Robert Gates: 'I Do Have the Sense That There Is a Morale Problem' in the Military

[rangerrebew]

Robert Gates: 'I Do Have the Sense That There Is a Morale Problem' in the Military

(CNSNews.com) - At a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, former Defense Secretary Robert Gates gave three reasons for declining morale in the U.S. military, as the war in Afghanistan ramps down and budget constraints persist.

Sen. Ted Cruz asked Gates, "Do you share my concerns about declining morale in the military, and if so, what do you see as the cause of these challenges?"

Gates replied: "I don't have any statistics, but I do have the sense that there is a morale problem, and I think it's due to several things.

"First of all, I think it is due to the substantial and growing cutbacks in the number of men and women in the military, so people in the military now are less confident that they will be allowed to remain in the military -- that in the force reductions, they will be turned out, in essence, be fired, particularly for those who have some years in and probably have families -- concerns about what they will do, if because of force downsizing they end up out in the civilian world again.

"I think there is a morale problem that derives from a lot of the budgetary uncertainty in the sense that, as I suggested earlier, people who joined the military to fly airplanes, sail on ships or drive tanks are finding they don't have the same opportunities to do that anymore. That's the stuff that made it fun, and that was one of the things that encouraged them to stay.

"So I think that these and the budgetary uncertainties and so on are all -- are all part of a challenge for our young men and women in uniform.

"And then the final one that I mentioned just a few minutes ago -- and that is you go, particularly the ground forces, you go from mostly young men who have been out in Iraq and Afghanistan, and on these deployments they have this great sense of camaraderie and brotherhood with their fellow soldiers and Marines. They have been given a lot of opportunity to operate independently and in an entrepreneurial way and be innovative and so on. And they're being brought back and put in cubicles and asked to do Power Points.

"So I think all those things together are having a big impact on morale," Gates concluded.

Cruz opined that another factor may be "having a commander-in-chief that fails to set clear objectives, and in particular, an objective of winning clearly and decisively the military conflicts in which we're engaged."

Cruz pointed to Gates's book "Duty," in which Gates wrote that President Obama didn't appear to believe in his own strategy for Afghanistan and the Middle East. "Is that still a concern you share?" Cruz asked Gates.

Gates responded that in his book, he wrote that, "If a commander in chief or secretary of defense is going to send a young man or a young women into harm's way, they need to be able to explain to that young person in uniform why that mission is important; why the cause is noble and just, why their sacrifice is worthwhile. And that was, I think, the easiest way to put it. That was not a speech I heard the president give."

Source URL: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/robert-gates-i-do-have-sense-there-morale-problem-military

[rangerrebew]

Its called Obamaitis.  :peeonobama:

[PzLdr]

Ya think?

[rangerrebew]

Former SecDef Gates: DoD should just take the money
By Leo Shane III, Staff writer 5:21 p.m. EDT October 21, 2015
Gates testifies

 

Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he would accept Republican lawmakers' plan to fully fund defense programs in fiscal 2016 through temporary war accounts because "there's no alternative right now."

His position is at odds with current Defense Secretary Ash Carter, who has repeatedly backed a presidential veto of any appropriations bill taking that approach.

But Gates did stop short of offering a heartfelt endorsement of the idea.

"It's a terrible way to budget," he told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It is a gimmick … a hell of a way to run a railroad."

His comments came as President Obama mulls a veto of the annual defense authorization bill, a $612 billion measure that follows GOP-backed plans to funnel an extra $38 billion into overseas contingency funds to get around mandatory defense spending caps for fiscal 2016.

Republicans have called it the only realistic way to ensure national security without a bipartisan deal to repeal the caps. Obama and Hill Democrats have called it an unsupportable workaround that jeopardizes other critical agencies and programs.

As he has several times in the past, Gates blasted the political dysfunction as harmful to the fighting force and infuriating to Pentagon budget planners.

"These kinds of ad hoc arrangements are never at all as satisfying or as cost-effective as regular-order business, in which choices are made and decisions are made based on those choices and dollars allocated," he said.

"There may be more dollars, there may be fewer dollars, but at least people have some predictability."

But, he added that given the current political uncertainty, "my sense would be to take the money, because what's my alternative?"

Republicans have criticized Carter for not taking that approach, arguing that he is jeopardizing his department's fiscal health to fight for more bloated non-defense programs. Carter has countered that an underfunded State Department or Department of Homeland Security presents other serious national security concerns.

This was the first time Gates testified on Capitol Hill since he left the defense secretary post more than four years ago. He joked that "given some of the things that I wrote in my book, I'm rather surprised to be invited back."

The longtime military and security bureaucrat savaged lawmakers in his 2014 book "Duty," complaining that the "partisan abyss in Congress" and "single-minded parochial self-interest of so many members" were a constant distraction to Pentagon operations.

http://www.militarytimes.com/story/military/capitol-hill/2015/10/21/gates-sasc-budget-fight/74336452/

[mountaineer]

There's a morale problem relating to the fact that their so-called commander-in-chief hates the country they serve and has even less respect for them.