A NASA public affairs notice went out this week that probably no one will notice except a few space groupies (guilty), naval aviation bubbas (guilty) and ex-snake eaters (not guilty). The Website Task and Purpose noticed. Lieutenant Commander (LCDR) Jonny Kim, USN, Medical Corps, is returning to active-duty Navy assignment and service after working for NASA for the last ten years. Why should anyone care? Well, to put it succinctly, he is the best America has to offer during this turbulent 250^th anniversary. He embodies, what I hope everyone agrees, is our American Ethos.

The son of Korean immigrants, he struggled to get his feet on the ground while beset with a household of domestic violence that finally ended with his father being shot and killed by LA Police during a domestic violence incident. In his last year of high school, he made the decision to become a Navy SEAL and prepared himself mentally and physically to succeed.

Kim went on to be a SEAL-corpsman (medic) serving on multiple combat deployments. Being a SEAL, he did not just function as a corpsman, he also served as a sniper, ground navigator, and point scout. Before leaving the SEALS to accept a scholarship and naval officer commission, he was awarded both the Silver Star and Bronze Star, amongst others. Why did he leave the SEALs? Kim said:

“I made promises to a lot of the people that I lost, that I would spend the rest of my life doing something good, something positive for the world, because they left a void when they died, and I know that they would have been successful, making the world a better place had they lived,”

Graduating with honors from the University of San Diego, Kim chose to reinforce life after years of death of both friend and foe. He honored the shipmates he lost in combat by becoming a doctor and continued his education as a member of the Navy’s Medical Corps at Harvard Medical School – one of those schools this Administration’s SecDef has dropped from the program as too politically suspect. Kim was commissioned into the Medical Corps and went on to residency at Massachusetts General Hospital where he met Doctor-Astronaut Scott Parazynski. Parazynski encouraged Kim to apply to NASA, which he did. A year into his residency at ‘Mass General’ Kim was selected for Astronaut training.

Kim graduated from NASA training in 2020 and launched into space in 2025 onboard a Russian Soyuz MS-27 rocket for a ten-month mission to the Space Station. While awaiting his rotation into space, he reported to Naval Aviation training and earned his Naval Aviator (Astronaut) wings in 2023. As such, he became an Aeromedical Dual Designator (AMDD) as both a Naval Aviator and Flight Surgeon. He is one of only 79 ever designated. He is only the second Naval Aviator-Doctor-Astronaut, the last occurred in 1996 (Capt. Ed Brown who tragically died in 2003 onboard space shuttle Columbia). LCDR Kim will now be assigned to the Navy’s Aviation Training Command (CNATRA) to support developing new aviators with the science and medicine that is key to the effort. I suspect his impact on America is not quite done.

I am highlighting LCDR Kim for many reasons. I have never met him, but I would be honored to do so someday. Media reports of those who have met him describe him as the humblest of men. The shear willpower he must possess to accomplish so much, beginning with so little, makes me proud to be an American when there is so much today that makes me doubt what substitutes today for what I believe are our traditional American Ethos.

Some of the things I am not proud of would have made Jonny Kim irrelevant. If the cruel and draconian immigration policies being suggested or even implemented today existed in the 1980’s we would not have a Jonny Kim today. If we believed what Vice President Vance said that American jobs are only for ‘native born Americans’ -- what about naturalized citizens, Mr. VP? – where would the Kim family have gone when they left Korea? If we had a politicized Secretary of Defense twenty or thirty years ago, someone who has now elevated politics over national security, Kim would have not met Parazynski at ‘Mass General’ because the path to and from Harvard would not have existed.

It was this unique American opportunity that gave America LCDR Dr. Jonny Kim, USN, Medical Corps. The son of immigrants, a hero SEAL who fought for his country, a doctor who saves lives, a Naval Aviator, Flight Surgeon, and astronaut who explored the unknown in the name of medicine, science, and all humankind. Above all a loving father of three. All before his 43rd birthday. I truly look forward to whatever Jonny Kim sets his sights on next because he is the best we have to offer despite our worst efforts to block the paths that got him where he is today.

His own words speak volumes of who he is. Kim was the Keynote Speaker at the Harvard Class of 20226 Commencement:

“I wanted to be like the incorruptible self-reliant Batman fighting injustice, but in the extreme environments [where] I’ve spent my life as an adult, I learned that the solo hero myth is dangerous…Whether you’re relying on the Marine next to you in a firefight, the nurse during a Code Blue, or your crewmates in the vacuum of space, survival demands absolute trust in others. True strength is found in recognizing you cannot do this alone.”

Speaking of his personal trauma on the battlefield:

“The greatest gift this amazing institution has given me is not my medical education or the prestige that follows, it is that the people at Harvard helped pull me out of the darkness and into the light and did it through something I had long considered a weakness: empathy. <But empathy and vulnerability are> superpowers that can heal.”

“To my classmates and professors, who took time to understand how I got in the dark hole I was in and sometimes sit with me in it… thank you for extending grace I may not have always deserved.”

“Service shows itself in the quiet unseen acts of kindness and everyday grace.”

Clearly dangerous thoughts from a true American warrior and patriot speaking from an institution and value system that contradicts everything his Senate-approved boss (SecDef) believes in under his personal ‘warrior ethos.’

Thanks Shipmate, you are one of us, and the best of us. You are American Ethos.

I am about to venture into a topic I have, at best, a participatory level knowledge: public finance and debt. My personal experience involves household financial management and investing, military budget oversite at the intermediate (multi-unit) level, and exposure to corporate investment bank management (operations). I usually spend on 1.5- hour session of my class on the politics of the US budget and debt. The following commentary will be kept at the basic macro level. I consider myself knowledgeable and experience enough to reside at the casual but high end of ‘joe-average’ knowledge, so what I am about to comment on leaves me vulnerable to the professional financial community’s ability to rake me over the coals, and they are welcome to do so. I leave the high order economic understanding to the likes of Paul Krugman and media’s David Lynch (seen here on a PBS segment on this week’s bond problems). With that said, I do know how to add and subtract, read balance sheets, identify cash flow trends, and I know when I have maxed out the credit cards. Which is more than I can say for Congress and the Executive Branch. Shipmates… we are broke, and we need to do something about it. Buckle up.

The United States hit the -- as Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessant described it --“nothing magic about the $40 trillion number” level of national debt this week. It was so ‘unmagical’, so insignificant, that Bessant wants us to ignore the extraordinary effort he began this week to tame the bond market yield that has spiked to its highest level since 2007. I am referring to the benchmark 30-year US Treasury that everyone looks to as the sign of financial ‘strength’ in the US government’s policies. Just a reminder, high US bond yield is a bad sign. Higher interest on bonds reflect higher risk to the investor. It means the Treasury is having trouble getting investors to buy US bonds instead of looking elsewhere for a safer position and a ‘sure’ return on their money. It is a measure of trust one has for the bond issuer. For you and me, it’s your credit rating and the negotiated interest rate on your credit cards or personal loans. It’s a measure of your financial worth and earned trust to repay your debt. Ameica’s has sucked lately and it’s not getting better.

The Bond market investors are telling the American government that they don’t trust it to pay its bills or potentially repay their investment. They don’t have confidence in the US balance sheet, and it is getting worse, faster.

Now $40 Trillion is a big number, and hard for your average non-billionaire to fathom — like 99.9% of us. Giving inflation over time, let’s look at the debt another way so we get a true perspective of the debt as compared to the ability to pay it off, or get it manageable. At the end of World War II, the national debt was $4.63 trillion in 2025 dollars (source: US Treasury). This was around 115% of 1945-6 GDP (US Debt Clock, US Treasury). The Unites States stayed between 33% and 65% debt to GDP ratio for the rest of the 20^th century. We fixed it, managed it, and had prosperity. The adults did what they had to.

But then the 21^st C. brought unfettered spending. We shot from 55% debt ratio in 2000 to 100% by 2012. After 2017, the debt simulated a Musk heavy lift rocket and accelerated skyward until it exploded and left debris for everyone to clean up. It is now 138% of GDP (Debt Clock) and accelerating. This year, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the government will spend over 23% of total GDP but only intake 17.5% of equivalent GDP. The servicing of the debt interest alone – now over $1.1T annually and increasing–is equal to our nondefense discretionary budget (health, infrastructure, transportation, education, labor, etc.). It is equivalent or exceeds what we also spend on national security – a situation that many historians and national security experts describe as a true indicator of inevitable national power (or empire) decline. We are not making anything ‘Great Again’ with this balance sheet.

If we look internationally, the best comparisons would be with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a 38-member nation -- and 56 governmental jurisdictions overall -- economic organization we helped found in 1961. Yet in 2025, this Administration officially repudiated and signed out of all the OECD tax and government spending treaties and guidelines that the USA had originated or supported within the OECD, leaving us an OECD member in name only. The OECD includes every economic heavyweight except China and India. Debt ratio figures trending for 2026:

1. Japan – 204.4%

2. Italy – 138.4%

3. Greece – 136.9%

4. United States – 125.8% (this is in different from by Debt Clock @ 138%)

5. France – 118.4%

6. Canada – 110.7%

7. Belgium – 109.2%

8. United Kingdom – 103.6%

9. Spain – 98.2%

10. Finland – 93.1%

OECD -109% (All member total GDP); 30 nations are under 100%;

Türkiye – 25.5% (lowest)

One wonders where the USA would be on this list if we could tame our military spending, penchant for useless wars, and achieve a rationalized tax code.

So where am I going with this topic today? Most of my class attendees know I have a hybrid, and European/western democracy influenced, view on the roles of government and the costs and financial base to support services to the population while maintaining adequate national security. All this while maintaining sane fiscal responsibility. I don’t easily fit into the left or right view of political labelling in America. I support universal health and education, not because I am a socialist, but because it has shown to be cheaper and at most times more efficient – and therefore less a strain on GDP then the public-private-insurance train wreck or idiotic higher education financial nightmare we have now. I understand— without inducing political emotions or hot button labels— that we can transfer the private costs to the tax base while reducing the total costs to each household, thus saving everyone money. On average, we spend twice as much per capita on health costs than most of the best universal health programs in the world and outspend the 2nd most expensive (the Swiss) by 50%. As for education being an investment to the future -- what happened? And how can we afford it?

Like most Americans, I have spent my life balancing the needs of my family against the realities of income. A career military salary is not the well-travelled road to financial independence. The financial crisis of high interest in the 80’s, sub-zero lending, and the early 21^th C financial crisis all exposed me financially. I corrected. I have been in debt my entire adult life, balancing the mortgage, car loans, education costs and student loans for my kids (and grandkids), constant relocations with attached homesteading costs, and the occasional unexpected large financial demands. The current stubborn inflation, challenge of ‘affordability’ and energy prices (thanks Iran War) are tough, but I am able to balance the desire to not deny ‘wants’ while providing for the ‘must have.’ I have weathered the occasional debt storm, and I strive to make quality of life (comfort) just a little better each year while leaving a debt buffer to absorb the next crisis. I’ve gotten pretty good at it – one might almost say an expert —managing debt levels against income and keeping the ratio, and interest costs, low. The ability to pay down debt while not denying the reasonable ‘wants’ is important to me. In today’s semi-retired life, that means eating out when we feel like it, playing some golf for me, and taking short vacations a couple times a year with my wife, one of which is always overseas. The thing I always start with is ensuring my expected income (revenue) is greater than required outlays, including servicing the debt with consistent drawdown. Then I take the excess and plan. I suspect I am not the only one that works within these fundamentals.

Just before the interest rates showed signs of spiking again, I happened to attend a veteran sponsored one-night estate planning seminar. The idea of the seminar was to show aged veterans like me that it is time to ensure everything estate-wise was in order and simplified for ease of probate. The session reminded me of the envelope I used to keep in the top drawer of my office in the hangar, or on my ship’s stateroom desk. It had all the personal passwords and financial nuances for the unexpected.

“Honey, now that you know I am not coming home, you need to know <x,y,z>.”

After the seminar, I realized I had slacked off in retirement on the challenge of making the <x,y,z> easy for someone else and I went home and consolidated as much outstanding debt –and various checking and savings accounts -- as possible into tight manageable vehicles to ensure someone besides myself could manage it, and probate would not be a crisis. Good timing, I beat the interest crisis. Hey America, do you have a letter of instruction for us? Will it be easier for the next group of representatives we send to DC — nope.

Why can’t Congress do this? Realize they got sloppy and clean it up. And why can’t the American people recognize there are fundamental needs we all have to share to get the USA back to a manageable ratio of government revenue to outlays that can address the excessive debt – and leave something for our children and grandchildren. Having a responsibly fiscal American government is good for everyone, from citizen to business enterprise. How do we get there?

The Federal budget is a monster that no one can grasp in detail – so don’t bother. Hell, the Defense Dept. has NEVER passed an audit. Let’s keep it simple. The Feds must pay out certain things each year, that is the non-discretionary budget. It is defined by law to pay out Social Security, Medicaid/Medicare, service debt and interest, and other stuff. Congress can’t play with it, unless they change the laws that manage it. About $3 out of every $4 dollars spent annually (73% in 2026) must go to that stuff. The remaining 25%, or $1 dollar, is what Congress gets to play with for services and defense annually.

Follow me here. In 2025, the US guv spent $7.01T and brought in $5.23T, for a deficit of $1.78T. If you follow the over 75-year trend of post-WWII debt management, that is 2-3 times the average yearly deficit since 1950. That is piss-poor management of my tax dollars. The discretionary budget was $1.9T, a ballpark-ish similar magnitude as the deficit. So tinkering with decreasing the discretionary budget –which is all Congress has done in the 21^st C. -- is not going to cut it. Since Congress never cuts defense – an irresponsible political redline that leads to overuse of said military, then tinkering with discretionary non-defense items is only 1/7^th of what we spend. And what is a Congressional face saving 10% cut – at best -- of 1/7^th of total expenditures? Last year about $50B-ish, maybe. That’s only 5% of the over $1T in debt interest serviced each year. As it happens, the GBBB — don’t make me say it, I’ll puke — cut taxes for the MAGA donors, and canned the IRS enforcement agents – loss of enforcement alone cost the US ~$5B annually in recouped taxes. This resulted in much more revenue lost in those two moves than any cuts gained. Don’t forget, we also have to give back all those tariffs to the companies that were collected unconstitutionally. So, no matter what anyone told you Sailor Boy (or Girl), the last few years we have bought more rounds of drinks at the bar than our credit card limit would cover and we are now trying to pass out more IUO’s (Bonds) to pay the tab. Except you already have outstanding IOU’s with most of your shipmates, so they are looking at you side-eyed with a “what, again” look.

How do you fix a deficit at home, or in business? Drive down costs, or a more enduring strategy, drive up revenue. DOGE, cutting food stamps, cutting student loans, cutting health and social services – none of that had any meaningful impact and just pissed off most Americans – but was that the point? Income tax relief to the wealthy did not create economic opportunity, it stayed at their level in tax havens. Passing financially unsupportable spending bills simultaneously with tax cuts (to the wealthy) took us in the wrong direction and is negligent homicide of the economy. Bottom line, we have to drive up revenue and better manage the required outlays, while rationalizing ALL discretionary spending.

We have reached the moment the ‘drunken sailor’ is in his last bar just prior to “last call” and liberty is expiring — and the Shore Patrol (the electorate) is waiting. We have to find political incentive to husband resources for the next liberty port.

How? More revenue and better management of mandatory programs. Discretionary program cuts won’t do it, sorry. Magnitude of debt is now too large. Non-discretionary program eligibility laws need to be updated to reduce premature eligibility and cancel income ceilings on payroll contributions. We need to better manage taxation, where it comes from, and how it is used. We need to rationalize who pays taxes and how much of their gross worth is taxed. No loopholes. Notice I did not say income taxes – income tax tables are unfair in the modern era as the wealthy has transferred their wealth to protected financial vehicles, a luxury Middle America or the financially strapped do not have. We need to fairly tax disposable wealth and assets for all. We should follow OECD guidelines. (enter “what are the OECD guidelines for debt and taxation” on your search engines…lots of stuff.)

Before anyone starts screaming ‘communism’ –really MAGA --bringing McCarthyism back, are you? – understand, America has paid communally for services for hundreds of years. How is buying a tank with tax dollars different than buying a child’s future? One is designed for death, the other – life. The cop on a corner we paid for would have a safer and quieter night if the drug addict desperate to fund the habit was in a rehabilitation program vice on the streets looking to score. Greater then 50% of America’s health costs are now public. The only reason private cost share is not higher is because of the rate of uninsured Americans, not any claimed private efficiencies. We all pay for our roads, our airports, our schools.

And you Democratic Socialists — most of your ‘dream sheet’ isn’t going to get filled either. We have to have a plan to pay down the debt while we cover reasonable social services. But yeah, tax revenue will be raised, and emphasis will be shifted away from defense to support better citizen services. We can’t get to the Nordic model in the foreseeable future, nor should we. We will have to scrutinize mandatory programs for eligibility and solvency, with compassionate solutions. We also can’t trash national security funding outright because after 80 years of superpower-ism and being the big kid on the block, turning our back on the world now, and perhaps being caught with our pants down, is a bad idea. The above assumes America again embraces a rational international relations strategy after 2028 and apologizes through deeds (not words) for the last 12+ years of idiocrasy. The damage is already done, but at least we can try.

Capitalism (with guardrails) will work for all Americans. The rest of the OECD does pretty good with all those things that Americans repel against only because they were told by some talking head or ideologue politician to repel against it. The Americans that object have no experience with it or feel it threatens their presumptive entitlement of position. Hard decisions are coming, or the nation goes bankrupt. For real.

What does any sailor on liberty and our national financial crisis have in common? The fear of hearing:

“Last call”!

There is no shortage of media reporting on the trials and tribulations of the extended deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN‑72) and its Battle Group (CVBG) in the Middle East. Most are sourced from second, third or even fourth degrees of separation from the ships. I am expecting an article about the Lincoln any day now from Kevin Bacon to close the seventh separation and win the game. And now the political spin is in full motion. The best anyone can get to facts is from feedback from some of the sailor’s families that receive sporadic communications from their loved ones. It is important to understand the families are focused on THEIR loved sailor, getting that small piece of information, and the wholistic picture is not in their communications, nor should they care about big picture. The news media being what they are, the most watched and read reports are those that are the worst. And finally, it is in no one’s best interest to have “live reporting” from the ships for a myriad of security, morale, safety and disciplinary reasons. But ‘stuff’ always gets off the ship, and the Navy has to always go back and get the ‘word’ off the ship back to as close to the truth as possible. At least it used to. Kinda tough these days given who is involved.

With all that said, as a veteran of multiple carrier (and submarine) deployments, I can professionally comment that the Lincoln deployment, along with the many other U.S. Navy amphibious ships, destroyers and logistic support ships trolling the Middle East, are experiencing what naval circles with a keen eye observe as a high ‘suck factor.’ This comes from an imbalance of the Cruise Equation:

Job Satisfaction / Quality of Life.

Life is good when the value is > or = to 1.0

Anything less than 1.0, that cruise sucks. Getting way below 1.0 is deep into the “Suck Factor’ and usually the beatings continue until morale improves. This is when it is critical on how the ship’s (and Navy) leadership respond or are allowed to respond. More on that later.

Both sides of the equation have variable inputs, so the factor can fix itself, if allowed to.

I had cruises < 1.0, and some >1.0. Some started out one way and ended the other. Overall Job Satisfaction for me was usually greater than Quality of Life negatives, which usually equals a career in the Navy. In essence, it is simple math with lots of variables. And boy, can we mess up those variables. And they have.

Factors affecting Job Satisfaction – training and opportunity to exercise your skills with purpose in any conditions; workplace conditions in normal operation; leadership; opportunity to excel and advance; a sense of purpose and doing something important. Others both personal and institutional

Factors affecting Quality of Life – Time at home and/or with family (inversely time away), shipboard and workspace conditions, especially berthing and chow; adverse conditions without true purpose, travel and liberty call balance or imbalance; leadership, especially bad; a failure to reinforce what you do is important or making an impact. Others both personal and institutional

American sailors (and Marines, and well-- all uniform) will put up with a lot of crap for a mission they understood to be critical and worth it. I once went months without a shower on a submarine because of freshwater (potable)limitations – but the skipper made sure we knew why and how important it was to stay at sea – and we took his word for it. He had unequivocally earned our trust and our sacrifice; and he knew he could depend on our support. And that was just the Cold War stuff – the chess game below the seas. That relationship dynamic really gets tested in combat conditions — trust in what you are doing and why. Trust in your leadership, and in your crew.

But crews get intolerant of poor leadership and poor QOL when they just don’t see the importance or the reason for their personal daily degradation. Two things kill morale pretty quickly – a poor answer to “why are we here” and piss-poor food. Submarines solved those two problems with the best skippers they had and the best chefs they could find to feed the best crews they could put together. Our food never, ever sucked, even when we were into dry and frozen stores, and out of fresh. Add poor food to decaying material problems in living spaces, showers, and so forth, at a much larger scale on an aircraft carrier with 5000 onboard, along with poor logistics that challenges future food quality, and the ‘suck factor’ becomes a multiplier, not an additive.

The “why we are here” is kind of weak at this point for both the LINCOLN CVBG and the USS George H. W. Bush (CVN-77) CVBG, who also is on station; along with two airwings, an Amphibious Group, a couple squadrons of destroyers and more. While they are executing daily flight and sea operations as scheduled, they are not actively launching aircraft to carry out combat strikes. Doing your job in real combat conditions makes the QOL problem fade to the background, and you can sustain your focus for a period of time. Doing your job in combat conditions with high end shipboard QOL sustained (good food, good living conditions) makes a US Navy ship unbeatable – but you have to keep the ship resupplied and functioning and take the occasional time-out to reset. Doing your job daily as a bit player in “Groundhog Day” while the ship starts to break down around the crew is challenging to both crew and ship’s leadership. The corrosive effect will extend to the crew at a level directly reflected to the Cruise Equation and the “Suck Factor” and bring the inevitable question of “why are we still here” on center stage. Excessive and multiple extensions of the deployments now appear as incompetence with piss poor planning to go with the piss poor food. The Lincoln crew know full well they relieved the USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN78) crew before they finally went home after nearly a year, quite broken materially, if not in morale. I can’t directly speak to what happened to the Ford morale, but my experience tells me, along with a few Kevin Bacon articles, their ever-changing mission, extensions, mistakes began to happen, stuff broke, a fire, and safety became a challenge.

So what is happening? And why? The answers lie at two levels, operational and strategic.

Strategically, the Middle East mission (Epic Fury, Iran War, whatever) failed. Iran played the long game of defensive absorption of pain (they ‘Rope-a-Doped’ us). We played the shock and awe game with overuse of expensive pyrotechnics expecting capitulation within weeks. Failing that, both sides are now in an unstable and unsigned ceasefire, intermittingly interrupted by commercial ship attacks followed by reprisals. The Iranians are waiting for the Midterms to get serious about ending it and the Americans are sitting in their ammo bunkers counting their precious few exotic weapons remaining to determine the risks associated with hitting Iran again. The region is in economic and military turmoil, with the economic lifeline, what was until seven months ago also the US Navy’s logistic lifeline, the Strait of Hormuz, now closed. Good job guys. Mission Accomplished. BTW: what was the fricking mission?

Operationally, in military planning parlance, we seemed to enter Phase III ‘Dominate’ in late March-April and tried to transition into “Stabilize’ Phase IV but failed. Phase V would have been civilian control and resolution. Clearly nothing is stabilized and maybe we didn’t dominate after all, just the illusion of it. Maybe the first three phases (Shape, Deter – I think we chose to skip that Phase I part- and Seize the Initiative) also had some faulty assumptions and decision gates that were perhaps politically influenced by flawed or unattainable strategic goals – to speak nothing of the politically polluted bureaucracy in the DoD. I don’t know, but here’s some professional speculation. I do not believe we ever achieved Phase III Seizing the Initiative either once the Iranians bottled up the Strait. With all of this strategic and operational turmoil, it becomes unclear what the US Navy is now doing in the Middle East except blockading Iranian commerce on the high seas (and not to near 100% effect – don’t kid yourself). That doesn’t require two CVBG’s – they are strike assets, not barrier assets. While this is all ‘above your paygrade’ war college stuff for most of the crew – they know stuff isn’t happening the way we wanted it to. Sailors are smarter than we give them credit for. That crushes Job Satisfaction. On the ship, they are going through “Groundhog Day” operations with no foreseeable end state while the toilets get backed up and the food begins to become mysteriously inedible. And the question of “why we are here” becomes much harder to answer, even for the excellent captains that are few and far between these days. The QOL negative variable is overwhelming at this point and makes satisfaction hard to pump back up.

The logistics for the Navy in this conflict is ...uh…complicated. You would have ‘thunk’ the logistics and supply guy in the planning process would have said “hey guys…over here…look?” and most certainly you would be right. But he was probably told it will be over in a few weeks – where have I read that before in military history? The prime logistic hubs of 5^th Fleet headquarters-Bahrain and the port complex around Dubai were lost to the Iranian stranglehold of the Straight in the first week. The Persian Gulf hubs we so meticulously built up for the last thirty years were the short route for resupply to get stuff to the fleet within a day or two, or easy port calls for the ships themselves for combined resupply and R&R. All quick turnarounds without extended transit times. These costly shore hubs are all inaccessible now, and damaged by Iranian strikes. No Navy ship is going through the Strait now unless prepared for close order battle. Fujairah Oman, on the coast of the North Arabian Sea is a small port but well within the not-so-‘obliterated’ Iranian missile and drone range. It is not a realistic logistic port for undefended resupply ships. Yemen?- no. The Red Sea is unattractive thanks to the Houthis. India and Pakistan? They want to stay neutral in this as oil customers of Iran. Diego Garcia is in the lower Indian Ocean and over 1000 nautical miles away but is now the main USA controlled logistic hub. That is at least a week by ship, one way. Only 2-3, maybe at most four United States Naval Ship (civilian manned non-combat USNS ships) tankers and combined replenishment ships are available to service the fleet composed of dozens of hulls on a weekly rotational basis. To mitigate the distance, civilian tankers and ships with refrigerated and fresh stores are being leased to serve as ‘lillypads” between Diego Garcia and other commercial hubs to transfer supplies and fuel to the USNS ships so they are closer to the fleet, cutting transit times. But this does not actually reduce ‘transit time’ of fresh provisions, it makes it longer because of multiple transfers before use — reducing their effective shelf life at their final Navy ship destinations. It is a long, precarious, expensive, and inefficient logistic line to keep the ships on the blockade line, and the USNS ships start to get tired themselves and need relief. During World War II, the Navy built a system of a thousand support ships and intermediate island and atoll repair waypoints to keep the Pacific Fleet forward deployed. We are way below that capability anymore.

The ships are not getting comprehensive breaks from the blockade line. They crew get the occasional “beer day” and steel beach instead of liberty call, and repairs are done in place, when able. I have to wonder if anyone in charge ever watched or read the source material for “Mr. Roberts” or “The Caine Mutiny”, two iconic works that eloquently described the effects of poor leadership and the impact of a high ‘suck factor’ on the crews of naval ships. My father was on a destroyer escort in the Atlantic during WWII with a high ‘suck factor,’ mostly due to poor leadership. The ship was constantly rescheduled to lesser duties due to a lack of trust of the captain, competent ship’s skippers being in low supply - while high demand in wartime reduced the threshold to get ‘fired’. While it kept my father safe, it lessened the crew’s contribution to the war, and the ships company stayed onboard after the war well into 1946 while everyone else went home because it became an officer training ship. Those two movies were my father’s favorite — he appreciated their ‘suck factor’.

Simply put, the Navy as a whole, the ‘big’ ship, is starting to break from overextended deployments for questionable reasons. The Big Navy now has a ‘suck factor’ that is clearly in the red and getting redder. The sunk costs of constantly making everything a crisis or creating a crisis without strategic thought or material consequence, or recovery opportunity, has caught up to us. We don’t have the resources to provide overwhelming presence for ill-defined hostilities with indeterminate timelines or vague objectives. We have already mortgaged the future material condition and ship’s morale in today’s operations far beyond acceptable tolerance — the industrial base is too weak. This is not a situation that will be solved by firing a few sacrificial captains and admirals because they couldn’t keep the crew from grumbling, the ice cream in the reefer, or the ‘heads’ flushing. Firing a few four-stars, a service secretary or two, and most importantly the Defense Secretary, however, might help. But that is also just a start.

It is clear the political and highest military leadership can’t square the crew’s sacrifice to the mission. Therefore, it is probably the mission. The four stars should have said so in January and February when the operational plans showed the flawed assumptions, the restraints and constraints of the reality of logistics and ammo consumption, and the so obvious loss of the use of the Strait and Gulf bases. While the Secretary of the Navy and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) are not in the operational loop, they knew the impact of the plan on the material condition of the fleet and crew and had to professionally know the hazard. To accept the notion of rotating more battlegroups through the accelerated and extended deployment grinder for a failed mission and not reset the fleet is professional malfeasance. I blame them. I especially blame the CNO, who chose the political route to his job and supports the politicalization of the naval admiralty. The operational effort to enforce a half-ass blockade is no longer worth the sunk cost.

Finally, the Secretary of Defense worse than useless — he is an in-place hazard. He was, and is, willing to destroy the material condition, morale, and even lives of what he leads -- he does not lead by character or example mind you — just statutory position. He acts on political gain and favor, not America’s benefit. There is no scenario that this war benefited the United States. It could have benefited only one man. And this SecDef serves one man, not a nation. The nation needs a SecDef willing to be honest to himself, and his boss — even if he forfeits the job doing it.

So, it’s the naval crews that have to ‘suck it up’, not see their families, live and fly and sail in hazardous and miserable conditions looking for a reason to be professionally content. To endure Groundhog Day daily until another ship belatedly appears on the horizon to announce, “you are relieved” and take their place within the reset ‘suck factor.’ I honor those men and women (the few Hegseth hasn’t crushed yet). I thank them for their sacrifices, even the unforced and unnecessary ones.

I am especially struck that while I was writing this, while the Lincoln, the Bush, the accompanying destroyers, the subs, the supply ships, the amphibs, the mechanics, aviators, boatswain mates, and cooks; all those looking at their never ending deployments, the Lincoln’s nine months at sea, and so forth – The Commander-in Chief in a very ham-fisted way announced a “another, very similar, ship” (note: he means the USS George Washington CVN-73 CVBG homeported Japan —which now leaves the Western Pacific unattended) was on the way to relieve Lincoln. Whether he was trolling the media or not, when asked if he thought Lincoln had been at sea too long:

“No, no, no. Not nearly long enough,”

And then turned and walked to his immaculate and luxurious MARINE ONE helicopter to transfer to Andrews and board his gold-plated, Qatari provided over $1 billion AIR FORCE ONE. Poor guy.

I guess the sacrifice one makes is all from the perspective of the observer. You decide the impact that statement had on the sailors and families of the LINCOLN CVBG.

A cruise patch is an unofficial patch derived from the crew, for the crew, that the crew wear on jackets and aircrew sew on flight jackets to establish their participation in a specific deployment. Knowing the level of irony built into cruise patches that reflect the level of ‘suck factor’ within a particular deployment, I can almost guarantee that ‘toss away’ quote, possibly with a couple of representative figures (Bart Simpson made his way to a lot of patches in my time) will inevitably make their way to unofficial sales.

Reminder: it takes 80% of registered voters to show up at the polls to effectively stymy any political party’s mechanism to influence or obstruct the vote. A true democratic effort at the polls can steer our direction where we want it to go. We owe the ‘suck factor’ of voting to those who the ‘suck factor’ of service daily to defend our right to do so.

One of the coolest experiences for a sports fan is to experience some homefield ritual that gets your team psyched up and the opposing team somewhat intimidated. None that I can think of outdoes what happens at the beginning of a Chicago Blackhawk (NHL hockey) game, especially a rivalry or playoff game. During the Star-Spangled Banner, sung by James Cornelison – a very good tenor -- a crescendo of crowd cheering starts around “Rocket’s Red Glare”, and becomes deafening when Cornelison extends his arm outward while singing “the Flag was still there”. The rest of the anthem is almost unintelligible as the crowd drowns it out and makes the 20,000 occupants of the United Center deaf for the next hour. The building shakes. It is the loudest venue in sports when the ‘Hawks are hot. This is why the Blackhawks gave Cornelison a limited NHL team-only Stanley Cup ring during their magical 2009-2015 three Cup wins – he got the crowd into the game and behind the Blackhawks. The noise usually extended into the first minutes of the game. The ritual started in the old Chicago Stadium during the 1985 playoffs when the Edmonton Oilers had already blown out the ‘Hawks in the first two games of the playoff series, and the fans spontaneously started clapping and cheering to get the team excited. The ritual cemented itself during the 1991 All-Star Game, in the middle of the Gulf War. At the time, some writers called it disrespectful of the anthem.

Then there is the video my wife sent to me last week. At my beloved Wrigley Field, the National Anthem was being played, and up in the grandstands behind home plate, a confrontation was brewing between a younger and generationally older fan. The younger fan was kicked back in his seat, on his phone or sipping a beer -- and the older fan was demanding he stand up. It led to the older fan slapping the young man across the top of the head and demanding he stand up. At some point, whether to defuse the situation to avoid further escalation, or just frustration at the scene being played out, the young man stood up for the rest of the Anthem. Knowing the cost of Cubs tickets these days, I suspect it was to avoid getting tossed out of the park for the disturbance. If you watch the video, note that everyone around them is paying attention to the incident, and the older gentleman is talking to the observers afterwards and not respecting the anthem. Hmmmm -- the very thing he is supposedly enforcing. So, what was the point, except rote obedience?

So -- what do you think? Who was right, and who was wrong? If you picked either side you are wrong, in my opinion. There is no legal reason anyone is required to stand and show respect for the National Anthem. Also, the older gentleman took it upon himself to ‘assault’ the younger man to enforce ‘patriotism’ – more on enforcing patriotism in a bit. The younger man was wrong simply for being a jackass – he could have been indifferent and stood up and drank his beer while he waited to get the song out of the way and the game started. Why do I think that is ok? Because every single American sporting event I have ever gone to, I have witnessed that exact behavior from the substantial numbers of the attendees – bored indifference, hats on or off, and beverage of choice still being drunk awaiting the ritual’s ending. Or the anthem is a rally tool for the home team. So why do we do it? If you tell me to infuse the patriotic spirit into Americans, I can tell you right now it ain’t working because of the ridiculous scale applied and has the opposite effect of diluting our conception of what patriotism is and when and how it should be manifested. And it is divisive.

America, almost uniquely amongst liberal democracies, insists on flag waving and anthem singing at all their sporting events. The other countries save that for the ‘big deal’ events like international competitions. We used to be like that. The first known instant of singing the Star-Spangled Banner was during the 1918 World Series – as a byproduct of the US being in its First World War, and only two months before it’s end. It was also a spurious thing as the military band present randomly played it during the 7^th inning stretch. Both teams stopped what they were doing, and the veterans and players on military furlough saluted. The song wasn’t even the national anthem until 1931. And while the song was played sporadically by different baseball teams in accompaniment by military bands, the NFL made it an official thing near the end of WWII – another wartime patriotic thing. It expanded and stuck in all sports. Yet there were still outliers who decided to play it only for special games or events – like the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox into the late 1960’s or early 70’s. Even the NFL did not require the players to be on the field, except title games, until 2009. Being the NFL, their true incentive was financial, not patriotic. The Defense Department had contracted and paid the NFL to stage patriotic displays, including having the players on the sidelines. We all remember Colin Kaepernick ‘taking a knee’ in 2016 – except the first time was during a preseason game when he simply sat on the bench. It was his way to protest injustice and ultimately cost him his job – NFL teams are wary of quarterbacks who sew division, even when it’s their constitutional right, and seemingly righteous in its intent. It’s bad business.

The daily digestion of Star-Spangled Banner, and flag waving has become divisive. The Red Team says they own it, and the Blue Team says it belongs to all Americans but shouldn’t be used to prove patriotism. And besides, we really don’t have to. Who’s right and who’s wrong? This time the answer is both are half-assed about it.

Here’s my take, and God have mercy on my soul for the abuse I am about to take. Patriotism is spontaneous and one size does not fit all. As a graduate of several layers of military SERE training—the training you get as a potential candidate for falling into the hands of the enemy – I can tell you immersing someone into propaganda can work only if all windows of conflicting data are shuttered. We get brain washing 101 at the course. It is corrosive to facts and truth. SERE exposed me to the process but I had years of good information exposure and readily deflected the exercise goal. SERE intended only to introduce me to the mechanics of immersive propaganda and to stimulate my defense to it but led me to read more on it. Controlled patriotism is immersive propaganda. Some Americans live it and perceive those that don’t as somehow unpatriotic, and a threat. I guess I am therefore defined as an unpatriotic 35-year veteran who is somehow a threat. I am — but not to my country.

American patriotism is not defined by one view, or set of behaviors, but by many. A liberal democratic society (psst—that is what America is designed to be) does not define patriotism in detail or demand certain responses on queue. It defines the intent and preferred end state but is willing to accept corrective and outside thoughts. The spirit of patriotism is to love your country enough to have the duty to critically evaluate its path and to call out its transgressions and do something about it. To regulate, or legislate, patriotism to defined behavior parameters and responses is to do the exact opposite of what the inspiration of patriotism is. Otherwise, it is jingoism and chauvinism. Autocracies thrive on immersive propaganda disguised as patriotism. Until someone opens a window.

Colin Kaepernick had the right to ‘take a knee’ for the cause he supported, as did those in all the sports leagues that defended him or knelt with him. It was his form of personal patriotism that highlighted injustice as he saw it. I respect his commitment and perhaps his unique acts of patriotism to make his country better. He knew it might cost him his job, and it did. At least he cares.

I respect the right of flag burning and displaying upside-down flags. But as a military man, I find both acts counter-productive, to speak nothing of poor taste, to reasons usually stipulated for the acts– much like those who throw paint at great works of art. Burning the flag tells me you have no interest in fixing whatever shame you think it represents — and are therefore lazy in your protest; and the upside-down flag, an international SOS life or death symbol, tells me you gave up and want someone to rescue you, believing your life is at stake. But the rescue was there all along --the polls. Don’t give up – be patriotic and fix the flaw.

The codification and demand of rote acts of patriotism – the singing at sports events, Pledge of Allegiance in schools, laws that define how and when the Flag will be presented, and possible penalties for non-compliance, is both undemocratic and ineffective. It desensitizes the purpose of such displays. We should look forward to the inspirational moments instead of ‘having to do it’. That only happens in special moments – real reasons to display your patriotism. The World Series during war — the All-Star Game while the US military is in harm’s way. Olympics or World Cup.

The wearing of the flag excessively in and on clothing – or at inappropriate venues or occasions —is disrespectful of what it represents to me and sometimes tells me maybe it is more for performative then substantive reasons — and thus embarrassing (I’m looking at you SecDef). But that’s your right and please exercise it as you will. Every politician in America now seems obligated to wear a US flag lapel pin. Why? Every American veteran politician tries to cram their military specialty device under that flag pin as well. Why? Symbols don’t make you successful, or truthful. In my experience, I have tended to observe that there are two types that cram their military “experience” in my face – those truly proud, and those that are bragging – experienced eyes can tell the difference. The braggers tend to not have substance on their side — just the very tenuous ability to claim they do to the uninformed. A few of the “veteran” politicians have been proven to be the latter under scrutiny.

I respect the right of any fan to sit or drink his/her beer or wear their hat during the playing of the anthem. Just don’t interfere with those who choose to participate, I’m good there. Most of the beer hounds in the stands never cared anyway and were following rote process that interrupted their conversation about which fan favorite was going to have a good game. I wonder how many would notice if all a sudden the teams took the field and the ump yelled “play ball”?

Much like the Philadelphia teams have reintroduced “God Bless America” into their fan frenzy, I expect the Blackhawks to continue with the Star-Spangled Banner crescendo to keep their advantage at the United Center for the big games. As for the rest of the sports world, I would just be happier if we saved the performative chest pounding for the international events and big games and be patriotic when it counts. I am not motivated by the faceless announcer who says, “please rise and remove your hats for the National Anthem.” Note: he says “please” not “you must”.

“Play Ball” and pass the beer and hot dog down the aisle guys. Where’s my “W” flag ‘cause the ‘Cubs are gonna win today’.

While preparing for the next iteration of my “Political Discourse” course at OLLI-Furman University, I have been reading a bit more lately since this time around the course bumps up into the 2026 Midterms. So of course, I have been doing research on things that at first glance may not have anything to do with the decisions people will make on election day. But they do; here are some of those random thoughts.

The migrant crisis in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta is receding with clear indicators it may have been manufactured by the Moroccan government to show their displeasure with Spain’s government. An estimated 50-60,000 mostly young men swam around the land border barrier between Morrocco and the Spanish enclave Ceuta in the span of a few days. Spain has two city-enclaves on coastal Morocco, the other being Melilla. Both are considered part of the European Union and its immigration rules. Perhaps only a few thousand refugees now remain to be sorted. The Spanish Supreme Court had previously ruled that Moroccan refugees in Ceuta cannot be arbitrarily returned without due process, making forceable removal by the Spanish authority mute. The influx overwhelmed humanitarian services, making mass exodus back to Morocco inevitable. Dozens died in the process: drowned, trampled, etc. It is undeniable that Moroccans want to leave their country for better conditions in Europe, so this problem will not go away. But it became clear that Ceuta is not that easy escape-hatch the Moroccan propagandist told their citizens it was.

Spain and Morocco have been at each other for years over colonial issues such as Ceuta, Melilla, and the Canary Islands – all part of the then Spanish Morocco where Francisco Franco began the coup of 1936. 21^st century problems include Spain’s stance on the Western Sahara conflict/insurrection, which has annoyed Morocco. The Moroccan government orchestrated a similar, but smaller, refugee crisis just after the COVID pandemic and has threatened to “open borders” more than once. This was simply politics played with real lives, and lives were lost in the process.

The American right has made hay of this incident, ignoring the real issue this was simply politics between nation-states. They are using the incident to insist on militarization of the Mexican border requiring increased Border Patrol, National Guard, and even regular Active-Duty military holding the line on the Rio Grande. Meanwhile, a federal police force (ICE) has been formed resembling an internal political militia — masked, no less — that has extra judiciary tendencies resulting the deaths of those they hunt, as well as US citizens. I think the ICE effort and fortification of our borders against friendly countries is nonsense, but that’s for voters to decide. I just hope you are informed and well-read on immigration and not just parroting your news pundit of choice or using the Ceuta incident as proof – neither are. Read the history of our immigration policy. Read about ‘Operation Wetback’, the 1950’s militarization of immigration enforcement that most mirrors what the effort is today. Trust the history on the subject, not the soundbites. Immigration policy can be offered without cruelty.

Speaking of Morocco, their upset win over The Netherlands in the 2026 World Cup put a dent in my vacation plan. I was in Paris the night they upset the Netherlands, and the Moroccan diaspora took to streets to celebrate and effectively blocked the Champs-Élysées and Place Charles de Gaulle where the Arc de Triomphe sits. I was scheduled to be drinking champagne on top of the Arc that night, but we couldn’t get to it. Oh well. But I was once again reminded how world football/soccer fandom overwhelms anything American sports fandom can bring. Any American sports fans drink Boston put of beer lately like the Scots did? The NFL’s profit gouging in sport pales in comparison with what FIFA does: $3.5B/year and almost $13B in this year’s World Cup revenues, most of which goes back to FIFA. Most of the NFL’s annual revenue of ~ $23B is returned to the teams -- not so much with FIFA.

I bring this up because the president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino just tried a strange thing …well maybe not so strange given FIFA’s well-earned reputation to monetize everything, including accepting plain view bribes to award World Cup locations. Without consulting anyone, including the governing FIFA body or most key staff, he announced FIFA – legally a Swiss non-profit-- was selling (privatizing) it’s World Cup operations to a venture capital firm led by…wait for it…the Kushner family. In the process, we are expected to blithely ignore that the US President recently pushed preferential treatment for the USA National Team, and perhaps ignore the president also suggested that Infantino should be the next UN Secretary General – you know, the guy that created and awarded him the first and only FIFA Peace Prize. Infantino insists it was coincidental business arrangements that this sweetheart deal is being worked out with DJT’s in-laws. Yeah…right.

Well, the deal crashed. Most of FIFA’s lucrative football federations (Europe, Americas, Asia) said “yeah…no” and announced boycotts of any future World Cup operations under the agreement. The COO and CFO of FIFA also threatened to walk out if the deal went forward – also giving insight on the supposed “transparency” of the agreement and where the money will go. Friday night Infantino folded after “carefully listening to all the views.” Rumor is he is in need of a resume update.

This FIFA scam pales in comparison of the current ‘in your face’ corruption in American politics. But Infantino’s attempt at self-dealing should remind USA voters that they still have avenues of redress when executive corruption and kleptocracy gets so brutally obvious that even those within the peripherals of said corruption, fighting over the scraps –I’m looking at you Congress – begin to squirm. I’m thinking about the Jan 6 slush fund here, only one item on the endless list we are dealing with. Am I the only one that thinks paying off people that tried to overthrow the government, by the government, is generally a bad idea? If Congress continues to beg for the scraps from executive corruption, then the voters should go find those who will do more than squirm. Just say “yeah…no”. People will simply stop believing the lies of benevolence when political pockets get lined — but only when they finally see it.

Speaking of when the people stop believing the lies, a couple of things this week coalesced into me wondering when will we collectively stop believing the lies? Autocracy thrives on propaganda, and propaganda thrives if the populace can’t, or won’t, see the truth. First Fascist Italy, and then Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan all lost support for their wars and authority to govern as the truth of the consequential destruction became so obvious that the lies no longer had power. The Soviet Union folded because ‘glasnost’ let the light in for everyone to see hypocrisy, corruption, and public poverty. The levers of power become vulnerable once the agreement between those who govern and the governed broke. Has America reached this point? I think so. Unfortunately, many Americans still believe the propaganda.

An interesting essay I saw this week discussed why Nordic citizens accept such high taxation burdens from their social democratic governments. In a nutshell, the Nordics accept their governments will do the right thing with their money and provide useful services. The bond between citizen and government has not been broken. Nordic democratic socialism, possibly in the political form of the Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) is not readily transferrable to American society not because we won’t accept the high taxes, or because we are against free education and health – we aren’t as polls (see links) show time after time. Higher taxation for public services is not transferrable because we DO NOT trust our government to do the right thing with our money. The bond of trust between the US government and the public is lost in the 21^st Century. No institution in American government is trusted at this point. It is because the propaganda and the lies have become so outlandishly contradicted by observable reality and so transparently a load of BS, we begin to understand the government no longer sees its core mission as the benevolent improvement or even sustainability of its citizen’s fate. This happens when we watch our public figures grossly enrich themselves while our taxation does not move the needle for health, education, roads, and prosperity. Why would anyone ‘contribute’ to this contradiction? Yet internal schisms bordering on civil conflict over doctrinal divides exists, while the real danger is finding a way to restock government positions with trustworthy representatives and career professional bureaucrats. To think you can run a country the size of the United States without a competent bureaucracy is fantasy — to speak nothing of its key role as guardians against corruption.

This might explain the increasing interest in DSA within the Democratic Party. The disenfranchised and disillusioned see solutions in specific DSA offerings that MAGA and the traditional Democrat party doesn’t. And besides, these are not the same old – and I emphasize old – politicians that have promised the moon to get reelected and yet have delivered…what? The parties have not done anything to regain trust while perpetuating the “what’s good for me…is good for me – to hell with you” approach to governance in this century. MAGA has mastered the format -- the current Administration clearly lives the lie. The DSA overall platform is outlandishly non-executable and possibly undemocratic, but it has significant examples of concrete answers to problems American politicians ignore because real solutions are incompatible with their preferred ideology that gave them power. The established ‘ideologues’ believe in themselves first, not us. They ask everything from us… and I ask you what has been returned in investment for you? That bargain seems to be disappearing with the Baby Boomers who inherited it from the Greatest Generation and then did a piss poor job of preserving it. That’s on us.

When was the last time you voted for someone, you knew you could trust but didn’t offer everything you wanted. When was the last time you voted for someone that promised you everything, but in your deepest soul, knew it was undeliverable, and they were probably in it for themselves. For the last 25-50 years, for the majority of us, the answer has been depressingly, yet clearly, the latter self-servers who have dominated electoral dynamics. That’s on us.

There are men and women whose chosen professions in governance that I truly trust. I know some personally, and I know some by deeds. As expected, about half of these individuals have ideals of policy I do not agree with. Yet if any of these individuals have their name on a ballot in front of me, or it was in my power to appoint, I would eagerly vote or cheer for their advancement. Because I trust they will do the right thing with my money and future, even if I don’t agree with how; even if that tax contribution does not directly benefit me. I will trust the investment. Who can honestly say that is their electoral motivation today? If you want the bond of trust to return, to see institutions begin to regain credibility, I suggest men and women of ethics be asked to serve again, not idealogues.

I recently added The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius back onto my reading list. It’s been decades since I read it. The message in stoicism of practical ethics and personal responsibility is even more important today as we face governance without the same, to speak nothing of zero investment in the truth. It is time to reacquaint ourselves with those ancient lessons and values if we are to remain a democracy.

Meanwhile…remember…80% at the polls will affect change. Neither established party can overcome 80% of the qualified voters making their choice.

The House passed the 2027 Defense Department Appropriations last week. It was essentially a party line vote 216-212, with a small handful of both sides crossing the divide. Normally, this is the last bastion of bipartisanship, but this time the Administration messed with the traditional non-partisan ‘balance’ they could all vote for. It gave Defense a record $1.15T, still not the $1.5T asked for by the Administration. But that still is not a nothing burger number, rising from $997B last year, and $590B in 2015 (actual spend $725B-see graph). To understand the purchasing scale, the 2015 budget had the same power as $769B in 2024 dollars.

In either case, the annual discretionary budget balance of a broadly and politically acceptable 50-50 balance for defense and non-defense is now askew and tilted towards the Five-Sided Puzzle Palace. The requested non-defense budget is a meager $660B, down 10% from the approved 2026 budget. It’s even worse if you consider the monies the Administration has refused to spend, withheld or got DOGEd. The future impact will be more than a 10% cut as inflation is still rising due to –wait for it – the Iran War. All this has to get through the evenly divided Senate which has super-majority rules (60) to pass budgets. Get the popcorn out for some serious theatre for the next 6-10 months. Wait, you say the law says they must pass a budget by September 30^th? LMAO. You expect American politicians to make hard choices three months before an election? ‘Earth to Mars…”

BTW: the non-Defense discretionary side is just all that optional stuff that supports quality of life: education, health, infrastructure, science, environment, etc. – nothing important.

Congress authorized about $1.04T on defense in 2026, including the supplemental $156B already received in the Big <cough> Beautiful Bill. This is about 3.4% of expected GDP – and I wouldn’t do too much futures betting on that “expected GDP” this time around giving inflation and tariffs. Expect the ratio to rise. This also equates to $2,885 for each American (per capita). No wonder Americans can’t afford long vacations; it goes to the Five-Sided Puzzle Palace. (militaryspending.org)

If you have been avoiding the news lately like I was a few weeks ago, spending those projected defense dollars on my vacation in France, you will have noticed the Defense Secretary did his least favorite thing – other than congratulating women in the military for their contributions – by heading up the Hill with hat in hand for another $67B because the Iran War is not the bargain bin at Walmart that they thought it would be. The hearings haven’t gone well for Hegseth, but Congress also has a least favorite thing – denying the Defense Department money in an election year.

So here I sit a strong supporter of the organization I loved and worked in for 35 years, wondering if this time it is really over the top “throwing good money after bad”. Hegseth has threatened readiness and serviceman support (garrison, services, etc) funding will be affected – not sure how that works because Defense cannot legally transfer appropriated money for one thing (barracks) into another fund (weapons) with congressional blessing, but that hasn’t stopped them before. The Department has never passed the 2018 congressionally mandatory audit of its funds. (Federal News Network)

The Iran War has depleted certain weapons stockpiles, most of which take months and years to replenish – so the supplemental doesn’t help much for immediate war ammunition needs. But the energy and logistics costs of the war (jet fuel, ship fuel, people fuel, contracts, etc.) are a significant budget crunch. War raises personnel costs as well because all sorts of pay supplements (combat pay, more sea pay, TDY per diem costs) kick in when you send thousands of aircraft, ships, and personnel away from ‘home plate’ for unplanned extended periods of warfare. There are significant long term people costs, both hidden and obvious. As the wounded stack up, the health and veteran costs rise as well (more on that below). The VA budget has more than quadrupled since 2000. (Statista)

The classic American saying “support our troops” is at play here. And classically, it is being misrepresented politically for other purposes. The extra funding is needed to support a war – or is it wars?-- never approved by Congress and clearly unpopular to the American public. But if our representatives say, ‘no more’, who gets punished? The default position is always giving our guys and gals what they need (psst: Hegseth, check the casualty lists for genders…yes plural). Or at least we think that is what happens. It really doesn’t

That’s the rub. There is always enough money to give the men and women of the military what they need. The extra money is for what the Administration singularly, without Congress, wants to do with those men and women, where they want to put them. If Congress wanted this, they would say so and pay for it. If there was no Iran War, the money is not required, and all is good – to speak nothing of gas prices and inflation. This is one of the few times I lean towards ‘no’, do not give in to the supplemental, you are rewarding extremely bad behavior if you do. Yes, I am using child psychology here because well, it fits. This is a schoolyard fight that a bully started with his trusty sidekick (Israel) and now he wants to be rewarded by adulation and everyone else’s lunch money (yes, the SNAP program and school lunches have been cut as well, deemed less important than Defense).

I am making the very dangerous assumption here that loss of funding for the war will modify behavior. I am also making the ridiculous assumption Congress will do what’s right for the American people since the word “do” is not in this Congress’ vocabulary. In either case just giving more money to Hegseth will not produce better results, just the same miserable results, but this time officially on testosterone. Yeah, no, don’t do that.

Back to the hidden and not so hidden costs on personnel in this war. Somehow the clown show at DoD still hasn’t figured out the more you hide, the worst it looks. First, they tried to hide the initial casualty count from the new rounds of tit-for-tat by not publishing the recent surge in wounded from Iranian counterstrikes (dozens to a three-digit casualty count – who knows -- I talk of that here). DoD PAO first claimed they were only legally required to report KIA’s, not WIA’s. Then they started fudging the killed-in-action count by first claiming the early-in-war KC-135 midair in Saudi didn’t count (it did, actions in time of war) and then wildly claimed the last 4 KIA shouldn’t be added to the total of Iran War deaths because they came AFTER the fake Truce Memorandum that DJT never honored, thus ‘ending’ Operation Epic Fury. To be clear, that Memorandum only satisfied the Administration’s worries about the War Powers Act deadline, it never stopped the fighting. Somehow, the Administration is claiming we are in another war with Iran —so what’s that called? When challenged on the statistics, the DoD spokesman first asserted the public outrage was false media hype; but anyways, it was just an accounting adjustment, no big deal. Tell that to the families you piece of….

In either case, it was shameless and dishonorable to play politics with the wounded and dead. And to also belittle their sacrifice by somehow comparing casualty counts and length of hostilities in previous wars and saying this isn’t as bad is high-end despicable. I won’t even go into the assertion all the dead “supported” the war and somehow DJT was told that, and they would want him to tell us. Just in case Hegseth has forgotten, and DJT never knew, we go where we are told to go, fight where and who we are told to fight. Because traditionally, we trust our uniformed and political leadership to have good reasons. Is that trust still there?

Deaths per Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS); 10AM, July 24

Wounded In action per Defense Casualty Analysis System (DCAS); 10AM July 24

As of 10AM, July 24^th, the DoD still has not included the last 4 KIA to their “Epic Fury” casualty count or honor roll (dead by name). They also ‘only’ list 420 WIA, most estimates being much higher. The demographic breakout includes 3 women (+2 in last two weeks not counted in stats) KIA and another 49 women WIA officially counted. I didn’t check their testosterone level, but I am certainly proud of them, as I am every serving member of our Armed Forces.

I spent a year in Afghanistan both pessimistic and optimistic. I was pessimistic we were going to actually ‘fix’ the place – western ways were fundamentally unacceptable to that culture - square peg, round hole. But I was optimistic some good would come out of the investment in blood and money. I was wrong. I did the best I could. It wasn’t enough and I look at the waste, and it hurts. It changed me. Let’s not do this again. Cut Hegseth’s credit card up and tell this Administration to make better choices, starting with Iran. And, oh by the way, don’t invade Cuba.

A military historian’s postscript: some years back, it was discovered that the Korean War’s traditional KIA/killed in theatre count of over 54,000 dead initially included all global deaths in the US military during the conflict. The actual in-theatre death count was over 36,000, with over 33,000 due to ‘hostile causes’, including over 4800 of missing souls still to be recovered. We still honor the other 18,000 who served and died for their country. (DCAS statistics)

My point: historians will sort out the statistics in due time. Meanwhile, ‘partitioning’ the names of brave Americans who gave the ultimate price, or ignoring the others who donated pieces of their bodies or minds will also weigh heavily in historical analysis. History will not judge these actions well. And, it’s just plain wrong.

I have now caught up to current events after returning from vacation and being unplugged. I can’t possibly cover or prioritize everything I saw that topped this week’s ‘ridiculous meter’. So, I guess I will do a version of Jeopardy to highlight a few.

Me - Alex, I’ll take “Military Aviation” for $800.

Alex - “skipping to $800, no warmup?”

Me — “I’m feeling edgy today”

Alex – “ok, the answer is “The Blue Angels”

Me – “What is the most recent political micromanagement in military aviation safety that involved a flyby at Pensacola Beach that will lead to disaster, and the unit commanders know how to fix it without political senseless BS”

Alex – “A little long winded…but the judges accept it. Our written answer is “what is the military flyby the press reported at Pensacola Beach last week?”

I am sure everyone has seen the Navy Blue Angel flyby at ‘Pcola Beach’ last week. Also, the upper echelon political interference that was broadcast on social media that said to the effect “no penalty, carry on warriors.” This was the same response to the two Army Apache helicopter incidents that occurred earlier. Are these all the same….yeah, no. The answer, however, they provided to all three were equally bad.

The Apache pilots in both cases were ‘flathatting.” This is the term used when pilots (or naval aviators which are much better pilots) deliberately or provocatively abandon their flight discipline and approved flight envelopes to “look cool.” It is done variously in isolated locations or public. Some get caught, some don’t. The worst place to do it is around populated areas…not because someone will catch and report you…but because you will kill innocents while you try to kill yourself showing off. Not assumption…fact. We’ve done it many times already. Hence the rules caked in blood.

Military aviation is a dangerous profession, and we depend on our flight discipline to get through it. A willingness to deviate from that discipline is a flashing red light that any aviator willing to do this to ‘look cool’ is not to be trusted, even in combat. That is why we all considered our wings to have ‘explosive bolts’ on them. Deviate from that discipline, and those wings ‘just blew’ off your chest, to steal a Right Stuff line.

As for the Blue Angel incident – it has been completely mischaracterized. It was not flathatting. To keep it simple, the Angels were performing an airshow practice rendezvous that got away from the wingman, and he overshot too wide and too low and found himself belly up over the crowded beach -- bad. A good 15-minute professional discussion on the incident is here. They do not go “feet dry” over crowds like that. The Blue Angels are better than that, and the Naval Aviator in question is, as well. Theirs is the ultimate flight regimen – as is the USAF Thunderbirds – where ultimate trust in flight discipline is demonstrated every second. The selection criteria for assignment and training can best be understood in the Blue Angel documentary found on Prime. To see a typical pre-flight brief go here. (3mins, 30secs). It makes my point. Watch the professionalism even in this almost comedic rehearsal.

The Commander of the Blue Angels (Angle ‘Boss’ and flight lead) has already publicly stated the maneuver was dangerous and outside of accepted parameters, and it is being heavily debriefed. While the political hacks said nothing will occur to the aviator involved, the Blues handle things differently. They flew their next practice one aircraft short. At the time of this writing, I do not know if they flew the actual show an aircraft short. I expect they will until such time they can be confident flying safely with all six aircraft 18” between wingtips. They live or die on discipline and trust.

Me – “Alex, I’ll take “Misogyny” for $800”

Alex – “In the late 20^th Century, this organization broke from its male only culture and opened all career paths to women, without prejudice or bias.”

Me – “What is the once proud Department of Defense that has now descended down the path of Bro Culture disguised as Warrior Ethos under an incompetent Secretary that will destroy the organizational culture that took a century to build?”

Alex- “Again, a little long winded, but you had Department of Defense in there somewhere so we will take it.”

Not one qualified female Naval Officer made the final Flag (admiral) promotion lists this year. In fact, there were many on the list that the promotion boards forwarded to the SecDef desk. It is widely known that multiple females (and men of color) were removed by Hegseth after their parent military service boards weighed their qualifications as general/flag officers. The removal by the Secretary of DEFENSE (note: I refuse to use the other term until legalized) is rare and a complete and inappropriate interference in selection boards. I am particularly pissed about one Rear Admiral (she received her first star pre-Hegseth) who was removed from the list. Probably one of the finest officers I have served with or known. In thirty-five years of exposure to naval officers, that’s saying a lot. To put it in terms that Hegseth and his bros can understand: they couldn’t hold her jock when it comes to leadership and military skills; something Hegseth clearly lacks and the Army confirmed when in his own words they “spit him out.” The rest of the military calls it getting shitcanned.

The officer in question didn’t just break glass ceilings, she crashed through them. She was the first female to command an aircraft carrier, and probably the last until we can get rid of the bros. There are many like her now leaving the service or about to because of this hostile environment. Don’t kid yourself bros – these are excellent professionals, better than you ever were. And you have weakened the force.

BTW: her Naval Aviator callsign was “B12” — do the math. But I find it sadly ironic and shameful that someone who had a callsign reflecting the essentials to life is having her career stomped on by someone who was once fired for leadership failures and now wants to dangerously ‘steroid’ the force because he has insecurities about being a man and is now losing a war. This is what we have become.

Me – “Alex, I’ll take “Military History” for $800”

Alex – “I just need a simple, short answer, ok? Can you do it? Here it is:”

“Obliterated”

Me – “What happened to the reputation and strength of America after starting an unnecessary war against Iran?”

Alex – “Exactly…word for word. You win”

All week, as the strikes and counter strikes between the US and Iran escalated, I have been getting information that military medevacs flights are shuttling between the Middle East and Ramstein (Landstuhl Hospital) and DC (Walter Reed or Bethesda), the two traditional waypoints for casualties. Yet, none were being reported; we are hiding the casualties. But from whom? Iran knowns perfectly well how they are doing in counterstrikes, so it can’t be holding back intelligence from the enemy. But yesterday, sadly, the DoD finally acknowledge 2 KIA (killed), 1 MIA (missing), and multiple WIA (wounded) in the latest round of counterstrikes. These figures do not include the many WIA from the previous medevacs I mentioned, so they are still fudging the numbers. None of this includes the casualty count in Iran, military and civilian, including the school inadvertently struck in the first days of the war. The bodies, limbs, minds, and souls are all piling up.

The KIA’s will probably galvanize opposition in America again. We traditionally have low tolerance for battle deaths that don’t make sense — see Vietnam. It also reminds us you don’t win wars from the air, and the enemy always has a way to change the strategic calculations if it is willing to absorb battle punishment (again, Vietnam anyone? Ukraine turning the tide on Russia).

It seems the only thing the US is trying to salvage from this now is some sort of situation that reopens the Hormuz Strait. Let’s remember there was absolutely nothing wrong with Strait commerce until Feb. 28. Further escalation is dangerous. Trying to salvage a false ‘victory’ from this morass will only get more Americans and innocents killed. For what? Simply for the sustainment of the ego of an aged and degraded political leader who thought the US military could provide another easy victory to be etched on a planned victory arch built next to the revered garden of memory for real heroes and leaders that gave everything for us, not for themselves.

Me: Alex, I don’t like this game’s categories, the answers suck. Can we try “Sports” — as long as it doesn’t include FIFA — or “Famous Unicorns” instead?

I have just returned from what is becoming an annual thing to vacation overseas to compensate for the routine travel I enjoyed in my military career. This year was France; it was hot, but it was fun. Thoroughly enjoyed Paris – something I wasn’t sure I would say since I had been there before on short ‘business trips’ and didn’t find it as friendly as this trip. Really enjoyed the Bordeaux Region, somewhere I have never been. What I enjoyed most was the two weeks of self-disciplined removal from the American political dysfunction. I would look at the occasional headlines but chose to save in-depth digestion until I get back. During my return from France and at the airport, I was told Senator Lindsey Graham (SC-R) had died. I filed the comment but thought I heard it was Mitch McConnell (KY-R), who I vaguely knew was in hospital for some undisclosed situation and showing his age. Didn’t realize until the next airport it was Graham, and then I saw the ‘proof-of-life’ photo of McConnell. Really? Vacation over. Of course, I came home to find ICE was still shooting people in the streets, and the war with Iran was never really over, was it? Not much really changed.

France showed its political dysfunction while I was there. Marien Le Pen, head of the semi-fascist National Rally (NR) Party, and perennial presidential candidate, was nervously awaiting her appeal decision for her 2025 conviction for using European Parliament funds to ghost-job multiple NR operatives and fund her party’s activity. One of twenty-one NR defendants found guilty, she was originally sentenced to four years prison (two years suspended with house arrest), a fine, and banishment from running for office for five years, effectively taking her out of the next presidential election. French law allows suspension of sentence until appeals are exhausted. The Paris Court of Appeals on July 7^th adjusted the sentence to one year house arrest with a monitored ankle bracelet, restitution (US $4m), and early release from the electoral ban. She immediately announced her intention to run again in 2027 and appeal to the Cour de Cassation (aka Supreme Court) to have the ankle bracelet removed – which requires magistrate approval for travel. She said it was prejudicial for her presidential campaign to be seen as a criminal while running for office – something Americans can relate to. Like the 2022 election, le Pen is expected to do well in the first round of elections that determines the two finalists but will struggle against the consensus candidate of the mainstream parties in the final round. Emmanuel Macron is term limited and not eligible for the ballot.

Meanwhile, I met a lovely man in a small village outside Bordeaux. A naturalized Frenchman from South Africa, this elder winemaker showed us around his operations in Blaye within various buildings situated down a side street behind the main wine shop. He took us into his wife’s working artist loft, her attached art gallery, and I saw part of his collection of old cars in his garage below the apartment. I found this gentleman’s outlook on life and politics refreshing. His general outlook on life was to relax, enjoy the wine, and be part of your community, and especially give back when you see the need. To do so tends to correct the ills of the world. Something he insinuated to me that politicians as a group are incapable of as their first priority is the quest for personal and collective power. I am not quite as cynical about the political profession as he is –yet, but I certainly see his point in today’s American political spectrum, as well as le Pen’s situation. I liked him instantly. He reminded me of my brother-in-law who I have always honored and respected for those same qualities of humanity and kindness. That’s you George.

My new French friend is right about being part of the community, and to give back. He is also right to distrust political winds and first observe a politician’s actions before backing one. It is helpful to refresh the political core every so often and find men and women willing to take time out to do something for their community vice ask more from their citizens without reason. Political office should not be a state supported career, but a calling. Simply put — power corrupts, especially if you have been around it too long.

Which brings me back to the end of my trip – my confusion between Graham and McConnell. In my mind, it didn’t matter much which had sadly died as it affected me identically. They were both career politicians, long-term senators, who had long ago forgotten what their civic purpose in Washington was. They both chased party power over community and country. Their ability to choose right or wrong was lost in party affiliation. I would have liked to see both leave office with honor and not die with their ethics compromised. Pssst: the Dems have the same affliction, don’t kid yourself.

We have the oldest and arguably the most ineffective Congress (119^th) ever – Senate (median age 65) -- House (58). They may only be “outdone” in their buffoonery by the sitting Congress before them (118^th) –which was slightly older if that’s even possible. Lindsey Graham’s sister – nepotism possibly being her lone qualification – was sworn in yesterday to replace her brother by the 92-year-old President pro tempore of the United States Senate. Chuck Grassley’s been in the Senate 45 years, Congress 51, and chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee – you know, the group that screen and decides who are life tenured judges will be. Think he’s on top of things?

Note: we can fix all of that in November. 80% of the electorate voting at the polls can affect change without interference from any political party.

Happy belated Birthday to America (at least the United States part). Too bad the government chose to throw a birthday bash for only the ‘right’ citizens. Probably why I skipped town to drink wine in Bordeaux. They at least made me feel welcome.

Viva la France – my case of wine is being shipped as we speak.

I will be ‘out of pocket’ the next few weeks – military speak for being on the road or on vacation -- so this will be my last missive until mid-July. I have some things on my mind, and some worth mentioning before I go NORDO – again, aviator speak for no communications available, and I will be squawking ‘7600’ per FAA rules. Didn’t think you were going to get military and aviator jargon lessons today, huh?

Speaking of someone who should be squawking ‘7600’ because everything that comes out of his mouth is unintelligible: I see SecDef sent another great American out the door before his time. Army General Christopher Donahue, Commander, Army Europe, also known as the last American out of Kabul, is retiring in July (early). Presumably he couldn’t take the incompetence of his boss any longer. I have no inside information other than some Army rumor strings I get added on to occasionally, but it seems he is being forced out because he spoke truth to power. He’s white and male, so that’s not the usual problem for Pete’s White Christian Male master race matrix. Everyone assumed, all things normal, Donahue was headed for Army Chief of Staff, or even Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. That is, all things normal. When was that last time that was ‘ops normal’ in the Pentagon? It seems Hegseth really has it in for anyone of credibility in the Army – or any service. He once wrote <they> “spit me out.” Hegseth continues to decimate the cream of the crop in our uniformed leadership while he fails miserably in his own role, just as he did when the Army refused to let him even command a company. We might want to remember both Occam’s Razor and the psychiatry behind deflection personality. If in Hegseth’s mind, everyone around him is wrong and incompetent, perhaps it is Hegseth that is the problem -- deflection. And if that is the simplest answer to fixing the complexity of the chaos Hegseth has created, then Occam’s Razor tells me this can all be fixed by removing the center of the instability and incompetence. But for DJT to do that, he would have to acknowledge the same science, and psychiatric solutions can apply also to 1600 Pennsylvania. That’s not going to happen. So, our country will be deprived of the services of another Great American, like the men and women who also were inexplicably relieved before their time in the last 18 months.

I have been thinking at lot about the 250^th birthday, and what could have been if this country wasn’t so engaged in political anarchy and the current chief executive wasn’t so selfish and an outright narcissist. He is incapable of celebrating for all of us and only offers a comical image of himself for adulation. He, in my humble opinion, personifies WHY the Declaration of Independence was written in the first place. I fondly remember the 200^th, the Bicentennial. It was all about America and about getting ourselves out of the post-Vietnam funk. The Freedom Train. The Bicentennial parade of Tall Ships in New York Harbor. The exhibitions from various countries to honor us. The whole world helped us celebrate. Who’s partying with us now except World Cup fans? No one wants to be associated with our government right now. And besides, they weren’t invited.

Thoughtful and well written essays on our birthday and history are out there to enjoy and ponder. Besides the usual American publications, read elsewhere. Le Monde (France) has been publishing a wonderful series of 13 essays on America and our Founding Fathers. Here is a link to the Jefferson and Adams essay and the voice of America’s original sin, Frederick Douglass. Pay the approximately $6/ month subscription (based on Euros and the US$ is not doing so well) to read the essays. They are worth it.

When I read, and the author presents facts to prove their point, I tend to laterally think and check their sources or look for my own sources. The American Presidency Project —US Santa Barbara — caught my eye this week because liberal historian Heather Cox Richardson (HCR) was commenting on the New York City Democratic Socialist of America (DSA) candidates for Congress standing in the Democratic Party primaries did very well. The over-the-top outrage of Republicans over the alleged Communism of the DSA (they are not, they are typical European style Democrat Socialists) was interesting. Folks, this is just NYC and they were riding the tail of their DSA mayor who is popular right now. The basics of democratic-socialism sells well in urban areas because the haves and have-nots are on top of each other, and the social stratification dominates social structure. Back to the American Presidency Project: a wealth of history, as is the Library of Congress, and any of the Presidential Libraries (so far). Fun to just dive in and see what you find.

HCR compared the things the NYC DSA stood for in relation to labor rights, and saw they were comparable to the 1952 Republican Platform, and the 1956 Republicans also accepted immigration and governmental ethics. It was eye opening. America, the ‘center’ changes a lot, and maybe we should keep this in mind before we lose our collective cool. Currently, in mainstream political umbrellas, the DSA is the left wing of the Democratic Party. MAGA and White Christian Nationalism is the right wing of the Republican Party, or perhaps their own party now with legacy Republicans looking for a new home. Neither extreme has America’s vision in their back pocket. As I consider moral and ethical governance as important, if not more, to the individual issues that divide us, my sympathy is currently with those out of power as the ‘in politicians’ are acceptive of corruption, autocracy, and are completely lacking in collective ethical behavior.

We’ve made it through 250 years. John Adams, the skeptic, would be surprised:

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide.

We certainly have available the instruments of our political death if we choose.

Thomas Jefferson was always optimistic about democracy:

The spirit of our citizens… rising with a strength and majesty which show the loveliness of freedom, will make this government in practice what it is in principle, a model for the protection of man in a state of freedom and order”

I’m in the middle, as always. I am cautiously optimistic that we will wake up and force change. If we choose to continue to ignore the corruption of power and failure of Congress to even try to counter executive ambition with the People’s ambition — we will fail and democracy is dead. If, however, we mobilize, put 80% of the US voters in the ballot booth come November, we will have firmly told our government what the People want, whatever that will be. We will be a democracy again, and there will be no doubt of the preferred way forward. I am willing to accept the preference of 50.1% of the 80% that voted as the way forward. Are you?

Cambridge online dictionary:

bigot (ˈbɪɡ.ət) a person who has strong, unreasonable beliefs and who does not like other people who have different beliefs or a different way of life:

a religious bigot

He was known to be a loud-mouthed, opinionated bigot.

More on who’s the poster child and “insert picture here”, later.

Whenever I deployed, first on submarines, and then later on aircraft carriers, it was inevitable that the ‘crud’ would make the rounds. On submarines, buttoned up tight, recircling air, no personal space, sharing a bunk, someone would inevitably bring a bug to share. On carriers, it was a more complex scenario and a much larger ship. The airwing came from different naval air stations across the States, so different flavored bugs came onboard that defied the ship’s company herd immunity. On the ‘boats’ (subs), it took a couple of days for some of the crew to get over it, but everyone was fine afterwards. On the carriers (still called the ‘boat’ by aviators to the chagrin of the surface warfare officers), it took longer for the different strains of bugs to work their way through the more then 5000 on board. Inevitably it resolved itself in about two weeks which was about the time it took to cross the Atlantic or Pacific.

Imagine the medical crisis if everyone had not been inoculated with annual flu or other preventive inoculations. Imagine the significant breakdown of military readiness of any unit overcome with transmittable disease. You don’t have to. It’s real. The aircraft carrier USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN-71), known as TR, was overcome with COVID in 2019. It infected at least 27% of the crew, killed 1, put 23 in the hospital with four in intensive care, and put an additional 600 of the crew off the duty list for over a week. The ship was forced to break mission and head to Guam to deal with the outbreak. Some 750 sailors were quarantined on the base. This result occurred in a demographic composed of the physically fit, young and healthy. The global Spanish Flu outbreak started in Fort Riley, Kansas in 1918. The infected troops later travelled to the warzone in Europe where the bug mutated. As a sidenote, the Navy relieved the TR Commanding Officer for perceived leadership failure in the crisis. Yet a later study by the Air Command and Staff College found blame everywhere else, especially at the senior civilian leadership level in the political appointees. The TR CO? Well, the study lauded him for his values and actions under pressure as a model of what leadership is all about. Go figure.

This WILL happen again, as the Secretary of Defense has somehow decided in his warrior ethos mind that mandatory inoculations are not for ‘real’ warriors, and discontinued mandatory annual flu vaccinations last April. He called the policy “absurd” and “overreaching”. Everyone else, from medical professionals to politicians, called his decision at least “irresponsible”, and they were being polite. I think it is the most stupid f… ing decision I have ever seen, and dangerous.

Oh wait…it did happen again. Last week, at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas. Over 160 recruits are now infected and quarantined. One of these recruits died but the cause of death has not been publicly released nor likely to be unless the next of kin releases it. USAF data shows only about 40% of recruits opt for the flu shot – duh, let me think… ‘bulletproof’ young adults deciding if they need some ‘stinkin shot’—yeah, that makes sense. The Lackland recruit command has now ordered everyone there to get the shots to mitigate the outbreak. Will the officers at Lackland now be fired for defying Hegseth’s decree? Even money for the bros hooked on the ‘futures’ craze.

Back to my experiences with medical preparedness and deployments.

Not everyone got sick when we deployed, but many did, and it was a minor annoyance– walking around coughing, sneezing, and headaches: flu like systems. What saved the ship real operational difficulties and constant medical crisis was EVERYONE was inoculated – it was mandatory. Everyone was medically and preemptively prepared to avoid real sickness and the outbreaks of ‘crud’ therefore keeping it minor, and manageable. It became a medical rite of passage to work through the ‘crud’ as you transited the ‘pond’ to get on station. No one went ‘hard down’ and off duty with extended bunk time; no one was restricted to medical spaces on the carrier. Nobody died. After about two weeks, the ship’s herd immunity kicked in and everyone was rearing to go. Only the aviators were monitored closely for extended symptoms before getting in a cockpit (head colds and depressurized cockpits don’t mix). We still could do our ‘ground jobs’. The ship functioned, unlike what happened on the ROOSEVELT when there were no inoculations for COVID yet.

Then there were the overseas liberty ports, more so for carriers than subs. We would get extra shots for certain locales. You might bring back the local bug with you after a few days, but everyone on the ship seemed well defended with all the shots in inventory. Natural disease and virulent attacks on our readiness and ability to do our mission were held at bay by the policy of 100% inoculations against attack on our most potent and fragile weapons – the officers and sailors who fought. This was a time honored and accepted condition of service since at least 1945, long before anyone knew how to spell ‘woke’ of ‘DEI’.

In short, unlike the ROOSEVELT and Lackland scenarios, we never had to stop mission or fail to defend our Nation when needed because the Secretary of Defense allowed the selfish to overwhelm the whole in mission readiness and refuse to get inoculated. Military readiness and efficiency demand everyone accept the team concept of duty to each other. We had a united front of medical preparedness to ensure we could fight every day, and not just when we were feeling up to it or had enough people off the sick list to man our stations. I am at a lost to understand how individual preference can outweigh group readiness in the military. To accept otherwise is in a word, naive at best, bigoted at worst.

In my career, I lost track of the inoculations I had to get through naval service. I think, based on my service and locations, I have had every shot in their playbook. Annual flu, malaria, polio, meningitis, hepatitis A & B, MMR, typhoid, yellow fever, anthrax series – that was NO fun; boosters for polio, Tdap,…and on and on, and on. If I had been in service during the COVID epidemic, I would have been lined up for that — I did get the series via VA. I am now 15 years past a 35-year career. I still travel these days, and I am convinced I still weather the local bug population better than my wife because of all the anti-bodies and serums loaded in my system over the years. I have no extra extremities growing out of me, no conditions that can be conspiratorially attached to inoculations. Besides the military wear and tear that couldn’t be avoided, I thank the Navy Medical Corps (also Army and Air Force in some assignments) for keeping me alive in spite of myself.

Hegseth also framed this nonsense as religious freedom. Hmmm…if he was so gun-frigging-ho about religious freedom, how come he banned most religious personal appearance waivers (beards, Sikh pagri/turbans, etc.). How come he has deleted most religious descriptors from DoD recognition – including Mormon until the Utah congressional delegation brought the Wrath of God and Congress on him and he demurred. He is a hypocrite to religious freedoms except for his own brand of white, male dominated, Chistian off shoot that believes women and minorities are unequal (false accusation? Check his promotion policies and his pastor’s statements).

In a word: bigoted.

Hegseth is a disgrace and a threat to the rank and file. He willfully established conditions for preventable death in routine military environments because of his personal religious bigotry, to speak nothing of his ignorance of proven medical science. Arrogance kills, bigotry kills; this will continue until he is relieved.

Oh yeah, he’s the “poster child” I was referring to if you hadn’t guessed by now.

The visual of DJT signing his copy of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in the Palace of Versailles couldn’t illustrate more the total futility of the last one hundred eleven days and the bleak future it leaves us.

The Department of Education (yes, the DoE still exists but is on life support) tells us:

A memorandum of understanding or MOU is a document created between two or more parties explaining how they will work together to achieve a common goal. While MOU’s vary in complexity and use, the purpose is to help organizations work together and understand one another’s perspectives.

I retrieved this from LegalClarity.org:

A memorandum of understanding (MOU) is a formal document where two or more parties spell out their shared goals and what each side plans to contribute, without typically creating the kind of legal obligations found in a binding contract. Organizations, businesses, and government agencies use MOUs to align expectations before committing to a full agreement. The document sits in a gray zone between a handshake and a signed contract, and that gray zone is exactly where problems arise if you don’t understand what you’re signing. <emphasis added by author)

While dining at the Versailles Wednesday night (June 17^th), DJT dramatically signed the 14-point MOU that established the ceasefire fire and negotiating guidelines between Iran and the United States to end the State of War between the two countries. I wonder if all the gold in the room distracted DJT to the significance of signing it at Versailles Palace was not really a positive historic moment considering the most famous ‘enduring treaty’ ever signed there lasted less than twenty years and would later cost 60-75 million souls globally. I also wondered who’s chair he was figuratively sitting in…perhaps the German Empire’s? According to a least four MOU paragraphs (paras 6,7,10,11) <text here>, Iran is getting reparations (reconstruction, lifting of sanctions on frozen accounts, etc.) for being attacked. They also get our blessing to co-manage with Oman the Strait of Hormuz, which until February 28^th was a declared international maritime transit lane previously recognized as governed under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). Wonder if the UN will say anything about that. (Authors note: search ‘straits’ in UNCLOS text for understanding how they are governed)

Wait…you say, there was never a State of War between the two countries, or Congress would have surely gotten involved. After we all stop laughing, I refer you to MOU Para 1., which states “…the immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts…” and a “Final deal will confirm the permanent termination of the war <emphasis added> on all fronts…” Can’t sign a ‘deal’ to stop a ‘war’ unless there was a war to begin with…but I digress.

I am not going to fully dissect the MOU here. There are better places for a full analysis, like here, gift link here, and here. I will say the MOU reflects the war it is trying to clean up: poorly organized, poorly executed, poorly worded, gaping gaps in intent, too many variables not under our control – I am looking at you Israel and Hezbollah -- and wholly dependent on assumptions that have low probability of success. For instance, the MOU covers Lebanon as a “front” in the war, and the ceasefire (and respect of Lebanon’s sovereignty) is alleged to extend there as well. (Para 1). Israel has already flatly stated they are not leaving Lebanon. And yesterday, Hezbollah and Israel went at it again with the death of four IDF personnel. The first session of MOU talks between Iran, and the USA has already been ‘postponed’ in Switzerland.

The two declared main prizes of the war: regime change and no nukes? Yeah well, oh well. The MOU kicked to the curb the wishes of the Iranian people through Para 2. by signing away any ‘aspiration’ to interfere in internal affairs. And Para. 8 leaves the nukes for further discussion – for clarification on what that might mean I gleefully refer you to the Obama era 2015 JCPOA – the war changed nothing here. (Note: the link is to the State Dept copy, hopefully you’ll get to it before they realize they are still posting it and get MAGA’d for it). In a nutshell, this is the state of negotiations over Iranian nukes that hasn’t changed in the 21st Century, nor will it:

The main point I want to cover is the wholistic view:

The MOU is only a formal ceasefire. The ‘ceasefire’ DJT has been claiming since April didn’t exist. This one does, formally. And it was promptly broken by Israel and Hezbollah. Iran considers the Lebanon/Hezbollah front as important as the Iranian Front, and DJT considers it an annoyance. It will be interesting how American policy makers try to get the Israelis to play nice, if at all. In Israel, even the moderates hate this deal, as they wonder why everyone went to war and then ended it, yet the Ayatollahs and Revolutionary Guard are still in charge, now with even more grudges.

Another war aim to the wayside is that DJT has verbally approved/accepted Iranians ballistic missile capabilities. At the G7, he said Iran “has got to have some”. In an incredibly naïve and shortsighted comments, he continued:

‘What am I going to do? Am I going to let Saudi Arabia have missiles, but they can’t have them?’ Trump said during the briefing. ‘Missiles aren’t the problem. They hurt a little location, but they don’t blow up the planet.’

Tell that to Israel and every Arab country that had to defend themselves over the last 15 weeks.

This is the problem when you de-professionalize the national security apparatus. I am sure there is a memo somewhere that explains having ballistic missile programs in parallel with weapon development leads to immediate WMD capabilities – see North Korea if you are confused on this point. Nukes are useless without competent delivery systems as deterrence or threats. Also, conventional ballistic missile defense is incredibly expensive, and that ‘little location’ tends to hold people you are supposed to defend. Everyone can’t party in an impregnable ballroom.

Speaking of the G7 and our allies. They are of course relieved the war that never should have been started has stopped, for now. International trade and oil flow will begin to move again — as it was freely before Feb. 28. ‘Back to normal’ will take a long time though – a shipping rule of thumb is 7 days of correction for every 1 day disrupted. So, we are looking at well almost two years, possibly. The leaders at the G7 Summit fed his ego despite showing up late and declaring he is ‘the boss’. He thought their polite laughing at his entrance was supportive. But watch the body language and the ‘off camera’ moments – no one wanted anything to do with DJT and they have zero respect for him personally. And then, in another concurrent venue, his pit bull Secretary of Defense rolled into a NATO meeting and did his classic angry speech thing and berated our allies for not supporting our war of aggression – calling them ‘shameful’ --ironically forgetting that NATO was formed to defend against exactly what the US did to Iran if they were in Europe— and NATO may yet have to do in regard to Greenland. He then announced he would grade each of our friends on their defense contributions and support to DJT and act accordingly. Hegseth then left the meeting early. Next to the irony dripping was the blood on the floor from us once again shooting ourselves in the foot. Speaking of irony, can’t wait for the inevitable victory parade…they are already trying to build the arch.

So where do we stand? We now have the Versailles MOU. It is not a treaty but an ‘understanding’ with stipulations and financial rewards for Iran volunteering to be our smart bomb target. The MOU leaves the key reasons for starting the war unresolved. It was signed by DJT in his favorite place, a golden palace. A palace which is most remembered in modern history for lending its name to the most calamitous treaty in history. The costs to wage this war in treasure and lives on all sides was not insignificant, and the bills are still being tallied. The US military will take years to recover. The US is providing multiple avenues of financial relief to the country we attacked reminiscent of Imperial Germany being forced to pay for World War I. We are now agreeing to accept an Iranian Revolutionary government that was unacceptable 15 weeks ago. The USA’s primary ally Israel is ignoring the ceasefire, as is Iran’s Hezbollah, and Lebanon is not, nor will it be sovereign within this MOU. The MOU takes away the international protections for Hormuz commerce, and accepts Iran’s ballistic missile program, and only aspires to limit nuclear proliferation (Para 8), this time without international participation. Our allies who refused to be involved in a war of aggression are now being blamed for our failure by an inept Secretary of Defense, further distancing our allies, and giving them zero incentive to help. Europe is now trying to figure out a future without USA leadership coupled with increased and aggressive nation-state competition without international guardrails or a shining guardian of democracy to look to.

What possibly could go wrong?

Pew Research has released their newest ‘political typology’ survey project for America. It has already garnered attention from NPR, PBS, WaPo, Fox, and many others. I suggest you look at it as well, here. It demonstrates that Americans are not encamped in a simple we/they tribal configuration or even the triad of Democrats, Republicans and independents. There is no MAGA or TDS silly-string stuff that breaks us apart. Pew pigeonholes our political ideology into nine new categories. This is the latest of their ongoing series that goes back to 1987, that last being 2021. The categories change as America changes. More on that in a little bit.

It is very instructive for self-analysis to note that Pew has a link for you to ask and answer the same bank of questions asked to over 10,000 American in November 2025. Do yourself a favor and take the survey and answer the questions as honestly as you can. I did. Twice.

What did I learn about myself? I didn’t land in the category I thought I would – both times. I took the survey twice as there were questions that I was borderline on and pondered before answering. I went back and answered again, changing a couple of those borderline choices. Didn’t change things much, moved me into the next connecting box, still not the box I expected to land.

What did I think of the survey? It looks a lot like one of those mind-game evaluations that make you choose between two bad options that you would not normally choose, so you choose the least objectionable one. Nuance is missing. I thought it leaned too much into the America First stuff – and not enough into policy and fiscal issues/restraint. Or at least that’s how I interpreted the questions.

What did I learn about myself. My views and positions changed over time. I would have loved to be able to go back and take some of the previous surveys, but that is not possible (broken links or not offered). Of course, I would also have to time travel to my state of mind at the time. Something I hammer time and time again in my classes. never bring you present sensibilities to judge historical scenarios. For instance, the 2005 me, still on active duty, would have been an initial supporter of America’s greatest foreign policy blunder, the 2003 Iraq invasion, as I believed the WMD pretext based on operational information that was known to me. I, of course, like many Americans, would later change my mind as the facts clarified. It would be interesting to have the late 20^th Century me, my formative and early military years, take this year’s survey as well. While I can’t see the older survey questions, I see ‘how’ the categories changed over time, and being honest with myself, I see my pigeonhole shifting as well.

I was brought up in a stable Catholic household with a Catholic education in Chicago. I was a military nomad most of my adult formative years- ages 20-55. Based on that bio, most people would automatically drop me in the conservative category of the moment. But my global experiences and observations that impacted me individually also reshaped some of my views. I’ve been to some of the most beautiful and prosperous -- and happy – places on Earth. I have been to some of the most God-awful places imaginable. The key observation I developed that differentiates the two is how governments tend to work for their people in the happy and prosperous places, and the governments that care only for themselves – or not at all – are in the despondent and threatened zones. Yes, natural resources, national wealth, and many other factors make it easier or harder for a country to thrive or die. But in the end, it is how the nation-state manages those national resources and provides basic services for their people that brings out the best, or worst, that each country offers.

So now I am a strange bird that does not agree with the category(s) Pew dropped me in. My travels have changed my mind, and I now see national health and education programs as basic government services any decent industrialized democracy should provide, yet America doesn’t. To me this is not a liberal position, but a national security issue and investment in human capital. Yet, I also believe running national debt like a drunken sailor (I get to say that as an ex-drunken sailor) is national suicide. I think the US is uniquely in the position -- through its economic strength and historical precedence – to continue to be the backbone of the institutional liberal order that has defined relative global peace and prosperity since 1945. But I also believe running huge deficits while simultaneously providing the DoD an under-supervised mega-budget for defense is well, indefensible. This country has not had an apolitical comprehensive national security review since the infamous NSC-68 of 1950 that defined requirements for the Cold War and, it now appears, beyond. With that in mind, I have always believed State Department and national Soft Power programs should be strengthened at the expense of the Defense Department. Both are key ingredients of national and global security. (hint: world peace = USA prosperity). Soft power builds things. The DoD – well, it doesn’t; wasn’t designed to.

To retain America’s strength, and ability to support its citizenry, costs money. A rational and simple tax structure would be nice. Perhaps tied to annual discretionary budget decisions. Taxes (inlays) must be greater to or equal to outlays. No matter how math majors want to work that, reality is this means more tax revenue (hint: population is increasing while the productive worker base does not at the same rate…therefore we need more inlays from the productive segment of society: sounds like a better progressive and corporate tax structure to me). Sorry, but the third rail of politics also needs to have its voltage adjusted. People have physically changed in America, and demographics are what they are. Time we adjusted the social safety net.

And to Pew’s individual liberties questions – I am a firm believer of separation of Church and State, and nothing good has ever happened with some wannabe strolling down Main Street packing an AR15 – I’m looking at you Kyle Rittenhouse. That last bit is not abhorrence of the 2^nd Amendment (even though I think the Supremes have it wrong and misread historical linguistics of the late Eighteenth Century), it is simply my military training in risk management that we need procedural rules for gun ownership and America’s moral blind spot for accepting tens of thousands of lives left at the gun altar in favor of a culture issue that really doesn’t exist for most people is, well, foolish. Speaking of what is in the government’s lane – it really doesn’t need to weigh in or regulate any of these other culture and religious issues either. Simply none of its business. If something offends because of your personal religious or moral beliefs, that’s your religion, not mine. Take a breather, go to Church, and peacefully get over people are different then you. And if a deeply religious citizen is well, religious, get over that, and be open minded as well. They are demonstrating faith and commitment, that’s admirable. Staying out of the religious and moral issues includes Family Planning/ Women’s Choice/Right-to-Life/abortion/whatever side of it you are on. Leave it to religious faith providers — or not, families involved, and the medical field to sort it out. One size does not fit all for the estimated 62 million American women affected by these garbage solutions placating niche interests. Stop pretending it does, even at the state level. All this culture war back and forth is like blaming McDonald’s for making your coffee hot. Oh… we did that?

Pew has me on the liberal shade of the political rainbow. I always thought I was a bit more conservative in national and fiscal issues with an attitude of ‘live and let live’ on the social side. But I also now understand my self-descriptor is from the late Twentieth Century. Things have moved quite a bit since then. Policies of Eisenhower and—gasp-- Nixon (EPA anyone?) are now considered coming from the flaming liberals. The liberal Clinton, providing balanced budgets in prosperous times while trimming the debt, couldn’t get either party to back him today. So, what am I today? The same, only different in life experience. We all are. What hasn’t changed? I am American and a defender of the Constitution and always will be. My hair is longer, not hippy long, just longer. Like it was in the 70’s when the Jesuits were poking at me soliciting signs of intellectual life.

Unless you have been on your monk sabbatical or are being held hostage by your unique social media bubble that pretends a lot of things never happen – oh, I don’t know, like January 6^th -- you are probably already aware of the DJT interview with NBC’s Kristen Welker that infamously ‘did not go well’ - cough, cough. There is not much about that train wreck as a whole I can add to that hasn’t already been commented on except on the strong women journalists who cover this guy and something everyone seemed to miss:

a) every single female correspondent that has interviewed DJT so far has been debased, insulted, and called names. No exceptions. That’s a tough gig for them – from Fox’s Megyn ‘bleeding’ Kelly in early Trump 1.0, CNN’s Kaitlan ‘smiling’ Collins these days, CBS’ Norah ‘dumb’ O’Donnell and now NBC’s Kristen ‘crooked’ Walker, and so many more. “Bravo Zulu” to every woman journalist in that drew the short straw to be in the same room with him. I applaud your professionalism and steady nerves while I watched this one-dimensional compensating narcissist and dishonorable man melt down and hide his own weakness by lashing out at perceived weakness – while you instead exhibit great strength. He is truly pathetic to watch when this happens, and I admire the journalists subjected to the petty tantrums.

b) This same weak man has the keys to the nuclear codes and is the titular boss to the most powerful military on Earth. As such, what he says he will do with that power and what our military strength is really all about is in conflict and should be scrutinized. I want to anchor on what he blurted out as a throwaway line that should have sent shivers down anyone’s spine paying attention. But it was overwhelmed by all the other absurdity and the “no new wars” lie. He inadvertently substantiated what we already should have seen with our own eyes – he was given great military power and intended to misuse from the very beginning.

Halfway through the interview (time 19+50 in the NBC full video), as the rain on the Wisconsin barn tin roof pattered away, DJT uttered something about his true purposes for his military buildup:

KRISTEN WELKER:

So you’re saying you didn’t break your promise …What changed, because you insisted “no new wars”?

DJT:

Well, well. First of all, I didn’t guarantee no war. Why would I have built the strongest military in the world? I built our military…

He would go on to say (full transcript here) what a big favor he was doing the world, Israel, and us for using this nice new shiny military toy against Iran. His bragging about the Venezuela snatch n’ grab raid is also very telling:

(time 24+15: “We took over Venezuela in a matter of a minutes”

He had just uttered out loud to a journalist that why — in his mind— he couldn’t have promised ‘no new wars’ when he built “the strongest military in the world” with every intention of using it. Disregard the outright lie of his previous political promises (which everyone else anchored on – the lies). Listen to the statement itself and my re-wording and let it sink in. Now, wrack your brain for every historical figure that built the world’s “strongest military” just so he can use it - and not for defense. What type of list do you come up with? Beyond the usual imperialistic figures of antiquity such as Alexander or your choice of a Roman Ceasar, the modern era’s candidates for the list do not speak to humanity’s finest and don’t end with Napolean. Make your own list, and I know which historical figure tops mine; he also was also shocked by his early success. In what world does a democratically elected leader of a nation build a war machine just so he can use it at will? So much for Democratic Peace Theory (Kant, Paine, De Tocqueville, etc.).

To keep modern American history short and to the point, the US chose military strength beyond basic defensive needs because we entered the World War to defeat fascism/Nazism and then, instead of demobilizing as America traditionally did, retained a world-class hard power structure as the backbone of the ‘Western defense” during the Cold War. Our reason to maintain a permanent national security state was to protect America, and by extension, its allies. As what one does sometimes with too much power, we strayed on occasion with weakly developed preemptive arguments of necessity in Vietnam, Iraq II, the conversion of Afghanistan from retaliation to failed democracy/nation-building, and other smaller, but impactful ventures – Panama, Grenada, etc. Those choices were all reactive to arising situations and with forces available, not premeditated buildup for attack. And when these excursions became pure choice, not necessity, we tended to fare poorly.

Congress annually authorizes the massive expenditures under the premise that the military is our safeguard in-being, and the president would judiciously unleash that power only for our defense. Sometimes the presidential rational for use was, to put it politely, politically strained. Every president until now attempted to use that power within the spirit and rules of our democracy; or at least convinced themselves they were. None outright publicly stated they wanted the greatest military force on earth so they could use it at will. All assumed that Congress would restrain them Constitutionally at some point. Until it didn’t.

I know some out there think I am drawing a very ambiguous line between past acts and how DJTs acts and states his intent. Surely, his supporters argue the Iran war (he called it an “Military Exercise” in the interview) is defensive in his…uh… mind. While I would rather not contemplate any travels into that moral morass to gather his thoughts, the defensive argument does not wash when he openly spoke just days ago that he always intended to use the “strongest military in the world”. For now, his only inhibition of use seems to be the negative press – you know, those people he despises – over an American casualty count. This was confirmed by his defense early in the interview of his perceived low casualty success rate. He seems perfectly willing to use the military anywhere, anyhow, as long as someone tells him casualties will be politically acceptable.

What will constrain him from using the military injudiciously for the next two and a half years? He previously told us his own conscious will contain him if it has to. I’m not optimistic on the parameters of the DJT’s morality, so the correct and constitutional answer is Congress. The 118^th (2023-4) Congress is considered the least productive in history, and the 119^th (seated now) is passively --can’t use the word ‘active’ here-- challenging that title so don’t expect anything there. The 120^th Congress will be seated January 2027, and its composition is up to you come November – hint, hint.

Meanwhile, the comically insane NBC interview and its fallout is something new his clown show will now need to distract us from. Add that to frozen war in Iran (heated up by a US helicopter shoot-down while I was writing this), the Epstein files, unaffordability, DJT’s health, the mis-management of our health programs, the Epstein files, the loss of the rule of law, DHS militia on the streets rounding up whoever, whenever; the DoJ turning their back on their mission as protectors of Constitutional rights, and flat out open corruption. Did I mention the Epstein files? The only thing missing in this tragic comedy is Dr. Strangelove.

DJT has the “strongest military in the world” with the weakest minded Secretary of Defense imaginable and is in search of his McDonald’s Happy Meal give-away globe to find someone new to play with. Coupled with a Secretary of State with an axe to grind, I certainly wouldn’t want to be in Cuba’s ill-fitting Florsheim’s right now…

Postscript from a military historian:

Below is an Academic Abstract from an archived speech by a previous leader who built the ‘greatest military’ with full intent to use it.

In this secret speech to military commanders… all of the diplomatic and military maneuvering of the previous years was part of his long-established plan for expansion and rearmament. When speaking to the outside world, assertions about the peaceful intentions of his regime were a successful component of his dual-track foreign policy. Here, however, his listeners were left with no doubt that his goal was preparing … for war.

If you really don’t know who that was about, ask. I will send the reference citation.

Today is the 82^nd Anniversary of D-Day, the penetration of the Atlantic Wall by the Western Allies in Normandy. Always a solemn occasion, the anniversary and battle ground invokes many solemn reflections, comparisons and deep thoughts and prayers for our Greatest Generation who helped – along with our brave Allies - rid the world of fanatical Nazism & Fascism. During the annual celebrations, prestigious representatives of the warring countries and veteran’s organizations always bring their A-game oratory skills to celebrate those who lived and died on the invasion beaches. The celebrate the 1^st American Army that landed at Utah and bloody Omaha to the east; and where Gold, Juno and Sword absorbed the 2^nd British Army assault of British and Canadian troops, along with French commandos. Each year, reenactments, forever dwindling veterans of the assault, paratrooper displays, and flyovers all celebrate the heroism and historical place of the magnificent event.

Never, ever, did I ever have on my bingo card, or imagine, that any American Secretary of Defense would use the occasion to blast our allies about immigration politics. This is not hyperbole, he did it (video). On the hallowed ground of the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, no less. This hot mess of a human being, who claims the ‘warrior ethic’, essentially spit on the graves of our revered heroes by bringing MAGA branded politics amongst their eternal home. The two times I have walked those grounds above the cliffs I can promise you I didn’t think about immigration policy or the price of bread or are the French rude to American tourists? – they aren’t if you leave your ‘Ugly American’ attitude back in the hotel. The two times I was Senior American representative at Remembrance Day ceremonies at the British Commonwealth Durnbach War Cemetery (Bavaria) – I spoke of their bravery and sacrifice, not, let’s say, the Euro’s high exchange rate against the dollar. In the ever-expanding ability to be inappropriate at the worst times…Hegseth beat even my lowest expectations.

I should have expected it. He brought the whole family like it was a Euro-Disney visit (it is a couple of hours away –any bets someone yelled “we did Normandy – now off to Disney”). He got off the plane for the formal French welcome with a full-dress honor guard, dressed like he was heading to a little league game – couldn’t wear the suit and show some respect for an Ally that is hosting you as well?

The man does us no favors with his ‘bro’ attitude representing the Pentagon.

Back in the 90’s, I walked my family through the Luxembourg American Cemetery where over 5000 of our dead, including George S. Patton, is buried. My kids, having seen the movie, knew who he was. They started grab-assing like kids do when bored while I was standing at his headstone. They had stopped immediately after my hushed “stop” and I waited till we left the cemetery to have the conversation. They already knew. They beat me to it and apologized for disrespecting the men in their graves.

Who’s going to tell Hegseth to quit grab-assing on behalf of his boss in hallowed ground? Or anywhere for that matter? Not his boss. So:

Shame on you, Mr. Secretary. You are not worthy of leading our men and women, and you just demonstrated once again that by bringing your politics to their eternal resting place of peace you have zero idea why they died. Please, just go away.

cease·fire [ˈsiːsfʌɪə]: an agreement, usually between two armies, to stop fighting in order to allow discussions about peace:

Most recent use according to Webster online (Jun 3);

The United States and Iran traded strikes overnight in one of the most intense bouts of conflict since the increasingly tenuous ceasefire between the two countries began in April.

—Victoria Craw, Washington Post, 3 June 2026

Defense Minister Israel Katz denied there was a ceasefire in Lebanon.

—Kevin Liptak, CNN Money, 2 June 2026

DJTs definition: <speaking about the Middle East>

In other news, the Secretary of State – under oath -- stated the war is over, and we won. Oh wait…what? It was a war despite what you told Congress, and we won? And we have a ceasefire…when was that?

These days, it has become surreal about confirming what is up or down, peace or war. Inconvenient facts not conducive to political policies have manifested new ‘alternative facts’ summoned up from a bowl of ‘truthiness’.

truthiness [ˈtrü-thē-nəs] a truthful or seemingly truthful quality that is claimed for something not because of supporting facts or evidence but because of a feeling that it is true or a desire for it to be true

Webster Dictionary online; a word coined by Steven Colbert in 2005, and named “Word of the Year” by the American Dialect Society

The alleged ceasefire -- within truthiness standards – has been interlaced daily with ‘live fire exercises’ against opposing forces we (or Iran, or Israel) were at war prior to the DJT unilateral Truthiness Ceasefire of April 7^th. Hormuz, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, and others all been subjected to destructive fire almost daily during a ceasefire that has not prevented killing or further destruction. In some cases, there is literally no discernable ‘cease’ in the ‘fire’ — looking at you Israel. The Straits of Hormuz are still effectively closed to the free flow of international trade with oil, fertilizer, and liquified natural gas (LNG) getting really scarce. Don’t believe me Mr. Alternative Facts? Ask the mariners manning the ships getting shot at and dodging mines. Check your gas pump prices. Ask the farmers. Just saying.

What the DJT Truthiness Ceasefire does not tell you is that America has not withdrawn the significant air and naval forces in the Middle East that went to war and have been ‘on the line’ since early February. Right now, two aircraft carrier battle groups, one amphibious ready group, multiple destroyers and support ships are still trolling the northern Gulf of Oman enforcing the American Blockade of Iran, an Act of War not included in the Truthiness Ceasefire. Additional forces are in the Eastern Mediterranean defending Israel —and others — from strikes. That is about 25% -33% of available naval forces to deploy anywhere globally, if needed. The USAF still has an equivalent of at least, an expeditionary airwing (I suspect more) in the area plus enablers: tankers, early warning, logistics, CSAR, force protection. Like the Navy, the USAF has to reconstitute forces after sustained deployments. Deployment extensions from routine planning degrade overall readiness as reconstitution breaks down. The USS FORD battle group came home after a year in a planned half-year deployment, exhausted with significant damage to USS FORD’s berthing spaces from a laundry fire. It will be off-line in repairs for possibly two years. This will also upset the delicate balancing act of ship repair, construction, and deployment availability that is already in crisis. USS NIMITZ—over 50 years old— already had her decommissioning postponed once and will probably do so again as she is now ‘deployed’ in the Caribbean against those nasty drug boats and pesky Cubans. The deployed Middle East force concentrations cannot be reduced in this Pollyanna peace as each ‘violation’ requires a forceful response. To add to the surreal context, CENTCOM does not count retaliatory strikes as responses to violations of the DJT Truthiness Ceasefire, but as logical force protection and right of self-defense actions for units who happen to be enforcing the blockade. You know: that thing that is not war in the Trump Truthiness World.

The Truthiness Ceasefire has forced the Europeans — who thought they were neutrals in this fantasy war/peace — to rally sea control and mine clearing forces to try to establish safe passage through the Hormuz Straits. They are being severely impacted by the closure of the Straits. Delaying a quick response so far, they are understandingly distracted by the real-world facts of Russia’s aggression being played out in Ukraine and along NATO’s Baltic Border. You remember NATO? We used to actually support this organization that kept the peace since 1949. Now, an international mission is being planned that no one needed before February 28 but is required in the Trump Truthiness World, because our forces our overextended in the non-war we started. The Iran War –and DJT Truthiness Ceasefire – has created conditions that require those most affected economically by America’s international alternative facts to look for solutions despite us, not with us. The Europeans weren’t even asked in the first place if this war was a good idea. But again, neither were we.

So here we are. All further war-like activity isn’t war if it’s part of the DJT Truthiness Ceasefire Peace Plan. It has leaked that DJT will end the ceasefire if American personnel are killed. Is that an escalation from ‘moderate’ fire to ‘immoderate’ per his definition? And to what purpose? Meanwhile, the US military stays deployed, disregarding the world’s real problems and deteriorating on station from extended deployments for…exactly what? The Secretary of State says we already won. Let’s ‘bring the boys home’ and have a Trump Truthiness Parade in time for the 4th. DJT seems to be focused on getting the city ready for his victory parade(s) anyway, and perhaps a swim.

Today, overly large segments of our forces are deployed in the Middle East, the Caribbean and on the Mexican Border (A division size force is sitting on the Rio Grande). All for mostly Truthiness reasons. Truthiness tells us America’s main threat is an invasion across the border, or some form of aggression from Cuba, or random drug boats now defined as existential threat requiring extrajudicial executions. The undeniable alternative facts come from the gut of DJT. Opposing Truthiness is the time-honored facts of war, peace, real threats, international relations…that ask…why did we do this and when can we stop?

Back in the day, it could be said the worst day anyone could have was finding Mike Wallace waiting for you armed with facts and a 60-Minutes camera team. The question: am I candid with these guys for their 20-minute segment or do I do a ‘rope-a-dope’ and hope it goes away. The honest man tries to do the right thing but sometimes errs. The dishonest man will fail. The new CBS has made the 60 Minutes threat almost non-existent. Instead, in the 21st Century, the new ‘worst thing’ is being invited or subpoenaed to testify at a Senate or House hearing. The modern congressional hearing is performative and set up for political ambush or inversely elevate the witness to sainthood in 5-minute increments, depending on party affiliation. This universally accepted 5-minute format is why the most common phrase you hear is “Mr. Chairman, I reclaim my time” whenever long winded word salad deflects from the question. The structure coincidently – or not -- fits news media sound-bite production models, YouTube video lengths, and sadly most voter’s attention span. What you get after that is the spin cycle of media round tables from the self-important that lasts for days on end to fill broadcast space. Some witnesses, especially from the executive branch, bring their own “burn book” to get their shots in on those doing the duck shooting. For reference, see video of the former Attorney General. Others, just lie for the sake of lying, knowing no one will care, and the presidential pardon is standing by – see the FBI Director’s transcripts. The committee hearings today make reality TV look amateur with these political ‘I can’t turn away from the train wreck’ moments.

So, it is somewhat refreshing — boring?— when the senior military officers have their turn in the hot seat, sometimes next to their civilian bosses. They tend to only get invited for hearings with pre-determined outcomes and the precious 5-minute intervals are dedicated to hot button issues. When the inquisitor strays, the uniforms stay on topic, not say anything controversial or political, and always defer to the secretariat level suit next to them — or offer the sound response that they are professionally required to be discrete in their frank advice to the President, thus they decline to discuss said advice. An answer that gets respected from the committees whether they like it or not. Sometimes, a question will be asked that requires an unpopular answer. This can get uncomfortable. Worse, like the suits, if the uniforms obfuscate or decline to answer obviously simple questions with political word salad, things fall off the rails. In either case, this is when the uniformed officers become the focus. And how they respond decides their legacy, and retirement rank.

I wrote before about the “Admiral’s Revolt” of 1947-9 during the Defense Unification troubles. Ordered by the Secretary of Defense to testify in support of approved policy, a series of admirals, Marine generals, and other key officers testified otherwise, with the most senior, the Chief of Naval Operations losing his job the same day he completed his sworn testimony. This ‘gag order’ strategy backfired and led Congress to codify what the admirals and Marine generals had fought for: the continued existence of the Marine Corps and Naval Aviation within the Navy Department. Congress then coerced President Truman to forestall any further retaliation on those who testified. SecDef Louis Johnson still tried to end one specific career but was rebuffed. Navy Captain Arleigh Burke would later become what is considered by most historians the Navy’s best post-WWII Chief of Naval Operations. SecDef Johnson, on the other hand, is considered the worst SecDef America has suffered, so far.

Later, in the mid 1960’s, Defense Secretary McNamara demanded the Navy accept and support the F-111B as the new carrier-based fighter as part of the fighter’s purchase program for all the services. But in 1968, when the head of Naval Aviation, Vice Admiral Tom Connally, was pointedly asked by the Senate Armed Forces Committee Chairman Senator Vinson his opinion on the F-111B, even with an upgraded engine, the admiral replied:

Connolly wasn’t fired, but his hopes for a 4^th star vanished. He retired in 1971. The replacement for the F-111B became the Grumman F-14A Tomcat. Grumman had a history of naming all their fighters as a ‘cat’, and the ‘Tom’ used for this model was an intentional ‘tongue-in-cheek’ head nod to Connally’s professional sacrifice. Thus became the expectations: tell the uncomfortable truth to Congress and your President and you will be ok or at least retire with honor.

And then last week, another pivotal flag officer testimony arrived in controversial times: enter stage right Commander, Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper.

No one wanted to be in Admiral Cooper’s shoes last week, and everyone knew where the topic would go – the legal status of a deeply unpopular war with Iran. It is assumed and it now seems clear to me he was coached and given guidance on how to answer, as the word salad he chose is not something that comes from an ad lib. I was so sure this was going to be a ‘nothing burger’ I had it off my radar screen until I read this, and then this. Then I went and “looked at the tapes”. To my utter amazement, in wave after wave of 5-minute segments, Adm. Cooper lowered naval leadership’s integrity ‘index’ and the US military’s unique apolitical foundation by asserting a dubious geo-political outcome (no more October 7 attacks), ignorance of evidence based collateral damage (school attack), and obfuscated on simple questions with simple answers to what are acts of war and our belligerency status in the Middle East. The truth to simple answers would have concerned the political leadership because it ran counter to the Administration’s refusal to operate within accepted conventions of war. The atmosphere in the room reflected Congressional anger and escalated every five minutes or so as a military officer could not or would not give an honest answer. He made a choice to align with political subterfuge and not fall back to professionalism and ethics that usually gets a pass from the legislative branch.

The sin? He refused to answer that a blockade is a textbook act of war, basic military 101 stuff. Yet he conversely described the blockade as designed within the international standard of blockades –which I agree it is. The same standard that makes it an act of war: the Laws of Armed conflict (LOAC). Or if you prefer, the DoD’s own Law of War Manual (Chapter VIII Naval Warfare, Section 10 Blockade). He simply refused to give a ‘yes’ to an evidence-based question, and it wasn’t a gotcha. He also argued the continuance of a blockade (remember —legal act of war) does not violate a ceasefire.

Answering ‘yes, it is’ to the question of ‘blockade as an act of war’ might have gotten him relieved, but it is so very true as not to be debatable. Another honest answer they were looking for : “No, the ceasefire is not holding” because shooting happens every time US warships or western friendly shipping enters the Straights. A naval leader demanding trust and respect for his position, should respond honestly and demonstrate moral and ethical courage even if ordered to obfuscate.

A tough position to be in. I see nothing but incredibly good work on Admiral Cooper’s resume. Yet, in the heated 5-minute repetitive sweatboxes, he bent to dubious and unethical political headwinds instead of a truthful ‘yes’. He should have left the rest to the media circus and political leadership and let them risk their own reputations – or what’s left of them. Both previous SecDefs who threatened or acted against the officers in my set-up stories are now historically seen as failures and the officers involved as historically important and honorable men. Most informed observers have already judged SecDef Hegseth as wrenching the ‘worst ever’ title from Louis Johnson of ‘Admiral’s Revolt’ fame. Admiral Cooper, already wearing his 4th star, tarnished his legacy last week with the rest yet to be written.

It is not loss on me that I have been lately bashing the institution I spent almost half my human existence in and treated me fairly well. That same institution drafted my father for two years some eighty-three years ago, and it defined him and his ‘greatest generation’ for the rest of their lives. This same institution took in one of my sons for four years. The United States Navy and the American military have defined my life. But for the Grace of God, that same military experience could have easily taken any of our lives and almost did more than once. We were lucky. So Memorial Day is especially important for me, as it was for my father, and is for my son.

Dad had a freakishly lucky experience for the most part in World War II and never really knew it, but had some sense of it. I would find out the facts much later, after his much later death, through historical research. He was drafted before Pearl Harbor for Army service but was rejected for a serious pre-existing condition. His draft class formed the backbone of the troops raised for the Philippines, early Pacific battles, and North Africa and suffered the highest ratio of casualties of any draft class. The United States, suffering a manpower crunch, came back again and redrafted him and kept him this time as his health had improved. By this time, inductees had choices, so he went Navy, received advanced electrical training, and was assigned to a turbo-electric powered destroyer escort (DE) in Atlantic convoy rotation. His two cruises escorting convoys were unremarkable, with the big Battles of the Atlantic behind them. What was remarkable was his ship’s blind luck avoiding reassignment to extremely hazardous duty in the Pacific theater. Twice the ship was designated to go through reconfiguration to ‘fast troop transport-APD’ and reassignment to the Pacific, and twice it avoided it through both happenstances. First time was because they arrived late from convoy duty escorting another warship heavily damaged in a German torpedo attack; and the second because his commanding officer’s poor ship handling resulted in a collision with a US submarine while docking; the damage resulting in the Navy having to pick another ship to meet the yard alteration availability. The two ships that substituted for this ‘bad luck’ DE and conversion to APD both went to the Pacific. Both were hit by kamikazes. One sunk with significant loss of life, the other was severely damaged with 1/3 crew dead or wounded. His ship was finally assigned to the Pacific and was initially designated for the American invasion of Japanese Home Islands as a DE guide for landing craft. Hiroshima and Nagasaki ended that threat.

I was born much later after the war. If things had wound up different…

Dad never told me his war stories until after I joined, and even then, sparingly as it related to him. He mostly talked about generalities about his ship and naval life in his time and those who didn’t come back, especially his best friend in naval training who died in the Pacific. I mostly learned about his personal experiences from letters he wrote to my mother and were later saved by my sister during my research.

I did my time on the back side of the Cold War (submarines) and after (naval aviation) through the Balkan conflicts and forever wars of the Middel East. During my career I had friends and shipmates die due to training accidents and aviation mishaps. Too many to list but never forgotten. As the Middle East heated up, the mishaps continued and some shoot downs (First Gulf War) occurred. Then my boots-on-the-ground tour in Afghanistan added combat/IED casualties and the occasional self-afflicted tragedy to my personal experiences. My first day in Kabul I was asked to be the initial investigating officer for an Air Force suicide the day I arrived in compound. It was the collateral casualties (military suicides and civilian casualties from IEDs) I saw, not the physical risks military professionals accept that broke me – something that wouldn’t manifest until a few years later.

My son served his enlistment as a naval security specialist (Master-at-Arms), providing security and police services first for our most sensitive installations and then in the Middle East and overseas for both our bases and personal protection team for senior officers. He left service reasonably intact despite a combat-like incident that left him a bit scarred. It could have been worse for him, but it wasn’t.

We came home to our families. Memorial Day is not about us, the veterans. It is about those that did not come back.

In the back half of my career, wearing scrambled eggs on my visor, I was invited to attend the Jacksonville, FL Memorial Day remembrance at the downtown memorial. As we sat in the muggy humidity, a local Congresswomen finally got around to showing up (she was late), interrupted the already ongoing ceremony by walking down the center aisle of folding chairs shaking hands, then took the podium with largesse. When it came time to speak, I still can’t remember if she even mentioned the fallen. She went out of the way to mention her alleged efforts to support veterans with the VA and this and that. Meanwhile, a Florida US senator who also attended was standing in the back, quietly. When the master of ceremony noticed, asked if he would like to say a few words, he declined with a quick wave off. I sought out the senator afterward and shook his hand for showing respect for the moment. The Congresswoman made the mistake of finding me and asked what I thought. I reminded her it was Memorial Day, not Veteran’s Day, and her speech was irrelevant to the reason we were there, so why did she bother? She walked away and my admiral would later let me know she let him know how unimpressed she was with my lack of respect to her position. Her purpose was to excite the eligible voters: veterans. So why bother mentioning the fallen — the whole point. I still get annoyed thinking about that day from twenty years ago. But Karma had its day: she later served time in federal prison for self-dealing using a fraudulent charity she set up. Go figure, you can always tell the serious from the pretenders.

Happy Memorial Day, remember what it is about. It is NOT about the veterans who came home. It’s about the shipmates we left behind. Please thank them in your own way for the ultimate price they gave. Not me — I came home and there’s another day designated for the veterans.

Is American troop rotational deployments important to NATO? Yes. What happened last week, and then Thursday, demonstrates that while America was once the bedrock of NATO, we no longer can be trusted, nor should we. And I cannot see a coherent plan coming from the Pentagon to deploy our military forces with strategic, fiscal or ethical responsibility. The military is being tasked and prioritized to execute political objectives over national security needs.

A lot of noise was generated last week when the Pentagon announced the cancellation of a scheduled rotational Army deployment to Poland. The advance troops and equipment from 1^st Calvary Division (1CD) were already in place preparing for the follow-on 4000+ troops that were scheduled to augment NATO’s eastern flank against Russia. The cancellation ordered originated from the Defense Secretary’s office for who knows why (I can speculate). The Polish Chief of General Staff, the host nation, only found out from the Five-Sided-Puzzle-Palace through a classified email (Politico). The US Army Secretary, on the hot seat at various congressional committees, could not answer “why” as he insisted the SecDef’s reasoning was not passed to him or his staff -- note: they are political enemies and only communicate with via knives-in-the-back smoke signals. It was also announced that 5000 troops garrisoned in Germany would be withdrawn back to the USA, something Trump 1.0 wanted to do. To complete the pretzel twist, DJT tweeted out that 5000 troops would now deploy to Poland – not the German garrison troops, probably still the 2^nd Armored Brigade/1CD. The DoD now claims the whole thing was a normal “comprehensive, multilayered process” that only delayed deployment. And the classified cancellation email the Poles got -- clickbait? The Marx Brothers would be proud.

It seems the latest ping-pong management is based on new, but actually old motives from El Jefe. It is now reported the Boss-47 called Hegseth and ripped him for not sending the troops because DJT suddenly remembered—or was reminded probably -- the President of Poland is a member of the right-wing populist Law and Justice Party (PiS) and a MAGA political ally. So, he decided to do his buddy a solid and send 5000 (not 4000 as planned) troops to celebrate the Polish President’s election that DJT claims he got for him. I wonder if anyone told DJT that Karol Nawrocki was elected as Poland’s constitutionally constrained Head of State almost a year ago. I’m sure no one told him that a rainbow coalition of opposition political parties (the October 15 Coalition) threw out the illiberal PiS government thirty months ago and now Prime Minister Donald Tusk functionally runs a very pro-NATO and EU government and is restoring their functional democracy. Nah, why stir that pot.

Despite all that nonsense, there are other military moving parts slightly under most observer’s radar that will help you understand what is really going on in this clown show, a total abandonment of treaty responsibilities, and politicization of force operations. To speak nothing of American values.

Legal Disclaimer: given recent events, I am clarifying all the information provided in this essay was obtained from ‘open source’ material and not classified sources or the SecDef’s Signal chat…don’t need that headache again.

The announcement that DoD wants to pull 5000 troops out of Germany is nothing new. Trump 1.0 announced in July 2020 he intended to relocate 12,000 troops out of Germany, with half coming back to the States. It was a politically punitive decision back then because Germany still had not raised military spending to NATO standard and Angela Merkel was Chancellor. She was a powerful woman who almost relished telling Trump ‘nein’, a dynamic that usually brings out the ‘best’ in him. This time around the current German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was brave enough to comment that DJT was “being humiliated by the Iranian leadership.” I suspect the US will follow through this time because: a) DJT was defeated in the 2020 election, and DoD never had to deal with it because defense adults ‘slow rolled’ it till 2021 and b) this time around there are no adults so the temper tantrum will go unchallenged and Hegseth or most likely the next clown up will have two years to get it done.

The original refusal to deploy to Poland was because it would benefit NATO – and not a presidential buddy-buddy thing. This shows NATO and democracy in Europe no longer concern the MAGA government and in fact is a net negative to their goals. Yet, Poland is America’s staunchest ally that also doesn’t ‘tsk, tsk’ us for our behavior at a drop of a DJT post (sorry Israel – you are just in it for yourselves). Both sides of Poland’s politics want a permanent American military presence to balance against Russia. However, the October 15 Coalition is not in the MAGA circle, and will get punished at some point, like the Germans, Danes, French, etc. Combined with Viktor Orbán being showed the door in Hungary, these two eastern Europe countries that previously fought EU rules with illiberal governance are helping Europe self-identify as disperse political ideologies willing to work withing accepted structures and security realities of a united Europe (see Italy for the best example of a governing political party that wants conservative and European unity process change but within the constraints of political norms and law – something now called soft-Euroscepticism). Both countries now stand for something significantly different than what was offered under previous management and no longer aligned to US-MAGA ideology represented by the US speeches at Munich and Davos.

European leaders support their united status moving forward for one strategic reason –economic and military strength in a changing world -- inspired by two operational realities. The first is Russia’s continued aggression, demonstrated by the Ukrainian invasion and ongoing ‘hybrid war’ and sabotage within and against EU and NATO nations. The war has really backfired on Russia. They are functionally losing their war of choice with victory out of reach. Their strategy was based on quick battlefield victories forcing the rest of Europe to fracture and default to selfish and nationalistic weakness. A few did look internally, most did not. Russia drove Sweden and Finland running into NATO – two countries with strong defense establishments and added another 830 miles of border with NATO. Not what Vlad had in mind. Putin gave NATO a mission back to unite around and the outlier nations under illiberal nationalistic leaders are finding Putin’s support now a net negative.

The second operational reality is the United States. Trump 2.0 will fade away at some point, but the damage this international relations Marx movie has laid on America’s reputation is permanent. NATO – amongst a much larger global list -- no longer trusts the US and must account for the possibility that America will lose its political mind again. So, defense spending is increasing and economic strategy is consolidating to other trading partners. The EU just announced a free trade agreement with Mexico yesterday – putting most of Latin America in their trading bloc – take that ‘Dunroe Doctrine’. Germany has pledged it will have the “strongest conventional military in Europe” and are backing that boast fiscally with the largest budget increases to the Bundeswehr since the height of the Cold War. It is remarkable the rest of Europe has said ‘cool’ to that historically significant tidbit given how well that has worked in the past for Europe — let’s hope Germany doesn’t lose its political mind again. Italy announced they are cancelling a Boeing tanker buy with European made Airbus tankers. NATO is dropping the Boeing built early warning AWACS aircraft update (Wedgetail) and buying the Swedish design. Other nations are looking to the Swedish Saab Grippen fighters and upgraded Eurofighters instead of F-35’s for their next buy because they can’t trust the US will continue technical and logistic support in a strained political climate. Canada is being integrated into these deliberations because, well, Europe still trusts Canada and assumes they will be there for Europe when needed, and Europe will be there for Canada. Canada sends troops to the small rotational semi-permanent NATO ‘exercise’ in Greenland started after you-know-who kept threatening to take it from Denmark. NATO and EU are deliberately reestablishing a European/Canada defense sector in the expectation that the US defense sector will be politically unreliable. NATO is planning for America’s withdrawal from Europe. Arms races always turn out well in the end, don’t they?

Then there is American political priorities for our military. What is our military doing and why? We are currently fighting three wars with deployed forces, plus the ongoing anti-terrorist operations globally. Wait, three wars, you say? I thought it was only one?

To start with, let’s not forget about the Caribbean drug boat- duck shoot going on since October of last year. We are up to a DoD self-reported 58 strikes and 128 killed under legally dubious ROE. We have deployed forces in the thousands and dozens of ships down south trolling around the whole time. Since the USCG still has an ongoing counterdrug interdiction/arrest mission, it’s crowded down there. This will also probably morph into the ‘we know what’s best for Cuba’ mission that is being set up right now. Open sources are reporting increased surveillance assets (manned/unmanned) around Cubs and Southern Command openly welcomed the NIMITZ Carrier Battle Group into the operations theater, next to the Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) already there. Nothing to see here?

There is, of course, the Iran War, excursion, whatever. One third or more of our available naval forces and Air Force strike assets have been tied up continuously in that fracas since late January-early February -- it takes weeks to deploy, so don’t think Feb 28 is the start of that war, or any claimed ’ceasefire’ is the end. And, oh boy, all the ammo that has been expended. Two carrier battlegroups, two ARG’s, a dozen destroyers, at least one USAF air wing and all the support that goes with it are trying to figure out how to steam back through the Straits of Hormuz like the good ‘ol days before Feb 28^th.

Then there is the third war since Trump 2.0 came online. The war on immigration and Democratic Party cities. We have had active-duty forces ‘deployed’ on the border and in various cities for over a year. MP’s still walk a beat -- and pick up trash – in Washington DC and Bourbon Street in New Orleans – sweet duty. While loudly announcing the 1^st Cav’s cancelled trip to Poland, it was quietly announced that elements of the 101^st Airborne and 1^st Armored Divisions would deploy to the Rio Grande. 8700 active-duty troops are safeguarding our border against…<input political trope here>. Yet, we can’t send troops to the real front lines unless they are MAGA buddies. Meanwhile both the Army and Navy Secretaries are begging for money because OPTEMPO is through the roof. Even the Navy is ‘deploying’ ships for immigration patrols to defend against <input political trope here>.

DoD is burning through its budgeted funds. The publicly stated costs of the Iran War are laughably low ball, they don’t even account for Middle East military equipment, aircraft destroyed, and infrastructure battle damage we are not publicly admitting to. Both the Army and Navy have testified to Congress they need operating supplementals in the summer or will start shutting down forces. A competent force manager – if we had one—would adhere to an apolitical military obligation – oops on that one too – and look to the superfluous or secondary missions to save and redistribute resources. We used to start inside CONUS and then look outward to critical deployed forces on where to cut operations. Do we need active-duty military on the border to defend against <insert political trope here> if DHS border funding is the highest it has ever been by leaps and bounds? Do we need invasion capable forces in the Caribbean for the drug boat-duck shoot, which is their stated mission? All this from the Administration trying to win their Boss the Nobel Peace Prize?

To Trump 2.0’s credit and SecDef’s sycophant personality… they are doing what their National Security Strategy said they would do. problem is, the Strategy is not strategy and simply a political harangue. Defend the Homeland against both <insert political trope here> and, it seems Democrats first – and leave our traditional allies to solve the world’s problems without us. Why, because are now in the ‘global problem child’ club. Good thing Trump 2.0 has ended all those other wars and won’t fight anymore new wars, and we can rationally deploy forces again and …oh, never mind.

Why are we screwing around with Cuba? Why are we driving it to imminent collapse? Like the Iran folly, what is the desired end state? When did Cuba ever become such an existential threat that we are willing to pull the plug on the whole island? Why are we carrying an almost seventy-year grudge against one guy that’s dead, and the brother with one foot in the grave? What happens if we do collapse the government? Does this add another job title to Marco Rubio’s desk plate – Protector Potentate of Cuba?

Given the ‘excursion’ to the Hormuz is working out about as well as a Carnival Cruise with rampant coronavirus, will this be the new ‘51^st state’ of opportunity? It is clear our previous adventure in Venezuela – another 51^st state candidate -- was setting up this play. We replaced one capo regime in Venezuela with another that is doing our dirty work — no oil to Cuba— in return for continued existence and bribes – the one thing this Administration has down pat. To be honest Caracas, we did you no favors, but I digress. We have now effectively blockaded the Cuban island – an act of war by military and international law, but again I digress. We allowed one ‘humanitarian shipment’ of what should have been sanctioned Russian oil on the last day of March just so we can wet their whistle – like oil waterboarding before deprivation I suppose. Now energy dehydration is really taking hold, and the citizens have begun taking to the streets, but not necessarily to welcome ‘los yanquis’. The CIA Director popped into Havana the other day apparently delivering the US terms and the Justice Department leaked they are going to indict 94-year-old Raúl Castro for something he allegedly ordered thirty years ago. He probably did order it, as well as allowed drug flights over Cuba from South America for most of the late 80’s and early 90’s – so why not resurrect that 1993 indictment while you are at it? Our Justice ambulance chasers move swiftly with useless activity when the White House needs attention diverted from a failed war excursion and a batch of pedophile files they still locked up. Again, what did the Cuban people do?

Probably the best strategic Secretary of Defense of the 21st Century, and great American public servant (two things the current SecDef won’t ascend to), Robert Gates was interviewed Friday by Margaret Brennan (CBS). He said the biggest threat to the USA from Cuba isn’t their government but the collapse this administration is orchestrating and the inevitable migration crisis into Florida it would cause – still closing Alligator Alcatraz are you? Gates (and I) acknowledge Cuba behaved like many other countries that caused persistent low to mid-level discomforts to our foreign policy, but they are not anywhere close to existential. As the supposed big dog (well, one of them, see my last essay about our demotion), you can expect some nipping at the ankles, gonna shoot all of them? Again, what did Cuba people do for this level of suffering?

We have been sanctioning the Cuban Government since before the Bay of Pigs and the Cuban Missile Crisis. What, if anything, has this accomplished besides driving the Cuban government deeper into our adversaries’ spheres of influence. They must go somewhere for the necessities they cannot provide for themselves. This policy was self-defeating from the beginning and only sustained through political patronage from the Cuban exile community, mostly based in southern Florida (I’m looking at you Marco Rubio).

Yes, Fidel and his brother were hard core socialists, even communists, but also Cuban patriots. They resented what American dominance -- dare I say imperialism – was ‘offering’ their country. Yes, they were brutal to their political opponents, and of great annoyance to us whenever they could be — see Grenada amongst others. But so were other countries we didn’t get along with back in the day but do pretty well with today. Even Vietnam, America’s greatest failure and enemy of the late 20^th Century is now a key trading and regional partner – and yes, I’m looking at you Mr. Bone Spurs in case you missed that experience and can’t relate. John McClain understood.

I think I know what Cuba did to deserve this treatment. They look like an easy mark for the imperialistic Donroe Doctrine and Marco is holding a family grudge. indicting a 94-year-old man will invite the ‘excuse’ for military force as needed. I don’t see Seal Team Six frog-walking Castro ala Maduro out of the country, but you get the drift. Other than that, Cuba was just one of those pesky gnats that always nipped at the peripherals of our superpowerdom. We could have had friendly relations if we tried even a little bit, but the Florida power structure and most Republicans would have to consider the needs of the many and not the few, or themselves---well, we can’t have that. Now that we have passed that superpower baton last week —well it was wretched out of someone’s feeble bruised hand — a distraction is again needed to prove we can still bully someone and still pardon anyone. It didn’t work out with Canada, who actually got mad at us (yes Canada, mad). Our northern neighbor also proved they can get along quite well without us, especially our booze. Greenland seems to be off the bullseye chart for now since NATO promised protection – well, all the other NATO nations not named the USA. Both of those are no longer primary 51^st state candidates. So, the bro’s in the White House and Pentagon noticed we have been deploying overwhelmingly wasteful naval forces in the Caribbean since late last year randomly blowing up alleged drug boats at will. They are now also being used against Cuban free trade – not quite the war crime murdering boat crews on the high seas without declaration, but still, something neighbors don’t do to each other.

What if we collapse the government and Marco gets to be Protector Potentate? Does anyone really believe the Cubans want this? Does anyone really believe the Venezuelans want their situation? Has anything improved for the Jose’-average Venezuelan? What do you think will happen if we don’t let the Venezuelans and Cubans keep their independence and rule themselves as they seem fit? If this keeps up the Marines will again be knee deep in Banana Wars and the Small Wars Manual (SMW21 revised 2013) will have some real-world lessons-learned to be added. Then we will have a reason to come home from that excursion in the Hormuz.

Have some ground to make up as I have been away from Substack during some busy times, so let’s get at it.

Historians and international relations academics have been consistent that the American Century has been on the wane in the Twenty First Century. America has struggled to maintain its apex position against other competitors for the last 20-30 years, consumed with nonsensical wars in the Middle East born from 9/11. The 2003 invasion of Iraq was voted the worst foreign policy decision ever by the Council of Foreign Relations in honor of our 250^th birthday. I have no doubt the 2026 attack on Iran will replace that folly as the worst ever in honor of our 300^th birthday, assuming we get there. Both have consumed the core of American power and the impression our competitors and friends have of us. Last week showed me the United States has now clearly stepped down from that apex, and our competitors and friends know it and witnessed it.

The state visit to China was not a disaster –well mostly, it was simply the changing of the guard between the declining power and the rising power. President Xi Jinping made sure it looked that way, guiding our president around the choreographed pomp and gardens like the fragile mentally disconnected grandfather (I’m being nice here) that he is and then sending him off the world stage so serious men in Asia can get to work. China saw their opening when we Americans accepted leadership comprised of unserious and unqualified hacks twice – a kakistocracy combined with a tech-bro kleptocracy that compromised all our democratic principles and alienated our allies. China saw it was time. Xi went so far as to openly state this fact by warning that conditions now existed for the “Thucydides Trap” of conflict between the PRC and USA. I have no doubt DJT had no clue what was said, or why. His hasty social media text later from Air Force One only showed me some aide belatedly informed him that China just pants the USA on the world stage. In case you missed his MAGA spin, it was somewhere between the posts about the reflecting pool, arches, palaces/ballrooms, and garden of heroes. You know, all those things that vacation tour guides take us to visit long gone empires. The nonsensical ‘Biden’ spin – it’s always about him when DJT doesn’t have an answer -- he came up with ignored the simple grammatical fact that Xi talked in the current tense, not immediate past tense. In the end, all we got out of that trip were the trinkets in the bling bags. Sorry, no real commitments on planes and beans. Putin heads to Beijing next week, let’s see how he does with his bling bag loaded with military supplies he desperately needs against Ukraine — remember them?

For those unfamiliar, the Thucydides Trap comes from the ancient Greek historian/philosopher that describes the friction between the rising power (China) and the declining power (that’s us) desperate to retain power thus increasing the likelihood of war. Of sixteen common examples historians use of the Trap over history, only four did not lead to war —with the Cold War as counted as ‘no war’. This is only one of the many traps the US willfully walked into in 2026.

By the way, the insistence of the declining power to keep getting into ‘smaller wars’ to show its strength is another sign of unreversible power decline that Thucydides and others have described over time. Sound like someone you know in the past 50 years?

China saw how vulnerable our position is as we are failing in economic strength and coercion (tariffs) and military coercion (Iran and it seems Taiwan). We no longer have diplomatic and soft power as we relegated USAID & Voice of America’s influence on the woke scrap heap. We turned our back on our previous strength in international institutionalism and do not now participate, leaving those platforms for China and others to manipulate. We have become isolated through our own mistreatment of our remaining allies – do I really need to go through that laundry list? Most importantly, China sees that Americans have lost our way in democratic and institutional principals and what we want the globe to look like. That was our core strength and what China feared the most. President Xi, early in his tenure, had a secret ‘Document #9’ distributed in 2013 to list the democratic characteristics that China had to fight from being imported and a threat to the Party. We are now throwing those same strengths away. I also refer you to a speech Anne Applebaum gave in Vienna a few days ago to ‘Europe’ about Europe’s position that best describes our current situation. <Video> or <text> . Ms. Applebaum could have been talking to us as she describes democracy’s critics and our passage to something different.

Besides loss of world prestige, Americans officially lost their liberal democracy when the Supreme Court solidified the illiberal concept and formal process of political parties picking their voters at any time, any place. Gerrymandering for all my friends. While I have repressed anger at the SCOTUS for their role in breaking down our institutions, I blame Congress for taking an extended vacation in the 21^st Century on the taxpayer dime. Therefore, I blame us more for reelecting them every two years to do, well, nothing but complain about their own voters and the other party.

Speaking of nonsensical smaller wars – the Iran War is now for all intent and purposes a ‘frozen war’, or at least a war that can either escalate very quickly again or is probably destined to be frozen in low level conflict for the foreseeable future. It cannot be won — the outcome of most of the small wars we fight. Testimony—I find it difficult to use that word for what Administration officials do in front of these Congressional committees –brings us to the inevitable conclusion there is no reasonable military solution to the Iran war. Iran’s blockade is staring at our blockade. Leaked intelligence and Iranian capabilities tell us the words ‘obliteration’, ‘destruction’, ‘complete’ and ‘total’ all have a different meaning in the White House and Pentagon than what Websters traditionally gave us. ‘Ceasefire’ certainly has a new meaning in Lebanon, Gaza, West Bank, Hormuz, and the anchorages about it. Airstrikes are routinely carried out by the Israelis, ships shot at or seized by both the American Navy and IRGC. The Sunnis Arab countries get hit with the occasional retaliatory missile or drone strike. The world energy economy is held hostage. This is a sustained frozen conflict that DJT is now bored with and does not want his name attached to. Netanyahu will inevitably continue in his theatre of operations to desperately hold onto power. We are stuck with no good way out. A political solution requires sober choices – can’t think of anyone running this circus — let alone the Pentagon not wearing a uniform — qualified to be sober.

And that was just last week. The only good thing that happened last week is that DJT did not find out about a mandatory course for Chinese college students called “An Overview of Socialist Thought with Chinese Characteristics in Xi Jinping’s New Era”. If DJT gets wind that Xi has his own ‘thought course’, he’ll finally have something for what’s left of his depleted Education Department to do. Probably will charge a personal branding fee for it as well. Or perhaps we already have it at Fox.