Senatorial Courtesy
“It appears ‘General’ Rand Paul is at it again. He just called for the immediate withdrawal of all forces from Afghanistan as a way to give the US military a pay raise. Fortunately, only ‘General’ Paul—and the Taliban—think that’s a good idea.”—Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), post on his Twitter account, after Kentucky Republican Senator Paul spoke out against continued US involvement, Feb. 9.
Jokes from a Trash Heap
“The aerospace force will continue to maintain the reliable protection of Russian airspace. Should American pilots, knowing this fact, fall into depression or succumb to any phobias, we advise the US side to exclude these flight routes near Russia’s borders in the future.”—Russian Ministry of Defense, mocking US complaints of dangerous Russian fighter activity over the Black Sea, official statement released Feb. 1.
Cognitive Dissonance
“I had been away from the national security world for a while. … I was getting briefed to be prepared for my [Senate confirmation] hearings, and I saw the first charts on readiness. I actually thought they had inverted the numbers. I was in the service during the Cold War, and the readiness numbers are far lower than any general officer would have accepted during that time.”—Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson, Washington Examiner, Jan. 23.
Unacceptable or Irreversible
“North Korea acquired nuclear weapons to assure its regime’s survival. In its view, to give them up would be tantamount to suicide. An outcome that was widely considered unacceptable is now on the verge of becoming irreversible.”—Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Senate Armed Services Committee, Jan. 25.
Great Moments in Policy
“I’m not allowing [tattoo] ‘sleeves’ [on arms]. I’m not. My wife disagrees with me. She thinks I’m stupid. She says, ‘How can you judge them [Marine Corps recruits] on their ink?’ I said, ‘I don’t judge them; I just don’t want them being Marines.’ This is not an episode of ‘Vikings,’ where we’re tattooing our faces. We’re not a biker gang. We’re not a rock and roll band. … You can get 70 percent of your body covered with ink and still be a Marine. Is that enough?”—Gen. Robert B. Neller, Commandant of the Marine Corps, on USMC tattoo policy, military.com, Feb. 2.
Educated Beyond His Intelligence
“We’ve got all our freakin’ night-vision goggles, all that kind of stuff, and we can’t freakin’ control these dudes wearing freakin’ robes and chanclas [flip-flops]. It’s because we’ve got a bunch of dumb shits over there. Think about the people who you know over there—your freakin’ stupid Uncle Louie or whoever. They’re dumb shits. They’re not, like, high-level thinkers. They’re not academic people. They’re not intellectual people. They’re the freakin’ lowest of our low.”—Gregory Salcido, a Pico Rivera, Calif., public high school teacher, ranting to his class about US troops in Afghanistan, recorded by a student on Jan. 19. Salcido was suspended.
Shovel Ready
“ISIS needs to understand that the Joint Force is on orders to annihilate them. So, they have two [courses of action], should they decide to come up against the United States, our allies, and partners: Surrender or die! … If they choose not to surrender, then we will kill them with extreme prejudice, whether that be through security force assistance, dropping bombs on them, shooting them in the face, or beating them to death with our entrenching tools.”—Army Command Sgt. Maj. John Wayne Troxell, senior enlisted advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, post on Facebook, Jan. 9.
Foundational
“I am very concerned … that, while we have taken a pause in terms of recapitalizing our nuclear forces, the Russians are continuing to invest in their nuclear forces, both strategic and nonstrategic, and the Chinese have continued to steadily develop and diversify their nuclear capability. Other nations—India, Pakistan—continue to expand and diversify and increase the size of their nuclear forces. … In this more challenging world, I go back to the first principle, and that is that the basic foundation of our national security is nuclear deterrence.”—Retired USAF Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz, former head of Global Strike Command and the National Nuclear Security Administration, defensenews.com, Jan. 24.
Sign Language
“Many Americans aren’t in touch with just how close we are to war. … The warning signs that the military has shifted to a more aggressive posture are clear. We recently sent the USS Michigan, a nuclear submarine, to South Korea. In October, we sent three US Navy nuclear-powered Nimitz-class aircraft carriers … to the Western Pacific. B-52s have now joined our B-1 and B-2 bombers in Guam. … Across the country, the Army is practicing how to activate mobilization centers. … The Army is buying more bridging equipment. … It’s painfully clear … that we shouldn’t ignore the signals these actions send.”—Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), address at Georgetown University, Jan. 19.
Too Many Damn Hornets
“Right now, we’ve got too many [F/A-18] Hornets. We’ve got too many airplanes. We need to get rid of them, because we don’t have time to fix them. You have just got to get rid of them. We need more airplanes that can fly.”—Gen. Robert B. Neller, Commandant of the Marine Corps, remarks at Center for Strategic and International Studies, Jan. 25.
What the Bundeswehr is About
“The hard currency in which the success of the [German] defense minister is measured is the readiness of the Bundeswehr [German armed forces]. That has not really improved in the last four years but rather has become worse. While foreign missions with small contingents [of German forces] went well, the Bundeswehr as a whole cannot currently be used in the collective [i.e., NATO] defense. Incidentally, the average age of all new hires will tend to go up because the Bundeswehr is no longer just about recruiting young people.”—Hans-Peter Bartels, Germany’s parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, quoted in militarytimes.com, Jan. 25.