No More Hugging The Bear

Sometimes it amazes me how several different stories come together at the same time to highlight an underlying problem. Here's the latest example.

I was catching up on some back reading - in this case, last month's issue of the American Legion magazine. It had an article about NATO Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove of the U.S. Air Force discussing the current state of affairs between Russia and the NATO alliance.

For too long, according to NATO Commander Gen. Philip Breedlove, NATO has “hugged the bear” – a reference to Western efforts to reassure Russia, carve a special Russian place within NATO headquarters, and downgrade the quantity and quality of military assets in Europe. What NATO has gotten in return, Breedlove concludes, is “a revanchist Russia that has put force back on the table as an instrument of national power” – a Russia that is “blatantly attempting to change the rules and principles that have been the foundation of European security for decades.”

(Earlier this year) the Russian military announced it had reactivated the 1st Guards Tank Army, a large armored force based in western Russia equipped with some 500 T-72 and T-80 main battle tanks. In January, Moscow unveiled plans to deploy three new divisions on Russia’s western borders. There were 160 Russian incursions into Baltic airspace in 2015. After attending the annual Conference of European Armies, retired Army Gen. Robert Scales reported that the consensus among European military brass is that “Putin’s most dangerous and perhaps most likely next move will be against the Baltic states.”

Shortly after reading that came the news about Russian jets buzzing a U.S. destroyer in international waters.

Russian jets speed past US Navy destroyer in 'simulated attack profile'

Two Russian warplanes buzzed a U.S. Navy guided-missile destroyer in the Baltic Sea in what a defense official called a "simulated attack profile," one of several close encounters between the destroyer and the aircraft this week.

The USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) was conducting flight operations with a Polish helicopter Monday when two Russian Su-24 attack aircraft approached at an “unsafe” speed and altitude and buzzed the Navy destroyer as the helicopter was taking off from the destroyer’s flight deck, the defense official told Fox News.

The Russian jets came within 1,000 yards of the destroyer, flying just 100 feet off the ground, a defense official said. The next day, a Russian jet came within just 30 feet of the destroyer, the defense official said.

The story goes on to relate a series of similar incidents. And how has obama responded to those provocative acts?

That was highlighted in the third article I read.

Navy moves toward gender-neutral uniforms

...the Navy strives to reach gender neutrality in uniform for sailors.

This most likely came about as a result of a media discussion in July 2015 about U.S. considerations of transgender personnel currently in the military.  Some of them were wearing the female versions of military uniforms of several countries.

For God's sake, do not click to embiggen. You've been warned.

Yes, you read that right. At a moment of great strategic challenge and peril, the Navy is focused on implementing obama's progressive agenda.

It's not just the Navy. Our entire military is over-deployed, underfunded, understaffed, undertrained, underresourced, and totally lacking in adult supervision.

This is not a rant against gays or transgendered or women or any other SIG (Special Interest Group). It is, however, a rant against the shabby manner in which our military is being managed - or more accurately, mismanaged. If there is one group of people that should be accorded special treatment it is those who have voluntarily put this country's interests ahead of their own.

But that's what you get when a 'progressive' is in charge.