With U.S. government dawdling leaving people behind in Afghanistan, free Americans take the initiative to rescue those trapped by the Taliban. Bill Whittle and Alfonzo Rachel examine this ubiquitous American attribute of initiative.
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10 replies on “Initiative: Free Americans Rescue Those Trapped by Taliban…and by U.S. Government Dawdling”
At the very least I think given the best interpretation, that we really did think the Afghan government would stay intact and that the Afghan army would fight, using our weapons – the moment it became clear that things were not going according to what was “agreed” upon we should have turned up the heat to 11, blasted any Taliban on the move, gotten our people out of there, destroyed the rest of the weapons, and left.
With today’s initiative, you’d get your 400 balloons delivered, but they won’t be inflated!
Several things have struck me about the thirty-something cohort in our neighborhood: 1) they seem to exhibit no curiosity or even interest in anything outside their own agenda; 2) when they attempt (but not necessarily finish) an outdoor project, they just leave their tools outside wherever they dropped them; and 3) they are incapable of doing much of anything practical – they make phone calls, not repairs. One family nearby with a twenty-something son at home employs a lawn service. That’s incomprehensible to me.
For several decades now, kids have abandoned hobbies to devote all their attention to a two-dimensional screen. Americans used their initiative to do things because they knew how to do things. We learn so much by manipulating materials in the physical world. That dimension appears to be swiftly disappearing as they subsume themselves in their interior, 2D reality.
What Bill mentioned with the military and initiative has long been that way. In the Marines one of the many, many “unofficial mottos” is Adapt, Improvise, Overcome … Which I guess is the same thing as saying “find a way” but sounds cooler.
That has always been one of the strengths of our military. It’s a major factor too. In the Marines you have a clearly defined command structure from the C in C (POTUS) all the way down to … the last man. Seriously, the last man. If your platoon commander gets it, the senior squad leader is in charge, if he gets it then on down through seniority to the Fire Team level.
A Fire Team is four men; a Fire Team Leader, an automatic rifleman and two riflemen. Nowadays the automatic rifleman might be replaced in some instances with a designated marksman but the principle still holds either way. Things might have changed, that was how we did it in my day. Even if changed, there will not be a material difference in the concept.
So if the Fire Team Leader gets it command falls to the next rank with the most time in grade, which is generally the automatic rifleman. If he gets it command falls to the next senior rifleman. If he gets it, we’re down to the last man and he has as much right to and expectation to apply initiative as anyone above him.
This way there’s theoretically always the most experienced person calling the shots and giving the orders from a platoon level down through the squads. Everyone knows who’s in charge and there is always someone in charge.
Conversely in the Soviet model there’s a point where no one is willing to take any sort of initiative at all. I say “Soviet model” because that’s the era I’m from, this applies to most military units outside the industrial West.
Even the general in command of an entire theater might not act until he has clear orders from whatever authority he operates under. This is because no one wants to take responsibility and when the orders are issued the responsibility lies on the shoulders of the man who gave them. If things go well he will be patted on the back and told what a good doggie he is. If they go badly it could mean anything from a career ending demotion in disgrace to an outright on-the-spot field execution with a bullet to the head.
The average Soviet or Soviet backed soldier had virtually zero formal education outside of the most rudimentary, he came from a slum or a backwater rural area and in order to get him to fight at all you had to be sure he understood that it was fight and maybe die, or refuse to fight and certainly die. He is literally always fighting for his life. So it’s wise not to underestimate him. A trapped mouse will still bite you pretty good.
It’s a harsh way to run a military but war is a harsh environment. The Soviet model policy has a tendency to advance the most capable to the highest rank. Because they’re the ones who survived. Somewhere up there in the top ranks things get a little hazy because politics plays a lot more of a role than it would for lesser ranks.
The problem with the Soviet model is that in order to throw the enemy into disarray all you have to do is take out the head of the command structure. We saw this in Desert Storm where Norman Schwarzkopf targeted the Iraqi command structure with extreme unction and volition — And the Iraqi army collapsed in days.
So that covers the how it works thing but why is it this way?
Because we teach our kids to find a way. This is not an easy thing to do, it actually takes paying attention and considerable effort to make your children learn to figure things out for themselves. You need to constantly be aware that the trait of finding a way is a learned not hereditary thing. Little brains are empty of all but the most basic instincts, it’s up to you to fill them up with the right stuff. If you don’t, they’ll get filled up anyway, it just might not be the right stuff. Failure here is why Academia is currently so successful in indoctrinating your kids. They’re going to get indoctrinated, it’s just a matter of which indoctrination holds sway.
Many modern parents don’t do this for various reasons. “Helicopter parents” think they’re showing love for their child by doing everything for them. Some parents don’t even have an excuse that good, they’re just too lazy as parents and are glad to leave their kids development to the Nanny State. While they pursue what they perceive to be more vital interests than the rearing of their offspring. Sometimes it’s just the sad fact that some people think of kids more like pets, or cuddly stuffed toys than they do as future responsible self-supporting members of society.
We’re losing the kind of people who can successfully apply the American military model. Kids are being turned into little automatons who can only follow detailed instructions covering all possible situations and no longer think for themselves. Once their external programming is exceeded they are not able to fall back to internal programming. They just stop with no clue how to figure out what comes next. I see this all the time and frankly it not only pisses me off, a lot, but it scares me too.
Bill’s theory about computer games being an outlet for conservative urges like fast cars, guns and babes isn’t doing the trick. Rapid progress through a hostile environment that only results in a respawn when you ‘die’ is a bad thing in real life. You don’t learn any lessons after your real heart stops pumping real blood through your real veins. You don’t get a reset and you don’t get to drop back to the last saved game and start over again.
I’m increasingly convinced that most of the serious problems we face in this nation are due to an increase in terrible parenting. There have always been terrible parents but it seems to me that they used to be much rarer.
As I recall the norm was to take an active, overwhelming interest in your kids, showering them with soft love when you could and tough love when they needed that too. Well disciplined children do not require a lot of punishment, it’s better for you and for the kid to keep discipline tight and punishment reserved for times when it was clear and unavoidable. At those times punishment is a mercy that is meant to help the child but it needs to be swift and effective if you don’t want to have to repeat it, often.
If we keep going down the path we’re on we are all going to lose. This path is a race to the bottom.
I have noticed a push back in terms of initiative in the workplace. In my work experience over the years, there can be something that obviously needs to be corrected, but any suggestion to do so is met with distain and distrust. Perhaps this attitude is due to the powers that be do not want to be seen in a negitive light for not correcting the problem themselves, but I think true leadership welcomes the corrective ideas of those most closely associated to the task at hand.
I’ve been waiting for someone to mention the “everyone gets a trophy” thing…here’s a great example of that…lol
Also Exhibit “A” as an example of Grade Inflation
Woke generals earn what amounts to girl scout badges (cooking, sewing, manners aka political correctness).
Eisenhower spoke softly and carried a big stick.
Milley just sticks to speaking softly.
Americans, doing the jobs their government won’t do …