The military needs to go Back to the 1990s

[jmowreader]

On December 7, 1995, the city of Fayetteville, NC, was shocked by the revelation that two members of the 82nd Airborne, James Burmeister and Malcolm White, had gone into town and killed two Black people at random. During the investigation they determined these two individuals were racist skinheads trying to "earn" a tattoo of a spiderweb on their elbow (this is a signal to other skinheads that the wearer had killed a black person) and there was a fairly large racist skinhead culture in the Army. This led to massive changes in the military - for one thing, they brought every soldier in the Army, one at a time, into a room containing three officers, required them to strip naked, and inspected them all for the presence of racist tattoos...they also ended the experiment where there were no more room inspections in the barracks. For a few very pleasant years the Army decided single soldiers were as capable of maintaining their quarters without having to be inspected weekly as married soldiers were and stopped doing inspections; when CID went into Burmeister's room they discovered a Nazi flag on display that would have been caught in an inspection.

About the tattoo: it turns out that the leader of the skinhead gang Burmeister and White were in heard they wanted to get these tattoos and tried to talk them out of killing anyone, but was unsuccessful.

Anyway, MAGAt culture is just as hazardous to the Army as skinhead culture was. Most GIs are Republican but not all of them are MAGAts. Throwing out the dangerous ones would be a benefit to the service, and they need to do that.

[yagotme]

1. Perhaps "Late 1990's" would have made a better title.

Saying " go Back to the 1990's", and then tell a story about a racial murder in 1995, sounds a bit "off".

[Stardust Mirror]

2. he military needs to go Back to the 1790s

all able bodied men required to be in WELL REGULATED militia

[walkingman]

3. When I hear every presidential cycle "We need to rebuild the military", I hope this is what is meant. Because

we sure as hell do not need to expand out presence around the world or spend more money just to enrich military contractors.
Instead, aggressively rid the military of these terrorists, mentally unstable people, and racists.

[dutch777]

4. Given what may be the RW bent of the junior officer corps, this seems to be a reach. And Trump will likely purge...

...the senior officer corps to his liking which will only further encourage the junior officer corps that leans MAGA. The military, especially the Army and Marines, have a real problem if they go open MAGA and more racist. They aren't even close to making their recruiting goals as it is and to do even as good as they do they rely more heavily on minorities than would suit any racist elements. And I don't see anyone thinking reinstating the draft will be popular (although it has to be on the military's mind given significant recruiting shortfalls). At the point the military is perceived as no longer being color blind and equal opportunity, their ability to be an effective fully staffed force is increasingly imperiled. Plus I think Congress would get into this and threaten aspects of military funding and focus if things devolve and even more so if in the mid terms Dems take back the House and command the budget process more fully.

[mopinko]

5. austin talked the talk. i dont recall the walk, tho he sure ran into a red wall.

i dont want to see the draft come back, per se. but 1 yr compulsory service of some kind wd do this country a world of good.

meanwhile, decent pay and bennies wd b good. when military families r on snap, there’s a problem.
ed bennies used to get u through college. these days they just get u predatory loans.

[ZDU]

6. Dismantled

Can someone please enlighten me? When exactly was the military dismantled so that it now needs to be rebuilt? Last time I checked the military and related budgets were redacted or hidden or not readily available. For a 'fun exercise' in evidence-based insight, I encourage people to Google the costs of military aircraft. Insightful, no?

[Silent Type]

7. Veterans make up roughly 6.5% of our population, yet were involved in 26% of mass shootings.

"CBS News analyzed a database compiled by The Violence Project. The nonprofit tracks mass shootings, which it defines as four or more people murdered in one event, not including the offender. It shows out of 195 mass shootings since 1966, 50 involved suspects who were veterans or people with military training.

"To be clear, only a tiny fraction of people with military backgrounds become mass shooters. But military experience is something a disproportionate share of attackers have in common. "People with a military background are overrepresented as mass shooters in our data," said James Densley, co-founder of The Violence Project. "It bears saying that the vast majority of people who serve in the military go on to lead incredibly successful lives, and obviously, we're incredibly grateful for that service. And so, this is not a case that joining the military turns you into a mass shooter."

"Densley said the breakdown is important to consider as researchers continue to search for clues about how and why these mass shootings happen. A CBS News analysis of the data shows 26% of mass shooters over six decades have had military service or training. That is high compared to the general U.S. adult population, where 7%, or fewer than 1 in 10, has a military background, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. . . . . ."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/maine-shooting-military-background-experts-explain-connection/