THIS IS DANGEROUS, AND PROVOCATIVE – OVERNIGHT:  A new, authoritative report, says that the United States Navy, the primary force with which we confront China, is not ready for major combat operations.  This is a stunning accusation, and you may be sure the conclusions are being studied carefully by Chinese admirals, just as the Navy was studied by Japanese admirals before World War II.  From Daily Mail: 

A scathing new report commissioned by members of Congress has claimed that the Navy's surface warfare forces have systemic training and leadership issues, including a focus on diversity that overshadows basic readiness skills.

The report prepared by Marine Lt. Gen. Robert Schmidle and Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, both retired, came in response to recent Naval disasters, including the burning of the USS Bonhomme Richard in San Diego, two collisions involving Navy ships in the Pacific and the surrender of two small craft to Iran.

The authors conducted hour-long interviews with 77 current and retired Navy officers, offering them anonymity to identify issues they wouldn't feel comfortable raising in the chain of command.

The report focused on issues within the Navy's surface warfare forces, as opposed to submarine and aviation, and suggested that issues in the surface fleet could be unique due to better funding and training for submarine and aviation units.

One of the key issues raised by the officers interviewed for the report was a concern that Navy leaders spend more time focusing on diversity training than on developing warfighting capacity and key operational skills.

'Sometimes I think we care more about whether we have enough diversity officers than if we'll survive a fight with the Chinese navy,' lamented one lieutenant currently on active duty. 
'It's criminal. They think my only value is as a black woman. But you cut our ship open with a missile and we'll all bleed the same color,' she added. 

One recent destroyer captain said: 'where someone puts their time shows what their priorities are. And we've got so many messages about X, Y, Z appreciation month, or sexual assault prevention, or you name it. We don't even have close to that same level of emphasis on actual warfighting.' 

'While programs to encourage diversity, human sex trafficking prevention, suicide prevention, sexual assault prevention, and others are appropriate, they come with a cost,' the report's authors wrote.

COMMENT:  Please read the whole thing.  Our lives and the survival of our nation may well depend on how the American people react to scathing reports like this. 

The problems are not entirely new, but they've been inflamed by the behavior of the Obama administration, which had a low regard for national defense, and by American journalism's growing contempt for American power.  Include the deterioration of our schools and the corrupt teaching of American history, and you have the ingredients of a major disaster. 

July 13, 2021