It is funny to tread the steps we took to arrive at this place in our national history. There are a variety of issues flying about. One of them is the Deep State and how it works. It is funny to feel some old emotions come back these days. The ones most powerful were about Secretary of the Navy John Lehman back in Ronald Reagan’s 500-ship Navy. One of the budget issues we confront now a a force shrinking to a little more than half of that number.

Our group served most of our time in the All-Volunteer Force that replaced the one based on conscription. For example, I was a year group 1977 Navy new-hire. I was part of the sample group for the All Volunteer Force that served with those who had endured the transition from Conscription to Volunteer.

We had left Vietnam in 1973, though Saigon did not formally fall until 1975. For perfectly unrelated issues, I happened to be in the market for a job at the time. “End of the Draft” had come and gone by then, though the force still reflected those who had served in both systems. I wrote that little screed about the Navy recruiting office last week about the changes that were bubbling then. “End of the Draft” was one of them, and a remarkable assemblage of young men who had been in the SE Asian war and some, like me, who wanted the experience that caused such trauma for so many. And such adventure!

Our honorable service brought the Soviet Union to its knees, mostly because we stayed for the “Duration.” The fight against global communism lasted through that strange meeting at Malta and beyond. That does sound a bit grand, I will grant you, but there was a stream of the Old Navy- the real one- that carried the spirit of Yankee Station right through 1990. And then the “Peace Dividend” that has brought us to where we are now.

Thinking back makes it a jumble. We Ended the Cold War even as the enormous flow of cash continued to bathe the system we served. We directly supported DESERT STORM, though from Higher Headquarters in that Pentagon kabuki that went along with the budget games that led directly to the corruption we see today. Blame the Clintons? They were only a moderately extreme example of what began with the acceptance of harvesting the Defense Budget in a manner that bumped the cash-flow out of direct Government distribution and established the warren of Non-Governmental Organizations no longer subject to direct oversight by Congress, and harvested to a system that willingly gave up the power of the purse to pursue the indirect riches provided by a budget system in which the entire annual appropriation and authorization were dumped into gigantic bills no one had time to read.

There are arguments this morning about Section 702 revision. I mentioned the oddity of being an “initial,” rather than a signature on the chop-chain for the USA Patriot Act in Joan’s office, and having the thought as I scrawled the initials in the margin of the routing sheet that if anyone ever got hold of all those connecting-the-dots authorities were misused we could lose our Republic. Thankfully, that couldn’t happen in the America we served, right? Or could this be a part of something the Russians have just experienced?

So, there is that component of how our system has undergone dramatic change. Our Rpublic appears to be at war with some of it’s original three portions. The Justices appointed by one Party have been subject to calls for impeachment, so this morning’s wrinkle has some unusual aspects. Justice Sotomayer is under attack for her requirement that copies of her recently book be purchased in bulk to support her appearance for a speech. That would normally constitute a direct private emolument for public appearance by a government official. That could even verge on a violation of the Hatch Act, but we have not even got to the Jones Act yet, so stand by. There is plenty to come on that front!

Copyright 2023 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com