Colin Lantrip Speaks Out

Day 1,236, 18:56 • Published in USA USA • by Stanley Ibcus

This is a post by Colin Lantrip regarding the disagreements over the military. Because some people have not registered on the forums, I have reposted it here with Colin's permission.

The original post can be found here: http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,6272.msg106249.html#msg106249



❤ you Morrigan.. one of the best things for me personally that came from my presidency was getting to know you, Bia, and the TC. I assume it's out of loyalty, and while I admire that to a point, it is not reasonable to lay blame entirely at congress's feet. I won't even get into the nonsense I had to deal with as CP, NSA, or SoD but, for almost my entire elife the military has considered itself above the law. Refusing to be held accountable and refusing to provide reasonable requests for information.

You can blame this on whoever you want. We are all in a way responsible. But this boils down to a CJCS and a couple of former CJCS deciding (or finally publicy stating) they will not be held accountable to by very government that pays their bills. That is not acceptable.

This is not an assualt on the soldiers in the former eUS Mil. I hate to see them in the middle of it. I encourage them to look and honestly consider why nobody that has ever had to deal with your(CJCS) leadership has stepped forward to defend them(CJCS). Nobody.

The reason this has continued to go on and the reason I have become vocal is over this attempt to maintain official status. You can attempt to rationalize anything you want, but you guys are no longer the eUS Military. For me, attempting to continue presenting yourselves that way is intentional. It is dishonest, deceptive and to be quite frank it is a serious long term national security issue. You former mil guys should understand better than most the need for a clear power structure. Nobody really wants to cripple you as an effective fighting force, but the longer you go on trying to hold on to what you walked away from then the louder the voices to "punish" you will get. By punish I mean come after all assets that can reasonably be claimed as govt property.

We all want active and loyal players to stay in the US and to stay involved. Build your new role as a militia and have fun being free of the government.

On the names: it is a little petty on both sides, but RL branches do indicate an official status. Maybe it wouldn't have come up as quite the issue had you guys not attempted to maintain "official" at every opportunity. Even to this point.

In many ways your leadership has chosen outright public rebellion from your members, over getting involved and changing policies. You(CJCS) mislead them with dishonest and one sided propaganda; reminds me alot of how SEES used to operate. Loyalty above thought. I personally encouraged Jankems to form or join with a party months ago. If you don't like the system, get involved and change it. A direct assault on the government is not acceptable to even the most reasonable among us.

read the forum thread to understand this section.

@Vootsman.. the former sUS Mil has repeatedly stated they would not fight here, not fight there.. not to mention half assed efforts in places they didn't want to fight. I say repeatedly.. I mean repeatedly. That's just what I've witnessed.

It's just a guess but I would say prob half of the companies and upgrades from what was the mil communes prob came from Max. I still have the original docs from that. There have been others; former members and even myself that have given companies. There's no easy way to determine what was paid for by the govt and what was not. Agree or disagree it doesn't matter.. there is a legitimate case to be made that all property belonging to the eUS Mil is actually govt property. Again.. Nobody in power really wants this, but if this continues onn reasonable voices will be silenced.

Updated with more from Colin :
@Voots.. Idk for sure, I've been out of the top tier for a few months now. I can't testify to anything since. I do know all the players involved though and am certain the us vs them mentality has not changed in the slightest. Recent events would confirm this imo.

I'll repeat a line from above.. We are all responsible for this in some way. For my part.. Instead of confronting the issue at the time.. I "danced the dance", spent my term and several months after negotiating and at times practically begging the CJCS to get dmg where it was needed. Often resorting to using ST6 and the SEES militia because it was easier to get them to deploy.

I don't care to or mean to bash Jankems.. he is as loyal and dedicated of an American as any of us. We spent hours upon hours..upon hours.. late into the night/mornings babysitting battles, something he has done for months on end and most of us wouldn't last a few weeks at. Hundreds of hours I imagine we spent in PM's planning and discussing what should be done. His sense of ownership being his greatest attribute AND his greatest fault.

The rest of the JCS vary between that level of commitment to being just useless. The CJCS is/was the only one with the authority to actually deploy and react to events. In my time his second in command was either unavailable or just plain uninterested. Several others I admire greatly, but don't understand or believe they can't/couldn't see the problems. It is natural to defend what you feel is yours.

The problem there ofc is that it's not yours.. no matter what you've put into it. It belongs to and is accountable to the govt and people of the US. Instead of embracing the different factions of the game, the former mil leadership walled off territory and isolated themselves.  Creating an us vs them mentality. Treating any critism as treason and any request for accountability as unwarranted. There is plenty of blame to be shared for most of this, but they and they alone isolated themselves and bred this mentality.

I know this is not exactly what was asked, but does go further into what I think the real issue is.

On the poll.. who gives a shit. We all know of Pfeiffers agenda and to try and label the rest of us in the light is just deflecting legitimate concerns. As convient as that is.. it's just not true on a wider scale.

In the end.. the former CJCS and his top advisors have chosen to walk away as opposed to getting involved and accepting some level of accountability. That is regrettable and makes for a sad day in the US, but in reality this "ownership" is not real. You have taken what is not yours to take and continue to thumb your nose at the government of this country. You can complain all day about how representative it really is, but it is you that chose not get involved.

Find your new role.. accept it.. and lets get back to having fun. As a member of ST6 since the day it was founded (a few short exceptions), I can honestly say I think you will love being a militia.