America’s Future Soldiers Are Unfit For Duty
October 25, 2010 by Chateau
Regular readers know how I occasionally write about what I see is the decline, and soon to be fall, of the once-glorious American Empire. I consider it an honor and a duty — well, really, an amusing hobby — to chronicle the trendlines, the cultural and economic indicators, and the elite and underclass degeneracy and subversion that portend a relatively rapid diminishment of American power in the world. It’s breathtaking! I suggest you try it.
The facts point to an America in her death rattle, (or more accurately, her comatose wastage), but it’s not just the cold facts; the finger in the wind test reveals the coming storm as well. Step back for a moment to see the big picture and muse how amazing it is that you happen to be living through the final days of your nation’s greatness, and how rare that is in the sweep of history. You are the perceptive Roman plebe watching with a mix of disgust, confusion, sorrow and awe as what your forefathers built around you crumbles to dust in your lifetime, except instead of dragging along at a leisurely 320 years for the rot to fully metastasize, you get to experience it at the historically breakneck pace of 50 to 60 years. Yay, instant communications and advanced propaganda techniques!
In that spirit, here is an email from a reader stationed at the first input of America’s defensive capability. Reading this, I’m getting that scene from Wall-E in my head, where the grotesquely fat humans are wheeled around and serviced by robots.
Reader “LT” emails:
Every time I post one of these telling indicators of American decline, some leftie or libertard pipes up about iPods. “Oh, but look at the cheap LCD TVs and iPods we have now!” Yes, I’m sure the Roman populace was pleased with its bread and circuses before the barbarians trampled the gates. While we’re at it, here’s another example of vibrant and diverse bread and circuses for the entertainment of the masses: Beheaded animals littering Miami streets.
There is not likely a single politician alive today who understands the full scope and nature of America’s unraveling, or is willing to tackle it head on. Good people sense it, but cannot adequately articulate their concerns. Others know the reasons, but for cowardice or denial won’t speak their minds. Still others are out-and-out traitors to the historical American enterprise.
Since I am a giving man of bounteous heart, here is my fourteen point plan for saving America:
then what’s stopping you?
The facts point to an America in her death rattle, (or more accurately, her comatose wastage), but it’s not just the cold facts; the finger in the wind test reveals the coming storm as well. Step back for a moment to see the big picture and muse how amazing it is that you happen to be living through the final days of your nation’s greatness, and how rare that is in the sweep of history. You are the perceptive Roman plebe watching with a mix of disgust, confusion, sorrow and awe as what your forefathers built around you crumbles to dust in your lifetime, except instead of dragging along at a leisurely 320 years for the rot to fully metastasize, you get to experience it at the historically breakneck pace of 50 to 60 years. Yay, instant communications and advanced propaganda techniques!
In that spirit, here is an email from a reader stationed at the first input of America’s defensive capability. Reading this, I’m getting that scene from Wall-E in my head, where the grotesquely fat humans are wheeled around and serviced by robots.
Reader “LT” emails:
I am an officer in the US Army. I commissioned as a Military Police Officer in June 2009, and am attending Officer Basic Course at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri.The US Army’s Physical Fitness Standards are here. The Army considers a score of 60 in each event the minimum required to become a soldier. If you are a 30 year old man, can you do:
As any prior service person knows, whenever you report for training the first week is all in processing paper work and briefings: health screenings, ethics classes, class overview, etc. Lots of high ranking individuals will come into class and talk to you about all sorts of the usual.
During our first week, we had a “full-bird” Colonel (our Brigade Commander) come into our class to talk about junior officer professional development. He began to talk about why physical fitness is so important as an officer and as a Soldier in the Army.
Now, OBVIOUSLY physical fitness is important, and as any West Point, OCS, Direct Commission, or ROTC officer can tell you, it is expected of an officer to be one of the top (if not THE top) physical fitness test scorers in their unit. Suffice to say, most officers are in excellent physical shape, far above the normal American. (The Army physical fitness test standards can be found through a simple google search.)
This is where it gets interesting: Fort Leonard Wood is one of the largest basic training facilities in the US. Every year, thousands of enlisted trainees fresh out of high school come to Fort Leonard Wood for “boot camp.” Here, their individuality is abolished and they are taught to work as a team and a unit.
This Colonel was telling us that these trainees (who are not officers) were suffering CATASTROPHIC physical injuries while at basic training. We are talking serious injuries: stress fractures of the feet, shins, and knees; as well as hip fractures, hip dislocations, and minor heart attacks.
THESE ARE 18 YEAR OLD KIDS!
The Colonel went on to explain the theory behind this spike in injuries in recent years has to do with the current generation’s sedentary lifestyle. The injuries that these trainees were sustaining were injuries that a normal, active adult would not be at risk for until the mid 40′s and 50′s, if not beyond. But here, 18 year old kids were being sent-home and out processed from serving their country for dislocating hips while running around a track.
It’s easy to point the finger at really fat people and say, “Goddamn, that is disgusting.” But when it comes to an “average” looking high school kid not even look twice. But to those readers who have children, take a good look at their diet and how much activity they are getting outside. Just because they aren’t “fat” and LOOK fine doesn’t mean they aren’t at risk for injury. Several hundred thousand years ago, they wouldn’t survive a day.
Good news: the Army here at Fort Leonard Wood as all but eliminated these injuries by re-thinking how we get new Soldiers into shape. Our new physical fitness regime includes elements of yoga (for stretching), football (for grass drills), and track and field (for short bursts of speed). Readers who are interested should look it up on the Army Physical Fitness School’s website.
Yes, fat people are easy to spot and ostracize. But those of us who can still fit into size 32 jeans aren’t off the hook. When even the Army wakes up and pays attention to health and fitness beyond the usual lip service; I think the rest of the nation should follow suit.
~LT
- 39 pushups?
- 45 situps?
- a 17 minute 2-mile run?
Every time I post one of these telling indicators of American decline, some leftie or libertard pipes up about iPods. “Oh, but look at the cheap LCD TVs and iPods we have now!” Yes, I’m sure the Roman populace was pleased with its bread and circuses before the barbarians trampled the gates. While we’re at it, here’s another example of vibrant and diverse bread and circuses for the entertainment of the masses: Beheaded animals littering Miami streets.
There is not likely a single politician alive today who understands the full scope and nature of America’s unraveling, or is willing to tackle it head on. Good people sense it, but cannot adequately articulate their concerns. Others know the reasons, but for cowardice or denial won’t speak their minds. Still others are out-and-out traitors to the historical American enterprise.
Since I am a giving man of bounteous heart, here is my fourteen point plan for saving America:
- A wall at the southern border. If Israel and China can do it, so can we.
- An immigration moratorium for 20 years. Immigration halts coincide with a resurgence of American economic vitality.
- An end to birthright citizenship for children of non-citizens. If this means rescinding the 14th Amendment, so be it.
- A flat tax, or a VAT coupled with the abolishment of the income tax. The tax is too damn high! And too subversively complex.
- A repeal of Obamacare. It’s hurting, not helping.
- An end to all affirmative action and quotas.
- An end to all foreign military engagements that are not directly tied to the defense of American interests. There will be no more neocon wars for the spread of democracy, which democracy most of the world’s ingrates don’t want or can’t handle, anyhow.
- An end to Social Security and Medicare in their current incarnations. If we were a homogeneous Northern Euro country, these programs might stand a chance of succeeding over the long term. But entitlement programs do not work in a radically diverse society filled with population groups of differing health, economic, and conscientiousness profiles. SS alone creates a huge disincentive to save.
- An end to all government pension plans. Your tax dollars are going to support the lavish retirement plans of government workers.
- A restriction on public employees of their voting rights. Conflict of interest, ftw. Allow them to vote only every other election cycle.
- An end to no-fault divorce and welfare in any form, including food stamps, for single mothers. You want to kill a successful modern society? Kill the nuclear family. The rest will follow.
- An end to credentialism. The scourge of suckup credentialist glorification is producing a new elite of cognitive and cultural übermen at philosophical odds with the mass of Americans not invited to their coke and prep course parties. They will soon be a new subrace of humans if present trends continue (I’m not kidding). They do not have the majority Americans’ interests at heart. The New Eloi are testament to the resiliency of the eugenic drive in each and every human, regardless of social sanctions or legal prohibitions against active pursuit of such. While I am not anti-eugenic, (I’m closer to anti-dysgenic than pro-eugenic), the rapid formulation of a supersmart and supercapable minority elite perfectly tailored to exploit a modern information economy to their advantage while the masses fall further behind, is a recipe for oligarchy, a disappearing middle class, and revolution. Ending abject credentialism (or at least mitigating it) will be tough, but it can be done. Start by allowing companies to directly test prospective employees on their abilities to do the job they are applying for. This will take the pressure off employers to weight college degrees so heavily. Next step is to gut the enormous endowments of our elite universities. Ending federal student loan programs and government funding is a start. Ending tenure would go a way toward excavating these wretched leftwing gargoyles from humanities departments. I’d also pass a law requiring strip clubs and Hooters on every Ivy League campus so that the future hedge funders and doctors can see what they would be missing if they settled for marrying the closest proximity fellow Ivy chick they could find.
- End all federal agriculture subsidies. A big (heh) reason for the obesity plague is the confluence of government largesse (double heh) with industrial farming shoving sugars, HFCS, and cheap refined grains front and center on our nation’s supermarket shelves. Simply removing these market interferences would help propel a Paleo-style diet onto more people’s dinner plates.
- An end to all government-mandated sexual harassment and diversity programs. Really, they’re mobile reeducation camps designed to sap the fighting spirit of America’s white men. They are insidious.
then what’s stopping you?
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ReplyDeleteChateau’s article about the American “Empire” in her “death rattle” points out yet another example, according to Chateau, of America’s death spiral by commenting on an email from “LT”, a US Army officer, who writes about enlisted trainees coming into Ft Leonard Wood are unfit for duty. It is true, according to a recent Pentagon report, that nearly 75% percent of the population, aged 17 to 24 are unfit for duty, but that high percentage is not just because our young adults are physically unfit. Included in the 75% percent are young adults that have criminal records that prohibit them from serving. Also included, are young adults who are increasingly failing the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) which test basic math, science, and reading proficiency. How do we fix this problem? 1) Put rigorous physical education back into our schools. Our youth need to exercise their muscles as well as their minds, 2) Close campuses, and provide nutritional food in school cafeterias, and remove soda and snacks vending machines. 3) Meaningful education by qualified, even over-qualified teachers, who teach for the love of it, but this will cost because you will have to properly compensate them. 4) Most important, parents need to parent, and this is something that has been lacking among recent generations of parents. Parenting is arduous, and takes time, patience and most critical love and dedication. If parents don’t grab hold of the reigns and take charge then we may face the same dark fate Chateau envisions.
ReplyDeleteAs for the rest of Chateau’s article, I’m not going to comment on whether I agree with his viewpoint on America’s future nor do I have the time to dissect all his 14 points on “fixing” America, except for maybe two or three, as they relate to my profession.
Chateau’s point #7. “An end to all foreign military engagements that are not directly tied to the defense of American interests. There will be no more neocon wars for the spread of democracy, which democracy most of the world’s ingrates don’t want and can’t handle, anyhow.” I disagree. The phenomenon of globalization in the world today has interconnected America’s interests to every part of the world, even the “ingrates”. Chateau and the rest of us better heed the oppressive rule of the tyrant and the thousands, even millions of unemployed, uneducated, and angry youth under his rule, because this is the breeding ground for terrorism, according to Thomas Barnett’s “The Pentagon’s New Map”. I recommend everyone, especially Chateau, read Barnett’s work.
Chateau’s point #9. “An end to all government pension plans. Your tax dollar are going to support the lavish retirement plans of government workers.” I would not call the retirement plans “lavish”, although in today’s marketplace, any retirement plan is uncommon and those that have one should be considered fortunate. However, many government employees, like the military, FBI, CIA, and DoS, and their families pay the ultimate price being in harm’s way to protect our nation and her interests. It is now common place for DoD civilians and DoS employees to be deployed to Afghanistan along with their military and CIA brothers and sisters.
Chateau’s point #10. “A restriction on public employees of their voting rights. Conflict of interests, ftw. Allow them to vote only every other cycle.” To this I say, they pay taxes, “taxes too damn high” as Chateau states in point #4, and should be allowed the same rights as every American citizen.