Maybe today’s Navy is just not very good at driving ships

Re:Maybe today’s Navy is just not very good at driving ships by TheCondor on Monday August 28, 2017 @08:47PM (#15121354)

I've thought about not saying this, I intend no disrespect to anyone. Are there two militaries now? There is JSOC, with a budget, toys and gear, their pick of everything and they are a smallish, nimble ultra trained force designed to engage these terrorist groups and do special tactical missions, fighting dirty if needed. Then there is the greater navy and army and, respectfully, it is sort of a conservative voter friendly rural jobs program. I'm not saying this about the volunteers that sign up, but national policy. It only makes sense that they'd squeeze every dime from it like everything else. To top it off, there are the private contracting outfits that do stuff too, where does that fit in?

The idea that they're supposed to learn on the job is insane, you don't get a lot of second chances on aflight deck, you don't get to make a lot of mistakes on a boat twice.

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Re:Maybe today’s Navy is just not very good at driving ships by closeparen on Monday August 28, 2017 @10:18PM (#15121663)

There sort of are two militaries:

- One we maintain to prove to our potential adversaries that we maintain it, in order to preserve stalemate.

- One we maintain to actually use.

I'm going to venture a guess that a well-functioning defensive military is inherently unstable, as anyone who understands how powerful it is will realize that it never actually has to function.

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Re:Maybe today’s Navy is just not very good at driving ships by someguydave on Friday September 01, 2017 @05:23PM (#15152480)

> well-functioning defensive military is inherently unstable

This is why it makes sense to have a purely defensive military work on a reserve and draft basis. You don't really need the defensive military - until you do - in which case you want to magic a really big and reasonably competent one into existence quickly.

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Re:Maybe today’s Navy is just not very good at driving ships by gaius on Tuesday August 29, 2017 @07:51AM (#15123627)

It is not as simple as that e.g. JSOC doesn't have its own ships, limited aviation, etc. It is totally reliant on the "regular" military to support its operations. And of course it gets most of its recruits from there too - AFAIK only the SEALs do direct entry for civilians.

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Re:Maybe today’s Navy is just not very good at driving ships by jabv on Tuesday August 29, 2017 @10:27AM (#15124495)

I think the "second military" you describe is more of a "minimal readiness for SHTF situation" group.

Because no politician wants to go down in history books as the person who let the military shrink and lose readiness for a WW3. Sure, maybe the American military has indeed lost readiness, but it's more nuanced and can't be pinned on one person. So just like other parts of this thread suggest, it's a giant CYA operation.

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