Cohesion

My bestest boss was Dr. McElhone, who came into my life shortly after his leaving army intelligence (yeah, I know the joke). He had his Ph.D. in math stats from Iowa State; if you don't much about math stats, Iowa State was (mid 70s) near the top of the list (currently 19th which ain't cheap cheddar). Anyway, along with stat lingo came a good deal of au courant military jargon. He spent most of his time flying in Beech Air King and Air Queens festooned with a dozen or so antennas vacuuming up various signals.

A couple of concepts he talked about rather a lot: chain of command and unit cohesion. Most civilians, self included, are familiar with the former, but less so the latter. If the Radical Right Wingnuts get their way, it will be the more material.

Unit cohesion is a military concept, defined by one former United States Chief of staff in the early 1980s as "the bonding together of soldiers in such a way as to sustain their will and commitment to each other, the unit, and mission accomplishment, despite combat or mission stress".

Why does this matter today? It's been clear, and the attack on Paul Pelosi is blazing, that the RRW no longer care about democracy. If they get their way, we will have Civil War ver. 2.0. Will our military suppress the insurrectionists, or join them?

It's clear, at least to me, that the officer corps (likes of Flynn excepted, naturally) will obey the Constitution and their oath. But what about the enlisteds? Are they dumb enough to buy into white persecution and grievance? Well, listen up.

The service on June 23 [2022] began allowing people to enlist in the regular Army without a high school diploma or GED ... The change was short-lived. Army officials reinstated the education requirement one week later.

Gulp...

During the height of the unpopular Iraq War, recruitment was falling so fast, especially among some minority groups, that Army recruiters lowered required ASVAB scores and allowed waivers for some recruits with low scores or other demerits, including minor criminal offenses. "In 2006, nearly one in five incoming soldiers did not have high school diplomas," the Boston Globe reported in 2007.

What we already know about the RRW: they prey on the feeble minded, ill-educated, poor white boys and girls from Red States. They laugh at Paul Pelosi getting hammered. Whose side would they end up on?

If Bolsonaro pulls off a military sponsored coup, how long will wannaBePresident Huey Long 2024 sit on his hands? Will Musk, a real billionaire, join in?