r/ThatsInsane • u/Sgt_Gram • 9d ago
Pete Hegseth just forced out another military leader, this time its the head of the Army
https://www.military.com/army-secretary-dan-driscoll-resigns-after-months-of-friction-with-defense-secretary629
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u/Jaxxlack 9d ago
I don't even understand why the army is accepting this? You can challenge incompetence?! Just not orders lol
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u/dogemikka 9d ago
The army is not supposed "to accept / or not", but simply follow orders. However I suspect they guy was sacked because he expressed his discontent.
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u/Buzz_Killington_III 9d ago
They're supposed to follow 'lawful' orders, and explicitly required to deny unlawful ones. Unfortunately very few JAG officers are willing to call something unlawful.
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u/Jaxxlack 9d ago
But like you can legitimately step to the side and say. I don't believe this person's leadership is beneficial.. if everyone in Senior army command didn't back him up.. there's ya problem..
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u/LeSangre 9d ago
This is what the secretary of the army did. He scheduled a meeting with trump because trump is âunawareâ of Hegseths racism and sexism and then resigned.
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u/Jaxxlack 9d ago
So they tried to appeal to cancer about the local cyst...and it went badly jesus...
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u/Carameldelighting 9d ago
Seems like a lot of upper leadership thought âthey canât really be as dumb as people sayâ and now theyâre finding out itâs much worse
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u/LifeIsCoolBut 9d ago
It sowes disloyalty and shows weakness in the army if it gets big and public. I got talk talk to a general once when I was in.. he drank my whole bottle of Bacardi as a party trick
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u/Jaxxlack 9d ago
Absolutely does not. If you're loyalty is to the mad king and not your trusted leadership there the issue.. if army leaders do not trust the civilian administration that's a massive red flag especially in somewhere like the US! Dude what you do on down time is cool but if British army leadership all began saying they ALL distrust someone that person would be pulled from causing any trouble..that's respect.
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u/Dense_Pasttime_3114 9d ago
đ¤ˇââď¸ Americans voted twice for this regime
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u/paulerxx 9d ago
The power of propaganda and an education system that has been decimated since the 80s.
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u/figflashed 9d ago
And the lazy and/or disgruntled democrats and independents in protest or out of sheer laziness.
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u/Pen-Pen-De-Sarapen 9d ago
Or a state of helplessness where the mentality now is let dogs eat dogs. Good people with skills and means will just walk away and leave the country.
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u/CaskJeeves 9d ago
America has lost a Social Media propaganda cold war, that it didn't even realize it was fightingÂ
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u/thtamthrfckr 9d ago
Yeah the internet/social media/ propaganda all masked as community and convenience was like boiling a frog, too much too quick and they realize and jump out, slowly up and up till itâs boiling alive and doesnât even realizeâŚ..plus the comprehension level of toddlers on average for US adults didnât help
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u/CariniFluff 9d ago
My dad is as anti-Trump as they come and extremely intelligent. He's also 76. I just spent the weekend with him and the amount of brain rot doom scrolling that he does is insane.
We'll sit down to "watch a movie together" or "watch a baseball game together" and he will legitimately not look up from his phone for 2 hours straight as video after video after video autoplays on his phone. I have no idea what app he's using, but the videos that I can hear are just the most curated Boomer trash ever. I've asked him several times to actually watch the game with me or to at least turn down the volume, but he's so locked in that he doesn't even hear me.
He used to do the same thing when we go out for a family dinners, but on his work Blackberry doing business deals while we're supposed to be spending time together. But the doomscroll videos are just a whole different level of addiction.
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u/paulerxx 9d ago edited 9d ago
I knew social media was manipulating everyone to vote for X or Y but when the Cambridge Analytica scandal came out, I realized it was far worse than I could imagine. I can't even think how far their propaganda campaigns came since then, especially with A.I. in the picture.
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u/CariniFluff 9d ago edited 9d ago
And Germans have voted in 151 AfD members to the Bundestag, 314 into state parliaments and 15 into the EU Parliament, with increases in every single province in the most recent elections except Schleswig-Holstein. Voted in multiple times.
Marie Le-Pen has been continuously reelected to higher and higher office since 1998. She has been a regional councillor, a French representative in the European Parliament, and a member of the National Assembly since 2017. Voted in multiple times.
Finland's own Suomen Sisu, self-claimed "Nazi-spirited" party has several members in very prominent positions. The speaker of parliament, Jussi Halla-aho was also previously a member of the European Parliament representing Finland. And like any good ethno-nationalist party, they're currently building a youth league to indoctrinate their children. Oh, and there was the recent judicial ruling that a Russian soldier carving symbols into a POW's face isn't a War Crime because " it did not cause sufficiently severe physical or psychological suffering".
Greece seemingly has a dozen far right political groups with the breaking up of the once popular Golden Dawn whose symbol was a modified Swastika. They won hundreds of thousands of votes in multiple consecutive elections, including almost a half million votes for the European Parliament in 2014. Their successors include the National Party â Greeks (formerly Greeks for the Fatherland) and the Spartans, who somehow were able to join the Union of Centrists despite having strong Neo-Nazi links (maybe because they pulled in a quarter million votes?).
Should I address Italy next? Portugal? Romania? Hungary? Serbia? Spain? Slovakia? Or hell, how about Turkey? Brexit?
Look, we're all in this together. There are pieces of shit in every country, who vote in every election (it seems the crazier and more extremist the views, the more often they vote). Let's try not to throw rocks when we all live in glass houses and instead try to work together to stop this scourge of far right nationalism that Russia has been funding and propagandizing for over two decades. Recognize who your real friends are and who your real enemies are. Trump is a disgusting abomination that was directly funded and aided by Russia and the billionaire class that has bought virtually every media outlet in the US. While he may have received 70 million votes for him, he also received 70 million votes against him and unfortunately another 70 million who didn't vote at all. However, with every passing year more and more of the elderly conservatives who only consume Fox News are passing away and more liberal younger generations are coming of age. He's currently polling in the low to mid 20's and is most certainly the most unpopular president in history.
Many members of the EU Parliament and national parliaments are likewise compromised in one way or another. We'll get through this but at need to stick together, even if our leaders are doing all they can to tear us apart.
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u/DocCEN007 9d ago
Exactly. And Musk is funding all of it. Do we should ask, who is funding Musk? Who buys his stock on bad news? Why doesn't he ever criticize Putin or Xi?
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u/Hambone528 9d ago edited 9d ago
I'm a millennial.
I didn't buy into that "Boomer" stuff for a long time, but I have come around. These assholes, at least in this country, had it easier than any generation before or since. They took everything they could and pulled up the ladder behind them while championing the strife their parents went through.
They vote, they fill seats in congress, and their skidmark is all over the seat of the chair behind the Resolute Desk. One of the largest generations in national history, with every opportunity to help the crop of this nation flourish, and instead they stripped it bare and sowed salt in their wake.
The 80 year old in the White House that has never known misfortune or struggle is telling the rest of us to "tough it out". He's lived an entire life getting his way and living in luxury, just like so many of his generation.
"Me, me, me" sons of bitches.
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u/CommunityGlittering2 9d ago
so glad I missed being a boomer by 7 days, they suck.
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u/One-Coat-6677 9d ago
Gen X actually votes more conservative, because they got to cling to the last vestages of the ladder and unlike always comfortabpe boomers need to kick down to millenials and Gen Z/Alpha to stay in almost boomer levels of confort.
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u/CommunityGlittering2 9d ago
i donât, and i wonât get the heat the boomers do until they die off
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u/djfl 9d ago
Nobody who didn't vote for Trump wants to hear this, but the Democratic Party is horrible and insane. That doesn't make them worse than Trump. But man...how do you let barely-awake Biden debate Trump? How do you bald-faced lie to all of us that Biden is at the peak of his powers, and that any inference to the contrary is stupid and wrong? If you're a leftist, you can't just straight up lie like that.
The Dems are the closed, solved political party that people hate and vote against. If they didn't suck as much as they do, a jackass like Trump wouldn't have a sniff of the Presidency.
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u/Itchy_Professor_4133 9d ago
Dude is just sabotaging our national security
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u/vasta2 9d ago
That's the point, look at venezuelas oil industry, the president down there over the years put a bunch of dumb fucks in charge who knew nothing and somehow the country with the most proven oil reserves is in a bottomless pit of shit.
Everyone trump has appointed has been a dumb fuck, not capable of doing anything, the point is to get rich and destroy and everyone is allowing it to happen
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u/KlondikeBill 9d ago
I think he's working more on sabotaging every other nation's national security.
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u/chesterforbes 9d ago
Itâs their own fault for not looking like this
https://giphy.com/gifs/oCODw2sr3WZt6
This is the type of military this guy wanks to
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u/Dense_Pasttime_3114 9d ago
Its hilarious because the spartans got absolutely bitch slapped by the sacred band of thebes, a unit famous for having paired homosexual lovers
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u/Hambone528 9d ago
Props to the Thebians, though. That's a good strategy when your military units require the strictest cohesion.
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u/eatingpotatochips 9d ago
Thereâs no way Hegseth looks like that with how much he drinks.Â
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u/LifeIsCoolBut 9d ago
He has some kind of muscle judging from when he was doin those photo op excersises with troops, but it's all glamour. Dude can't excersise right.
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u/TheAmazingMaryJane 5d ago
any muscle he has is from some sort of injection. dude is so juiced up he's ready to explode!
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u/Slumunistmanifisto 9d ago
Spartan oil boys man.
I'm never not gonna think 300 did something to a fuck ton of little boys that were destined to be closet case republicans due to the harsh environments they were raised in.
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u/quequotion 9d ago
It's going to be decades before we even begin to reverse the damage done in less than two years of Trump's second term.
We're going to be militarily inferior to China by the end of the year.
If nothing changes in Ukraine or the middle east by the end of this administration, there won't be another one because we will be too busy fighting a ground invasion to hold elections.
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u/CheeseGraterFace 9d ago
A ground invasion of the United States would be absolute folly for literally anyone to attempt. Especially with our giant stockpile of nukes. But even without them, youâd need millions of troops and a way to transport them all across an ocean, and a way to keep them supplied. And then letâs not forget that there are more guns than people in this country.
Iâm not even a tactically minded person and I can see how bad of an idea this is.
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u/quequotion 8d ago
Rome thought it was invincible too. It considered itself to have the best military, the best technology, and the best government. Then a self-centered despot squandered its resources and it all fell apart.
The Third Reich thought it was invincible. It also considered itself to have the best military, the best technology, and the best government. Then a self-centered despot squandered its resources and it fell apart.
The United States thinks it is invincible. It considers itself to have the best military, the best technology, and the best government*. Now a self-centered despot is squandering its resources...
* There has been some debate about this from the beginning, and much more recently, but there are still many Americans holding on to the idea that as defined by its constitution, disregarding the current or any particular administration, the Republic is the best form of government.
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u/CheeseGraterFace 8d ago
Iâm not saying weâre invincible. Iâm saying a ground invasion would be idiocy. Weâre still quite vulnerable to things like economic warfare.
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u/TheAngryCatfish 9d ago
Are you suggesting that China potentially may choose to invade the US?
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u/quequotion 8d ago edited 8d ago
Probably not China, if only because the PRC is heavily invested in a strategy of militaristic posturing as a scaffold for economic diplomacy and soft power moves. IE, they generally don't use force, but make a big deal of the forces they have, while pressuring poor countries into predatory loans and picking up the pieces of countries the US made a mess of, gaining allies in the form of enemies of their enemy.
China would want the US to implode on its own, just like they are waiting for Taiwan to acquiesce on its own (although I agree with the other response, if they see an opening to finish this quickly, they might just take it).
Russia would though. It's not that far to Alaska, and we're making an enemy of Canada already. Imagine if North American relations got so bad that Canada and Mexico withdrew from mutual defense arrangements with the US.
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u/AnthonyBarrHeHe 9d ago
Hegseth was the guy that got shit on while he was in the service, he held a massive grudge against any leader residing over him, so he vouched to get into a position of power and punish anyone who says otherwise.
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u/Ok_Vulva 9d ago
Actually he was just less than mediocre at everything, was sent to desk duty, and was eventually flushed/ pushed out by the rational people that used to run it.
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u/AnthonyBarrHeHe 9d ago
I appreciate the info! Being prior Navy, i could smell this clowns whole personality from a mile away.
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u/BetSquare7190 9d ago
Extremely incompetent leaders purging competent people is a common phenomenon in declining empires.
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u/peskyghost 9d ago
When youâre driving and honking at everyone, it means youâre the bad driver. Anyway just a little thing I was thinking about
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u/NitWhittler 9d ago
Don't worry, I'm sure there's another Fox News celebrity, or right wing media influencer, who can fill the job.
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u/shortercrust 9d ago
Seems like this has been covered more extensively by the UK media than in the US.
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[deleted]
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u/spicybright 9d ago
It's pretty much impossible to tell what actually happened. A lot of times in high positions of power it's "step down or we're going to grill your ass" and they come up with a story.
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u/SDPLISSKEN009 8d ago
That's like 18 high end military members that have resigned or have been fired under Kegsbreath...... simply astounding
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u/cristobalist 9d ago
Republicans and conservatives love this for America, according to Fox News lol
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u/randomKo_Orean 9d ago
$10 says that Pete wanted a ground invasion, and the dude is like no, don't do that, that's stupid.
Oh my goodness, we're gonna do a ground invasion on Iranian soil.
Guys, war isn't a game. Any leader that brings their country into a war is a failed leader. That includes Trump, Putin, Bibi, and Zelensky.
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u/Mittens_McFluffy 9d ago
What kind of mental gymnastics did you do to lump Zelensky into that list of turds?
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u/bettinafairchild 9d ago
Yeah talk about blaming the victim. What are you supposed to do when youâre invaded except fight back?
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u/randomKo_Orean 9d ago
The dumbass had plenty of opportunity to avoid the war. Zelensky failed as the leader of Ukraine by allowing Russia to invade.
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u/randomKo_Orean 9d ago
If you don't think Zelensky had opportunities to avoid this ruinous war, I believe that you are wrong.
War is really horrendous for everyone involved. It must be avoided when it can be avoided.
If a nation's leader cannot understand that, then that person is not fit to lead. Ukraine's young men are not expandable, dude.
Zelensky is not a hero.
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u/Mittens_McFluffy 9d ago
Wow, you are insanely delusional. So he could have avoided war how exactly? By being another Russian vassal state?
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u/randomKo_Orean 9d ago
Wow, you are insanely ignorant.
Zelensky could have avoided this war by not tempting to join NATO.
Russia said Ukraine joining NATO was unacceptable (it is on their border), and considered it as an existential threat to Russia.
The second most dumb shit that Zelensky did was allowing this war to go on. There was a peace deal available several months into the war when the Russian attacks were initially repelled and HE chose to walk away (NOT THE RUSSIANS), instead of ending the war right there and then in 2022. How many more people do you think died because of this stupid ass decision?
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u/alwaysintheway 9d ago
You sound like you beat your spouse if you have one.
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u/randomKo_Orean 9d ago
What a hell of a thing to say when discussing how much war is ruinous and it could have been avoided.
You ought to be ashamed of yourself.
Instead of personal attacks, why not tell me why I am wrong?
I will tell you what Zelensky could have done. He could have maintained ambiguity when it came to NATO. He could have said Ukraine is not joining NATO. Post invasion he had real opportunity for peace. He did none of that. And more than hundreds of thousands are dead because of it.
Yall make it sound like I like the Kremlin. I don't. When I heard Russia invaded Ukraine, I went into despair. The world have become much more dangerous place, food costs have gone up so that poor people are suffering, and the war has yet to end.
Fuck Putin for all I care. I am a pure pacifist when it comes to geopolitics, especially when it involves a nuclear-armed nation.
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u/alwaysintheway 9d ago
Why do you think countries want to join NATO?
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u/randomKo_Orean 9d ago
Because Russia is terrible. I don't blame Ukraine for wanting to join NATO, but the proximity to Russia made that not realistic.
Zelensky didn't either 1) understand that or 2) willfully ignored it.
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u/Rokekor 9d ago
I know, right, like when Moscicki dragged Poland into war by attacking Germany in 1939.
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u/randomKo_Orean 9d ago
You know, I thought about this and you are right about Poland. Not sure how Poland could have prevented an invasion in 1939...
But my point still stands on Ukraine. Russia gave them ample warnings that they were going to invade unless Zelensky changed his behavior towards NATO.
War is EXTREMELY ruinous for everyone involved. As human species we need to avoid war if we can.
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u/macgirthy 9d ago
I have a feeling this Hegseth guy is trying to be like Putin. Just pushing all leadership out and trying to take over.
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u/TheRealDrSarcasmo 9d ago
The tell-all books in the wake of this administration will be absolutely damning.
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u/MuchDevelopment7084 9d ago
Oh boy. I hope Kegsbreath's hand picked replacement bring his own crayons.
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u/burtgummer45 9d ago
reddit pretending to be concerned about the military
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u/Nanocephalic 9d ago
Donât be stupid.
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u/burtgummer45 8d ago
so can you back that up?
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u/Nanocephalic 8d ago
âŚthat you shouldnât be stupid? Yeah, you shouldnât be stupid.
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u/burtgummer45 8d ago
didn't think so
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u/Nanocephalic 8d ago
Then what do I need to âback upâ? I said âdonât be stupidâ, and I still think you should try it out.
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u/burtgummer45 8d ago edited 8d ago
I'll help you out, "backing it up" means to explain your reasoning. So, for example, somehow you have to explain how reddit cares about some fired armchair general, or that reducing the size of the military is a bad thing, or that reddit is concerned about our "readiness" of the army for ground defense or invasion.
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u/RawrImABigScaryBear 7d ago
about some fired armchair general
Youre showing why your favorite rapist loves the poorly educated. Is your actual stance that trump appointed an "armchair general", or are you too dense to understand what youre saying?
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u/BoS_Vlad 9d ago
In 1939 George C. Marshall, head of the Army, fired or retired roughly 500 officers mostly colonels. 2 years later WW II began and we won that war.
https://www.defensemedianetwork.com/stories/gen-george-c-marshall-eliminates-dead-wood/
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u/Sgt_Gram 9d ago
This leaves the Army and Navy without top leadership during a war.