Retired Army Major General Robert Scales in his piece from the Washington Post:
“Over the past few days, the opinions of officers confiding in me have changed to some degree. Resignation seems to be creeping into their sense of outrage. One officer told me: “To hell with them. If this guy wants this war, then let him have it. Looks like no one will get hurt anyway.”
Soon the military will salute respectfully and loose the hell of hundreds of cruise missiles in an effort that will, inevitably, kill a few of those we wish to protect. They will do it with all the professionalism and skill we expect from the world’s most proficient military.”
As a former commandant of the War College, Gen. Scales is himself personally responsible for the culture of effeminate capitulation, obsession with power and money, and abject moral cowardice that is the veritable hallmark of the United States military officer corps today. This pathetic culture has been inculcated in the service academies and military academic centers (US Army War College, Command and General Staff College (CGSC), School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS), etc.) by a culture planted and fertilized by the Communist infiltrators of the U.S. dating all the way back to the mid-20th century. If you don’t believe me, just stop and consider how the leading tip of the “politically correct” culture today is the United States military. Every day it seems there is a new moral outrage involving the celebration of sodomy, the protection of islam and the suppression of Christianity within the US military and service academies.
I erred in my recent interview with Elijah Jonson when I said that not a single man in the US Military was willing to stand up and call out the Obama regime. LTC Terry Lakin did it. And Terry spent five months in the Disciplinary Barracks at Ft. Leavenworth. But beyond that, he lost his pension. As a Lieutenant Colonel flight surgeon, that loss in lifetime benefits was estimated at over $2.5 million – and that was for a field grade reservist. I apologize to LTC Dr. Lakin for my mistake.
Military personnel can retire after 20 years of active duty service. A military member who retires at 20 years of service receives 50 percent of his/her monthly base pay. For each year served over 20 years, the military member receives an additional 2.5 percent, up to a maximum of 100 percent of their base pay, at 40 years of service.
Additionally, the base pay used is called “High-3”, meaning that it is the average of the three highest years of the man’s career. AND a Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) tied to the CPI (Consumer Price Index) is added to the pay schedule every year.
We are talking about considerable amounts of money, easily into the seven figures for most of these guys, and remember, most guys retire young enough that they can embark on a “second career” and essentially have a double income in middle and/or late middle age. Corporations are falling all over themselves to have retired Generals sitting on their boards, and those are basically meaningless figurehead positions.
Here is the 2013 pay table. Scroll down as there are multiple pages. As you can see, flag officers are generally looking at a five-figure per month lifetime pension. That is the carrot these guys are all chasing and none are willing to sacrifice (LTC Lakin excluded, of course.)
What’s a man’s price? Apparently the promise of a five-figure per month pension to be paid out by a cadre of neo-Stalinist oligarchs running a totally and completely insolvent, illegitimate government that likely won’t survive more than a few years, much less decades.
Good luck with that, gentlemen.