"The US Military’s Culture of Lies" Topic

"As a military professor for six years at the U.S. Air Force Academy in the 1990s, I often walked past the honor code prominently displayed for all cadets to see. Its message was simple and clear: they were not to tolerate lying, cheating, stealing, or similar dishonorable acts.

Yet that's exactly what the U.S. military and many of America's senior civilian leaders have been doing from the Vietnam War era to this very day: lying and cooking the books, while cheating and stealing from the American people. And yet the most remarkable thing may be that no honor code turns out to apply to them, so they've suffered no consequences for their mendacity and malfeasance.

Where's the "honor" in that?…"

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Armand

All political actions are based on lies, half truths, misassumptions, misconceptions, and self-deluded perceptions.

If he doesn't like working for a hypocritical organization, he should get out of working for the US Military and The US Government.

But I suspect the money is too good for him to do that….

(smile)

Armand

I'm not condoning theft, cheating in elections, or lying. But can you imagine our military and politicians telling the truth about various events during WWII or the Civil War?

Note that few people are going to touch this topic….

"If he doesn't like working for a hypocritical organization, he should get out of working for the US Military and The US Government."

The downside to this outlook is that it will only serve to leave the field completely in the hands of the crooks, charlatans and psychopaths and accelerate the descent into utterly uncontrollable corruption on every level.

Remember Cincinnatus – It's important to keep in mind that the pendulum DOES swing both ways.

B

+1 Carnot. For this reason I don't read anything on Iraq2 or A'stan and am just now looking at Vietnam history.

Striker,
This is a good site for Ukraine info: YouTube link

Isn't there a saying that the first causality of war is the truth?

Almost all military academy classmen have been nominated by some politician and they may have some sway over letting offending cadets off for infractions that should discharge them. Many are from rich and influential families too. They'll probably let minorities slide too (restorative justice).

All flag officers in the US military are given a political litmus test for their political "reliability" which means that most will compromise their morals, ethics, and common sense to please their political handlers and further their careers. There have been few exceptions, one coming to mind is USMC Gen Peter Pace when he was the head of the JCS. Gen Mattis resigned when he was a civilian.

I worked at one of those alphabet agencies during the Cold War. The inside joke was we were keeping the secrets from the citizens as the enemy already knew most of what we were doing. I think it was the same for the Soviets too.

A few years back the Marines discharged about a dozen officers in training because they used GPS for the land nav qualification. I think 2-3 were academy graduates.

All of the academies have dropped their standards in order to recruit athletes. Their justification is that they need to "compete" with other colleges to get talent and jocks are not always the brightest.

I was at a Naval Academy presentation about 10 years ago and the thing they were most proud of was that 25% of the appointees were minorities. They were not shy about stating the way they did that was by having minorities apply under the same qualifications as athletes. When you drop standards you'll have problems.

Military Academy Code: link

Last spring, the United States Military Academy suffered its worst cheating scandal in 40 years, when 73 cadets, many of them athletes, were accused of collaborating on a take-home calculus exam. Fourteen cadets left the academy, six were exonerated or saw the charges dropped, and the rest were held back for a semester or a full year. In response, senior West Point officials took an extraordinary step: they admitted that an adjustment they had made to the academy's fabled honor code had failed. While the impetus for that adjustment was understandable, it failed because it sought to take a shortcut around two important but competing values.

Air Force Academy: link

They can't expel over 200 from the same class.

Many of the violations are for cheating. If you drop the academic standards don't expect the exceptions to compete academically unless you let them take less than standard courses.

Regarding, Ukraine. The people I know over there have said don't believe what you hear. The propaganda war is just as important and maybe even more important than the military war. If you can't defeat a country's military you may be able to defeat the people's will to fight. Especially if your enemy lets you print what you want with the help of "Useful Idiots" citizens and media that will support their enemy and attack their side. Sound familiar?

Wolfhag

link

Thanks.

Armand

X2 for Wolfhag

As time goes on, the lying and gaslighting seems to be accelerating and proliferating exponentially.

Baghdad Bob would be proud of the new generation who are far exceeding his skills in the lying propangandist profession.

A very sad state of affairs … And it looks like it won't get any better any time soon.

It reads exactly: "An officer does not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate anyone who does."

I guarantee you that political and operational necessity required engagement in all four in my career. But I was at least conscious of the fact such things were occurring, and I loathed it.

"An officer does not lie, cheat or steal, nor tolerate anyone who does."

Any officer adhering to that Honor Code will eventually be passed over for promotion and never become a Flag Officer. He'll be told he's not a team player.

Wolfhag

Been there. Didn't get the t-shirt.

I was talking to a Ukrainian soldier on the front lines last night. He said he personally didn't like Zelensky but he's a good leader. He knows Zelensky is lying about the number of friendly causalities but that's OK because if he knew the truth it would affect his morale negatively.

Leaders are always going to lie in a conflict. Expect it and don't be surprised.

Wolfhag