years old.

The looks on the admirals and generals faces as they were attempted to be dragooned by Hegseth and his orangeness tells you that they knew and know that fundamental rule in their blood too, thank goodness.

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