Shot in the Dark

Sense And Insensibility

Barack Obama is highly unpopular in the military.

And yet many of his policies are going over just fine among the troops:

The long-term effects of Obama’s social policies on the military remain unknown. But one thing is clear: He is a deeper unpopular commander in chief among the troops.

According to a Military Times survey of almost 2,300 active-duty service members, Obama’s popularity — never high to begin with — has crumbled, falling from 35 percent in 2009 to just 15 percent this year, while his disapproval ratings have increased to 55 percent from 40 percent over that time.

And before someone chimes in “it’s just anti-gay bigotry in the military, angry over the lifting of the sanction against gay troops”…:

A Military Times poll in 2009 found 35 percent of troops felt that gays and lesbians should be allowed to serve in uniform. Five years later, that figure has jumped to 60 percent.

Similarly, open opposition to homosexuality in the military has collapsed. In 2009, 49 percent of troops felt gays, lesbians and bisexuals should not be allowed to serve. In 2014, such disapproval fell to just 19 percent. 

Or against women in combat?

From 2011 to 2014, the percentage of survey respondents who felt that all jobs in combat arms units should be opened to women remained unchanged at 24 percent.

But the percentage of troops who felt some combat-arms jobs should be opened up to women — while allowing the military to continue to place some jobs off-limits — increased from 34 percent to 41 percent, while the percentage of respondents who felt the military should not change its policies excluding women from combat arms units fell from 43 percent in 2011 to 28 percent in 2014.

I’m going to suggest that while his policies may not be unpopular among the military, the fact that he’s a terrible leader is.

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Mitch Berg

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3 responses to “Sense And Insensibility”

  1. gl whisler Avatar
    gl whisler

    Men and women who volunteer to fight and die like to … you know… win?

  2. fingers Avatar
    fingers

    I slogged my way through that painful article waiting for balance. The author did a decent job of hiding the bias, but neglected to mention that not a single female recruit has made it through the USMC infantry leaders course–there’s no grading curve for that one. Further, what isn’t mentioned is the military will raise objections, make their point, then salute smartly and move out. In this case, “moving out” consisted of hours and hours of indoctrination training. When the force is “all volunteer” and the economy is in the tank, it is pretty easy to say ‘get on board or hit the road.’
    I credit the author for acknowledging the ‘take care of/stick up for your sister’ aspect the treoops face. Perhaps that sentiment is slowly dying as we move generationally away from the all-male ranks, but is that a good thing? In my experience equal pay for equal work meant going from 24/7 flight ops (all male) to maximum 12 hour flght ops due to a mixed gender flight deck crew that couldn’t support the physical requirements of moving the jets, chaining, chocking, fueling, arming, etc.

  3. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    I’m not quite sure I believe the numbers on social issues–there is a known bias that people often will not even admit things privately that are politically proscribed, and the evidence I’ve seen is that rejection of homosexuality and women in combat is politically proscribed there. If you’re not looking at the evidence–like that women are not able to make it through the combat infantry course–you’re not going to make the conclusion that women ought not be in the infantry, for example.

    And I would guess that the “real” numbers behind the social issues are part of what is driving the abyssmal approval ratings of Dear Leader, along with the fact that if you’re going to put your rear end on the line for your country, you kinda want to have some chance of winning something of value.

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