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Trump administration 2024-2028

FJAG said:
One needs to heed the fact that Hillier wasn't always right.
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Sure. He famously (for the RCAF) opposed the purchase of C-17s in lieu of more Hercs. Imagine where we'd be today without C-17s. But I can't imagine that time period was easy. Went from the decade to darkness to fighting in Kandahar. Somehow the budgets stayed the same. So choices were difficult.

dapaterson said:
I am not convinced that Saijan was a worse choice than Leslie.
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I have heard this from a lot of former CA Senior Officers. Was it the infamous tooth-to-tail service paper before he retired, calling for half of ndhq to be dismantled?

FJAG said:
The issue I think is more determined as to how good the individual is at large-scale corporate management.
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Good point. Flying under the radar right now is the CEO of the new Defence Investment Agency. Turns out being a banker makes him really good at pushing through multi-billion dollar projects. Or maybe he was smart enough to demand authorities before taking the job.

On topic Hegseth seems exceptionally focused on culture war nonsense and working out than ya know preparing DoD for a fight with China.
 
ytz said:
On topic Hegseth seems exceptionally focused on culture war nonsense and working out than ya know preparing DoD for a fight with China.
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The culture war nonsense was his undoing while he was in uniform, and buttered his bread as a correspondent at FOX News.

He's consistently shown where he stands on "uselss" things like planning, LOAC, CIMIC, and diversity and inclusion.

All things that are kind of crucial when one wants to conduct regime change in a foreign country....
 
ytz said:
On topic Hegseth seems exceptionally focused on culture war nonsense and working out than ya know preparing DoD for a fight with China.
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From what I have seen of him he's like a very eager just out of Phase IV 2Lt Infantry Officer commanding a battalion. The stupid and industrious type.

Don't give him a map or a compass....
 
Brad Sallows said:
.

Maybe we can retire the bullshit-mongering over USSC decisions?
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As long as you're willing to overlook/ignore/hand-wave all of illegal and unconstitutional things this president and administration have done with no accountability, don't see a problem with a USSC that gave a president criminal immunity for "official acts" and a congress that is happy to be a potted plant, I can't help you.
 
ytz said:
I have heard this from a lot of former CA Senior Officers. Was it the infamous tooth-to-tail service paper before he retired, calling for half of ndhq to be dismantled?
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I worked with/for him a few times. He was a very polarizing figure (something I have intimate knowledge of myself), and offered many opportunities for further polarization....

I consider him to have been a net positive. Hillier on the other hand....
 
I was in the Army HQ for part of his tenure as Army Commander.

I am not a fan of junior MPs being handed senior ministries. They should ideally have knowledge and understanding of the machinery or government before becoming ministers of the crown. Juniors without that knowledge are largely ineffectual, and prisoners of the PMO.

My main friction point with Andrew Leslie was his intellect. In areas he knew he was capable of rapid insight, leaping ahead of others. In areas he didn't know, he would either read in and attempt to grow his knowledge, or reply on trusted advisors.

In areas he didn't know but thought he did, he was dangerous. He would not seek counsel, and could decide / direct based on anecdote or opinion rather than fact.
 
dapaterson said:
I was in the Army HQ for part of his tenure as Army Commander.

I am not a fan of junior MPs being handed senior ministries. They should ideally have knowledge and understanding of the machinery or government before becoming ministers of the crown. Juniors without that knowledge are largely ineffectual, and prisoners of the PMO.

My main friction point with Andrew Leslie was his intellect. In areas he knew he was capable of rapid insight, leaping ahead of others. In areas he didn't know, he would either read in and attempt to grow his knowledge, or reply on trusted advisors.

In areas he didn't know but thought he did, he was dangerous. He would not seek counsel, and could decide / direct based on anecdote or opinion rather than fact.
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I wonder how the new generation of 'high commanders' stack up against this bunch?
 
daftandbarmy said:
I wonder how the new generation of 'high commanders' stack up against this bunch?
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I think that is a dangerous mental excerise, like comparing apples to bicycles.

The threat picture, technology, culture shift, and overall command environment is completely different now, and will be completely different in the next 10 to 20 years.

I think this is Hegseth's main downfall as well, in that his limited experience in a COIN environment in 2004 Iraq is skewing the very different reality of the day in a multi-domain, near-peer effort in 2026.

As for our own up and comers, I hope we have done enough work to field strip the relevant eperience from Afghanistan, while providing enough growth in lessons learned from Ukraine and now this experience in Iran; to make for more well rounded commanders at all levels.
 
rmc_wannabe said:
I think this is Hegseth's main downfall as well, in that his limited experience in a COIN environment in 2004 Iraq is skewing the very different reality of the day in a multi-domain, near-peer effort in 2026.
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I wish he was actually applying some of that military experience. Dude seems more intent on fighting culture wars, mostly on made up or very exaggerated issues. Doing deadlifts with the troops isn't going to win the race between the A2AD bubble and Agile ops.

To wit:

 
RangerRay said:
As long as you're willing to overlook/ignore/hand-wave all of illegal and unconstitutional things this president and administration have done with no accountability, don't see a problem with a USSC that gave a president criminal immunity for "official acts" and a congress that is happy to be a potted plant, I can't help you.
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You've just described the administrations and congresses going back for decades. Which one would be preferable to the one they have now?

The only realistic alternatives to the Trump administration are a Democratic one, or one composed mainly of the pre-Trump Republican establishment. Americans would have to give up the infantile social media posts and three-times-a-day changes in direction and immigration enforcement and donkeys occasionally holding secretary appointments, but they'd gain decades-long wars run by well-credentialed intelligent thoughtful serious people and lots more inexpensive exploited foreign workers. They'd get to keep cozying up to Putin and near-abandonment of Ukraine and inconclusive regime-ousting military action, though. Most of all there would be no change to the creative uses of executive power and a congress in which members of the president's party use whatever procedural means are available to prevent congress from containing executive overreach.
 
Brad Sallows said:
You've just described the administrations and congresses going back for decades. Which one would be preferable to the one they have now?

The only realistic alternatives to the Trump administration are a Democratic one, or one composed mainly of the pre-Trump Republican establishment. Americans would have to give up the infantile social media posts and three-times-a-day changes in direction and immigration enforcement and donkeys occasionally holding secretary appointments, but they'd gain decades-long wars run by well-credentialed intelligent thoughtful serious people and lots more inexpensive exploited foreign workers. They'd get to keep cozying up to Putin and near-abandonment of Ukraine and inconclusive regime-ousting military action, though. Most of all there would be no change to the creative uses of executive power and a congress in which members of the president's party use whatever procedural means are available to prevent congress from containing executive overreach.
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Again, you’re excusing the guy who robbed the bank and burned it down in broad daylight because others were shoplifting at the 7-11. They all should face accountability, and many of those caught shoplifting have.

Re: “decades of long wars”

If you think this latest Middle East “excursion” is going to be quick, you’re more deluded than I thought. The only way it will be short is if Trump declares victory before the kid is done, takes his toys and goes home, leaving the Khomeinists in a stronger position than before.

Re: Dems “cozying up to Putin and near-abandonment of Ukraine”

This is laughable. Again, you’re being willfully blind or intentionally obtuse to what this Administration has been doing with regards to Putin and Ukraine. Biden’s plan of giving the Ukrainians just enough to not lose was awful on so many levels, but to say they were “cozying up to Putin and near-abandonment of Ukraine” ignores the actions of the Trump Administration and shows you’re stuck on what the Dems were doing in 2014 (which was abhorrent) as opposed to 2022.
 
RangerRay said:
Again, you’re excusing the guy who robbed the bank and burned it down in broad daylight because others were shoplifting at the 7-11. They all should face accountability, and many of those caught shoplifting have.
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Bush's Iraq War was orders of magnitude worse than anything the Trump administration has managed to do. Regardless, part of the point is that while people like Vance and Hegseth may be lightweights and the people of the Bush and Obama [administrations] may be heavyweights, the heavyweights did a lot of damage with their own notions of WMD removal, regime ouster/change, various accommodations of Russian interests, "red lines", etc. There is no reason to prefer sober serious people if they can't restrain themselves from worse destruction.
RangerRay said:
If you think this latest Middle East “excursion” is going to be quick, you’re more deluded than I thought. The only way it will be short is if Trump declares victory before the kid is done, takes his toys and goes home, leaving the Khomeinists in a stronger position than before.
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It'll be quick. The kids may indeed go home without achieving their aims, but better to fail fast in a couple of months than to draw it out over a couple of decades.
RangerRay said:
This is laughable. Again, you’re being willfully blind or intentionally obtuse to what this Administration has been doing with regards to Putin and Ukraine. Biden’s plan of giving the Ukrainians just enough to not lose was awful on so many levels, but to say they were “cozying up to Putin and near-abandonment of Ukraine” ignores the actions of the Trump Administration and shows you’re stuck on what the Dems were doing in 2014 (which was abhorrent) as opposed to 2022.
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You've assumed the wrong culprit; Biden isn't it. The main culprit was "more flexibility" Obama.

It would be amusing to transport today's crop of critics back to the "oh fuck, now what" period which followed the predictable rapid defeat of the Iraqi forces and subsequent spiral down into civil war. They'd really have some serious incompetence and lack of planning/forethought and rosy-assumptions-thinking to bite into.
 
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