The plight of the American Military without might
America currently spends more on defense than the next 10 countries combined, nearly 45% of global defense spending belongs to America. But when you look at Uncle Sam's wars in the past few decades, namely in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria, many of them have turned into disasters.
The question is why has the country so little to show for the blood and treasure it's invested in its wars? Why can't America win its wars?
The rules of the American military
A closer look at the fabric of America's military institution will reveal the answer. The institution has been infested with chronic problems like rising neo-Nazism, far right ideology, rampant rape cases, and, a recruiting crisis.
A rather shocking report shows that a former US soldier was sentenced to 45 years in prison for helping a neo-Nazi group plot to kill troops.
Other reports show that neo-Nazism, Satanism, and, far right ideologies have increased in the US military. The far right extremism has also been on the rise in the general public.
Now the question is, is this just a reflection of the general tendency or is the case in the military institution worse than the societal norm?
That's a complex question. Satanism is very different from neo Nazism. It has been reported on and speculated and rumored that many of the United States elite, very wealthy people, including politicians, are Satanists.
They have reportedly made trips to Jeffrey Epstein's island off the Atlantic coast, where satanic rituals take place. There hasn't been any real proof of this as of now.
In terms of Neo Nazism, there are over 500 designated groups by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, these are radical, far right wing people and they are all heavily armed. In terms of the army, I haven't heard about any neo Nazi groups in the army, but there are certainly many in the army who are very conservative and could be considered as far right extremists.
They are all heavily armed and many of these groups distrust the government, and they have for many decades, and many are preparing for armed conflict against the government.
Regis Tremblay, Independent Filmmaker
A report by the Southern Poverty Law Center shows one in five applicants to the white supremacist group, Patriot Front, claim to hold current or former ties to the US military, the Patriot Front is a white supremacist and Neo Fascist hate group that emerged as a rebrand of the neo Nazi organization after the so called Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.
Why are these people getting so radicalized?
I don't really necessarily look at it as the far right, ... I understand how people can get into these kinds of little quagmires and they can play this game of far right and far left. I think these people that they do radicalize and push over the edge are people who are coming from some bad situations and I think that's what we need to look at as the actual root of what's going on.
It's very easy to move these people in a certain direction. And when I say these people and who's moving them, I'm talking about all these deep state intelligence apparatus [sic] like the FBI, they have to justify their budget. So if they can prove that there's radicals on either side of the fence and make sure that we put them in a quagmire of sorts, of red team versus blue team, and keep people divided, then they'll do so.
But I've always said this before, and I'll say it again, it's because of the conditions these gentlemen are coming out of; all forms of existing bigotry are hyper inflated at times of economic distress. So these people are very, they're suffering, they are lost, and their home in America has been broken down [sic] so it's very easy to radicalize these people.
Craig Jardula, Journalist
In March 2021, the Pentagon released a report that cited domestic extremist groups posing an increasing threat to the military by attempting to recruit service members, and in certain situations, joined the military to gain combat experience.
What are the reasons for the shift towards far right extremism in both the public and military sphere?
As I mentioned above, I think primarily it's a lack of trust in the government. Many people are realizing that the government has lied to them and the government does not represent their interest.
And this is the same in the military command structure.
You don't get to the top of the command by being controversial, these generals and higher offices get there because they do the bidding of the politicians and the people in the White House.
And I believe this is the source of this shift to the right, and in many cases, far right extremism.
Regis Tremblay, Independent Filmmaker
The extremism has not just shifted to the right; there are now many people who say the far left ideology is just as bad. In both instances, reasons can be given to tip the scales in one direction or the other.
Why are these extremists ending up serving in the army?
Well, I think it's just society as a whole, and once again I don't think it's a shift to the far right or far left; they're doing it on both sides of the fence, we're getting pushed here from [sic] the puppet masters behind the scenes. And that is mainly because they want to keep people divided and keep people scared, and they also want to justify their existence.
You know, when you look at a lot of these articles, they'll always mention the FBI, but they'll mention them late and they'll push forth all the things that the neighbors need to blame each other, to point their fingers at each other and also,... When you get these people in a state you can get them and you can weaponize them and use them in your foreign policy, especially if you have them in the military.
We know for many years that the United States military has always,... and the intelligence agencies, has always funded the most radical groups.
It said that in the Ukraine, for instance, that we knew, and that is the CIA and the American empire, we knew that the Ukrainian military wouldn't fire on their own people in the Donbass. So what did we do? We found the most craziest radical group in the Azov battalion because we knew they would do the deed.
So it's been able to get, using people as a weapon, but as the ultimate weapon and so when you get the most radicalized of people you can get them to do basically anything.
Craig Jardula, Journalist
The Pentagon has also reported that the US military experienced its highest recorded level of sexual assault against women.
The report shows that reports of sexual assault increased by roughly 13% in 2021 compared with the previous year, a staggering 8.4% of active duty women are estimated to have experienced some form of unwanted sexual contact.
It's fairly well known if one travels to, outside of the country, to any of the 800 United States military bases in more than 90 countries, that around every single base, there are incidents of rape, murder and other violent crimes including robbery and burglary.
This is not something new. This has been going on for decades and decades. And what has the military done? I think basically nothing to curb this problem. They cover it up. They don't allow the people who have committed these atrocities to go on trial in those countries where they are serving. And they either stay there or they are returned to the United States.
So it's a very, very huge problem within the military, but it's a huge problem with the respect that the United States is losing, and has lost, in these countries where these 800 bases, basically, are occupying forces.
Regis Tremblay, Independent Filmmaker
Sexual assault cases in the military have been reported for many years, the staggering numbers have forced lawmakers to pass laws that will prosecute cases of rape and sexual assault, taking the cases out of the hands of military commanders.
The Pentagon report reveals that only 39% of women in the military said they trusted the system to treat them with dignity and respect after such an incident.
I do agree that it's somewhat damaging but I don't think it really bothers the heads at the top. Once again, this is a problem in society.
We have a broken society, our young men and women are drugged up, they're thrust upon with all these different substances, their houses broken, and at the end of the day, I know that the military, since it's an all volunteer military, that they just want to make sure that they're gonna get some killers.
So they're going to have to take on some of the worst of the worst, and they're just going to weed out the bad ones. And when I say bad, for them, those are the ones who just can't pick up a gun and go kill somebody for them, who will cause too much [sic] problems within their own groups in the military, but they'll just weed them out and get the ones that will do the jobs for them.
Craig Jardula, Journalist
Sexual assault erodes trust and cohesion in the military. The data shows six out of 10 women in the army did not express trust in the military to ensure their safety after an incident.
In general, do you think anyone in the hierarchy or the top brass in the US military really cares about such damaging reports?
No, at the end of the day, the top brass of the military do not care that there are these damaging reports because you know why? It's never going to reflect on themselves [sic]. It's never going to reflect on the military. It's only going to reflect on the individual, and they have ways of putting it on the individual and stepping out and giving themselves no accountability whatsoever.
That's what they've been doing for quite some time. What do they want? They want soldiers who could kill, right, and it is a voluntary military. So therefore they do have to weed out these people. But at the end of the day, all they really do care about is if they can get that person to go and do what's necessary for them.
And they've glorified, every single step of the way, the killing which needs to be done by demonizing the enemy; the people from Iran are the enemy, the people from Russia are the enemy, the people from China are the enemy.
Our society doesn't travel enough to these countries or open up our cultures. All we are is taught in school to hate somebody that we don't know, and that we've never met.
So I don't think the top brass of the military does care. They have all these mechanisms within their treasure chest in which they can manipulate their soldiers to go and kill in the name of US Empire.
Craig Jardula, Journalist
Senior officers in the US military, whether active or retired, frequently appear in the media for committing legal or ethical offenses, which range from taking bribes to using their official title in the service of partisan politics.
The reputation of the Armed Forces is being put at risk by the bad behavior of numerous senior officers in matters political, occupational, and financial.
Now in terms of the high command, as I mentioned before, you don't get to the top without doing the bidding of the President of the United States and the foreign policy elites. You just don't get there.
So basically, they are Yes-Men, and Yes-Women. And it does seem that they don't really care. They're concerned more with preserving the reputation and sugarcoating things and sweeping them under the carpet.
Regis Tremblay, Independent Filmmaker
Reports also showed that the US Army, over the past year, again increased the number of recruits who have prior criminal records by granting them special exceptions.
Why would the US military recruit criminals?
We have an all volunteer military and that's going to cause some problems because, quite frankly, I think the military and the United States foreign policy has caught up to the people and they're starting to realize that hey, man, I've been told to go hate this guy who looks different than me. I've been told to go hate this country that is not like me, that this country, they're causing the problems.
Well, I think that's caught up to the people and they realize, hey, maybe it's not the immigrant that they're saying, or the foreigner that they're saying is the problem. Maybe it's the military itself.
And when that happens, you're gonna have less [sic] people joining, less [sic] people being recruited that they can get involved. So what do you have to do? You have to go to people who have no choices, and a lot of times, that's people who are going to jail.
They did this during the Ronald Reagan era, when Ronald Reagan sent so many people, he told them 'you can go to jail for six years. You can go to the military for four years, make a choice', and they took the choice of joining the military.
So now you're not gonna get the best of the best, you're gonna get people who have no choices, who are looking for a way out, so they're gonna just jump on in and go fight in the military, and that's where they're at right now because they are losing legitimate recruiting tools because their foreign policy is so screwed up.
Craig Jardula, Journalist
The military routinely grants waivers to recruits with past criminal behavior, medical problems, or low aptitude scores, which would otherwise disqualify them from service.
The army has been struggling to increase the size of its force amid its increasingly unpopular campaigns in West Asia.
First off, the military, in all of the branches, are desperate to fulfill their recruiting quotas. And this has been the case for several years. They're desperate,... not being able to replace the troops as they once were.
There's several reasons for this, but what they are doing is changing the requirements for minor criminal offenses, marijuana smoking for example, they've changed the requirements, about gays, transgenders, obese people, and people without at least a high school degree [diploma].
These were all very, very strict requirements in previous years, and now they've been laxed, they've been reduced. This has had a detrimental effect on the troops.
Regis Tremblay, Independent Filmmaker
The army missed its recruitment goal for the fiscal year 2022 by 25%, which equates to 15,000 soldiers. In July it also cut its projection for the overall size of the force for the current fiscal year by 10,000 and projected that it will likely see another decline in 2023.
The secretary of the US Army says the nation risks falling behind in the race against China if it cannot recruit enough Americans into the armed service to be trained for future conflicts.
I mean, they're still trying to do everything they can to get people to go, right, so I think the methods and the tactics have changed, they still have the same goal, to get as many people in as possible that will fight in the military at their command and do what they have to do.
But we have a different society here at home. We have different tools; we have technology that is boom. So what do you do now? How do you recruit people? Well, you use your propaganda. How about your video games? I mean, there are video games out there, I believe it's, I can't even remember one of the games but it's a military war game where they have white helmets as the good guys coming on In.
So they try to tell these stories as you're addicted to a video game and they try to put out a narrative which is going to attract to you and say okay, this is doing my duty, this is patriotic here if I joined the military. Even the methods in which they use the video game controllers, or the way they're similar to the way that drones are flown.
So they've changed the methods in which they try to recruit people. But at the end of the day, how much is it going to work when your foreign policy is that bad? When everybody is starving here at home? When you have the homeless count almost over 750,000 in the United States?
Sooner or later, people are going to start saying wait a second; it’s not that guy, it's this guy who's lying to me, and that's why they have problems here in the United States.
People know they're lying.
Craig Jardula, Journalist
Many experts believe the reason why the United States have failed so miserably in its military campaigns In countries like Afghanistan and Iraq is because of the military itself.
For instance, renowned political scientist, John Mearsheimer, who also served for more than 10 years in the US military, says one of the reasons for the failures of US wars in the Middle East is the fabric of the US military institution itself.
He asserts that it is impossible to drive nation building projects with the US military.
I completely agree with John Mearsheimer. It goes all the way back to the war in Vietnam, where the United States said we're trying to build a nation of freedom and democracy.
It's never been that way. It's never been that way in any of the adventures, military adventures that the United States has undertaken since Vietnam. That was never the case in Iraq, was never the case in Syria, it was never the case in Libya. And it was never the case in Afghanistan, in Yemen, Somalia and so many other places.
It's never been about nation building. It's about the imposition of American rule and domination, and it's about America's national security interest. And what that means is money, resources and cheap labor.
This is at the root of America's wars abroad.
Regis Tremblay, Independent Filmmaker
The US military flounders in the human domain of conflict with respect to foes, friends, and bystanders alike. Its failure to engage with the building blocks of humanity, culture, society, politics, economics and religion, leaves its strategies and plans uncovered as duplicitous schemes, doomed to failure and inevitably leading to death, destruction and injury throughout the world.
The Afghan collapse exemplifies the fact that nation building is something that the US military is incapable of.
My take on that is he's 100% right,... there's too much ignorance involved when it comes to the foreign policy aspect of Americans. We don't get out there.
We don't understand other cultures. We don't listen, we don't learn. And we get duped by this whole pipe dream of sorts that, you know, we're spreading democracy, and we're providing you know, freedom all over the world.
And those used to be great words, freedom and democracy, but it's not up to us to decide what happens on the other side of the world.
People have found out that it's not about us spreading democracy, or spreading freedom, it's about our corporations taking resources, extracting them, from these countries.
Craig Jardula, Journalist
A new great game is underway. The United States’ unipolar moment is coming to a close. As a hegemonic power on borrowed time, Uncle Sam must compete to secure his interests; however, his military is just not up to the task.
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