The perfumed princes of the Pentagon with their wokester focus, operate as if they have little to fear in making a hash of Afghanistan. After all, Joe Biden has made it clear that nobody's getting fired. And with all their consulting contracts and revolving board seats, it probably wouldn't matter if they did. Why does General Mark Milley still have a job? Biden's actually out gaslighting the public about how great he's doing.

One problem, though, is emerging from that phoniness:

Growing anger in the ranks. These cossetted leaders no longer have the respect of the troops.

Here's the first case, according to the Washington Free Beacon:

A sitting Marine battalion commander was fired Friday after he slammed the "ineptitude" of U.S. military leadership over the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, saying he was willing to risk losing his 17-year career and future retirement pension in order to "demand accountability" from top military brass.

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller said in a Facebook post that he was relieved for cause after he posted a video Thursday saying military leadership let service members down during the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal. His video post came after a terrorist attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday that killed 13 U.S. service members, including someone with whom Scheller had a close relationship.

"I have been relieved for caused based on a lack of trust and confidence," Scheller wrote.

In his Thursday video post, Scheller said that military leadership should take responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan.

"The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield let someone down. That service member always rose to the occasion and done extraordinary things," Scheller said. "People are upset because their senior leaders let them down and none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, ‘We messed this up.'"

It appears that Scheller, though, is not some lone nut who's been duly punished and that's that.

His boldly expressed sentiment apparently is widespread in the ranks. Here's the Daily Wire:

Top leadership at the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) informed active duty and retired service members that they cannot condemn President Joe Biden amid the chaotic — and now deadly — pullout of American troops from Afghanistan. 

In an email from the ONI’s Chief of Staff, ONI members were reminded that per a Uniform Code of Military Justice and Department of Defense Directive clause they cannot disrespect senior government leadership. This includes the President, Vice President, Congress, the Secretary of Defense, and more. 

The email reads: 

Given the heightened political and social atmosphere surrounding Afghanistan, it is important to remind our uniformed personnel (active duty and reservists on temporary active duty) and military retirees of their responsibilities and obligations under Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and Department of Defense Directive 1344.10. While it is vital to protect the constitutional right of freedom of expression for these groups, consistent with mission accomplishment, national security, and good order and discipline, it’s important to remember certain limitations. Namely, uniformed personnel and military retirees are prohibited from disrespecting senior government leadership (e.g. the President, Vice President, Congress, Secretary of Defense, Service Secretaries, etc.).

With a memo like that, you know that kind of talk is blowing around like wildfire.

It seems so much of this is going down that someone high up in the ranks felt compelled to issue this reminder, recognizing probably quite accurately that the military's decadent leadership is actually losing control.

So not only can they not win wars, but they also are losing the respect of the troops.

And if so, it's not surprising. That may just be because of double standards. A soldier on the front lines, after all, is punished for losing track of a single bullet. A general like Milley, who loses a war with huge repercussions for the nation -- goes on feeding at the trough and getting Joe's praise.

It reeks of politics, starting with senior military commanders expressing their open opposition to President Trump, as happened in the last administration. That opened the door to a lot and the leaders who crossed that line got away with it with no consequences.

It seemed to have gotten its sea legs over the course of the last few years. In a recent case, the U.S.S. Roosevelt Captain Brett Crozier, who announced in en masse email sure to make its way to the press, that he was captaining a ship full of COVID cases in the Pacific, only endured mild punishment, with no loss of rank for his bad judgment, which at the time seemed to be about Getting Trump. There was an active bid to reinstate him after it happened. And his Trumpster boss got fired for ill-considered remarks. But Crozier wasn't greatly punished, keeping his rank and pension intact.

All of which contributes to a sense of double standards, deadly in an organization where men and women are asked to give their lives. What we see now in this bad combination of goodies, double standards, wokesterism, and failure is a breakdown of order in the ranks.

When there's one set of rules for one group and another set for another group, and the wokesters take everything political, pinning all the racism on you, and excusing anti-Trumpster political activists, while firing anti-Bidenites, it doesn't take long for the ranks to notice and start to say 'no.'

The wokester leftists started this, paying little attention to U.S. strategic priorities, most particularly that of the welfare of their members in uniform, and now they've made a mess.

They're not only strategic failures as the Afghanistan fiasco demonstrates, they've lost the respect of the troops. That's some leadership they've got there.

As for the troops, who, after all, follows a loser?

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