The Need for Accountability

By James A. Lyons, Jr. Admiral, USN (ret) —— Bio and Archives April 22, 2018

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When former President Barack Obama announced five days before he took his oath of office that he would be “fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” not many Americans understood what that meant. However, it soon became very clear. His declaration to fundamentally change America was both un-American and anti-Western, as well as pro-Islam, pro-Iranian and pro-Muslim Brotherhood. In short, it was treason! When you want to take a country down, the first thing you do is weaken its military. That’s what the 2011 “sequestration” agreement was all about. The Obama administration did what no enemy was able to do. In effect, they decimated our military forces. Consequently, with almost a trillion dollars cut from our military budget, sequestration resulted in our having the smallest army since WWII, the smallest Navy since prior to WWI, and the smallest U.S. Air Force in its history. The U.S. Marine Corps suffered similar consequences.

Never forget, “sequestration” was an Obama administration initiative

Never forget, “sequestration” was an Obama administration initiative. Compounding the debilitating effect of sequestration was the forced social engineering mandates imposed on our once invincible military forces. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management, in the implementation of President Obama’s Executive Order 13583, declared “Diversity is a strategic imperative for mission accomplishment and force readiness.” Nonsense! These forced social engineering mandates did nothing to improve force readiness or capabilities. It destroyed unit integrity, cohesiveness, and the “will to win.” President Obama’s Executive Order 13583 must be cancelled. The question that needs to be addressed here is, what did our military leadership do? Regrettably, our military leaders were thoroughly indoctrinated with “political correctness,” which is still embedded in much of today’s military leadership. After all, they are where they are because of their adherence to political correctness. Probably, one of the worst examples of failing to live up to their oath of office was their acceptance of the debilitating restricted Rules of Engagement (ROE), which cost so many military lives and permanent injuries. Its impact leveled the playing field for our enemies! It also resulted in combat tragedies such as “Extortion 17,” which cost the largest loss of life of our elite Navy SEAL Team Six warriors (17) in their history along with the loss of the 5 Special Warfare warriors and 5 Army soldiers. This tragedy was totally avoidable, but due to political correctness it failed to ensure the survivability of our forces. Our elite warriors were forced to use a CH-47 transportation helicopter instead of the Special-Forces helicopter MH-47, and then attempt to land in a hot fire zone where the battle had raged for over three hours. There was a C-130 gunship overhead, but it was prevented from firing due to a staff commander’s decision to hold fire because there may have been civilians in the area. How unbelievable is that when the battle had been ongoing for over three hours? There existed a mentality that conveyed the thought that “sometimes we must sacrifice our forces for the greater good.” Such a thought process is totally unacceptable! It can never be in our DNA that we willingly sacrifice our own forces. A full investigation of this tragedy must be reopened to hold those who controlled this tragedy accountable!

The latest push by the leftist, feminist, LGBT agenda is to open all combat roles to women

We also should never forget the tragedy of Benghazi, where four Americans were killed, including our Ambassador Christopher Stevens during the night of 11 and 12 September, 2012. Even then we had the strongest military in the world but appeared helpless in not coming to the aid of those Americans who were under attack for over ten hours. We know we had two U.S. Marine quick reaction teams at Rota, Spain. We had a 130-man U.S. Marine Force Recon Unit at Sigonella, Italy. We had over two squadrons of F-16 fighter-strike aircraft stationed at Aviano, Italy. We also had a 55-man Special Forces unit training in Croatia. Who prevented their dispatch? It is the same mentality that led to the convictions of combat leaders for taking the appropriate action to save lives of the men under their command, but who were then relieved of command; cashiered from the military, or worse, sent to prison. Some are still in prison like First Lt. Clint Lorance. President Trump, our Commander-in-Chief, must immediately pardon those honorable men. Their ranks/rates must be restored along with their reputations. The latest push by the leftist, feminist, LGBT agenda is to open all combat roles to women. Further, having already forced homosexuality on our forces, they now want the military to embrace transgender personnel. Dr. Paul McHugh, the former chief psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University Hospital, has stated that transgenderism is not a civil rights issue. It is a mental disorder that requires treatment and understanding. Further, he stated it should never be forced on our military. No one has the right to serve in our military. The standards are set by the Commander-in-Chief and if personnel cannot meet those standards, they must be rejected. The military, while tradition bound to follow orders, can make any of the forced Obama administration mandates work to a certain degree. But are these mandates the right thing to do? Do they enhance readiness and capabilities or likelihood of victory? Of course not; therefore, all of the Obama social engineering mandates must be cancelled. There are many viable roles for women in the military, but combat is not one of them. In that sense, all women should be removed from Navy combat ships. Our warrior capabilities must be made clear to all potential adversaries and the moral underpinnings of our military force must be reestablished.