Here Comes the Flood
Day 1,180, 17:34
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Published in USA 
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by
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by The Libertine
The jaded underworld was riding high
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
and as the nail sunk in the cloud, the rain
was warm and soaked the crowd.
Lord, here comes the flood
We will say goodbye to flesh and blood
I try to listen to soothing music when I write. It clears my mind; it helps me organize my thoughts. It puts me in the right mood for the topic at hand. What I’m about to discuss is a matter with potentially far reaching implications for the nation. I hope to be fair to all sides, but I cannot guarantee anything. This article is not meant to push my own viewpoint, though it certainly will creep onto the page in certain places. This is a summary of events, an exegesis of where we stand, and a look at what may happen next. I publish this as an historian. Nothing more; nothing less.
_______
There is a flood coming. It’s been on the horizon for quite some time. A showdown between the JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff, the group of the highest military commanders) and the Executive Branch, or in a broader sense, a fight over how the military should be run. This is an issue that ebbs and flows like the tides. It comes and goes every few months. Stop gap changes are made. Tensions simmer. We wait for the next conflict to come to a head.
This is nothing new. In different times, the issues are handled in different ways. Sometimes conflicts are made public. Sometimes they remain private. But regardless of public perception, there has been and always will be tension between the aforementioned groups.
Over the last few days, there has been growing antagonism from the Executive Branch towards the Military because of two issues: PANAM and inci. The PANAM issue revolved around whether or not the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would send firepower to support PANAM allies in wars against old allies. The inci issue revolved around the fact that the military was rejecting all inci applications, a stance contradictory to the position of the Executive Branch.
Things reached a critical point today when Dimension published a mini tell-all about his twelve month experience in the eUS Military. I will not rehash the points made in the article. Most of you have read it by now, and if you haven’t you should read it now before moving on.
Coinciding with Dimension’s article was a slew of new topics created on the General Military Discussion board on the national forum by Michael Porter. The rapid fire nature of their creation irked some members of the JCS. Porter later admitted that some of the topics were created out of exasperation and annoyance with the military, however just about all of the threads raised legitimate questions.
To top it off, many citizens who would have otherwise not waded into this debate have done so because of the recently revealed fact that some citizens like Emerick, Michael Porter, and Publius are unable to join certain branches due to “security concerns.” The fact that Publius was unable to join the Mobile Infantry raised some indignation out of the normally docile ligtreb. He said on the matter: “Not letting Publius in is inexcusable. There's zero defense for that. Zero.” and later said “Any organization that discriminates against people like Michael Porter and Publius is one that has issues. Serious problems.”
The day, so far, has concluded with jankems, CJCS, replicating all of Michael Porter’s military questions onto the General Political Discussion board. Many posts were moved due to being downright derp, but some have been kept up. It appears he is trying to fight fire with fire.
Many prominent ex-Presidents have spoken out lately about the military, mostly in response to the article published by Dimension. His article appears to have burst open a damn that was once holding back a lot of private resentment by former Presidents. Now these opinions have been made public.
“If the military refuses to reform then cut all funding and reform it directly under a Defense Department. These fights every few months are ridiculous.” - Woxan, Former President
“The issue here is that the military has zero accountability, and we now know that because of it, some people in it are free to act like complete douches, refer to CoC and give each other the red tape just as much as they've been known to give the executive.
And now the question is: what are we going to do?” - Emerick, Former President
“Its not just Dim either. I've gotten a PM and have had IRC chats with others with similar horror stories about attempts to fix things going awry, or people putting personal image and rank ahead of progress.” Chocolate McSkittles, Former President
"Give me 70% of the budget and I'm sure I'd keep playing too... esp if I could yell OPSEC and never have to answer for it.
In my experience the military's hatred and contempt for politicians is just as great as anything I've seen from the political side. Is that scapegoating too?" - Colin Lantrip, Former President
There has already been significant fallout to the Dimension article. Bia Pandora, long time respected member of the eUS military and former General of the Training Corps, has quit eRepublik today because of the scuffle. In her words: “I'm not sure why people are acting like this, other than an obvious attempt at a power grab, and I am pissed as hell that he drug me into this, I don't like negativity and drama in my gaming, that is why i played in the mil.”
I think this quote uncovers an essential difference between many on the military side of things compared to those on the political side. Ironically, members of the military, whose job it is to kill things, generally abhor arguments and fighting about issues. Those on the political side tend to relish debate and politicking. This difference is certainly one root cause of much misunderstanding and mistrust between the two groups.
Is it possible that this split effects our strategic capability, militarily? What I mean to ask is “Is there a correlation between one’s tolerance of political maneuvering and one’s skill in strategic planning?” One former President once hinted at an answer this question to me:
[12:03am] redacte
[12:04am] redacte
[12:04am] redacte
[12:04am] redacte
….
[12:08am] redacte
[12:09am] redacte
[12:09am] CRoy: JCS or all mil
[12:09am] redacte
[12:09am] redacte
[12:09am] redacte
[12:09am] redacte
So what comes next? Some reliable sources have insinuated that more resignations/quits are coming from members of the military. Depending on the mood of Congress, there may be a fight over funding. Most interestingly, with President Julian Mizu being away for an extended period of time, the Executive Branch is being headed by Mizu’s VP, a former JCS, GoalieBCSC. Will this help matters? Yes, but probably only behind the scenes.
Short of high level resignations or serious JCS restructuring, it will take an extremely gifted orator to heal the wounds exposed across this nation today. Is Goalie that person? Will Mizu be, if and when when he returns? Is there anyone gifted enough unify us all? Is there anyone bold enough to fight for complete restructuring of military command? Anyone foolish enough to try?
There are a lot of questions right now. There are a lot of unpalatable answers. The flood is coming. All that remains to be seen is who finds a way to stay dry and who is swept away in waters of change. Unfortunately, there will almost certainly be casualties before this is all said and done.
With a heavy heart,
Best,
~CRoy
Waves of steel hurled metal at the sky
and as the nail sunk in the cloud, the rain
was warm and soaked the crowd.
Lord, here comes the flood
We will say goodbye to flesh and blood
I try to listen to soothing music when I write. It clears my mind; it helps me organize my thoughts. It puts me in the right mood for the topic at hand. What I’m about to discuss is a matter with potentially far reaching implications for the nation. I hope to be fair to all sides, but I cannot guarantee anything. This article is not meant to push my own viewpoint, though it certainly will creep onto the page in certain places. This is a summary of events, an exegesis of where we stand, and a look at what may happen next. I publish this as an historian. Nothing more; nothing less.
_______
There is a flood coming. It’s been on the horizon for quite some time. A showdown between the JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff, the group of the highest military commanders) and the Executive Branch, or in a broader sense, a fight over how the military should be run. This is an issue that ebbs and flows like the tides. It comes and goes every few months. Stop gap changes are made. Tensions simmer. We wait for the next conflict to come to a head.
This is nothing new. In different times, the issues are handled in different ways. Sometimes conflicts are made public. Sometimes they remain private. But regardless of public perception, there has been and always will be tension between the aforementioned groups.
Over the last few days, there has been growing antagonism from the Executive Branch towards the Military because of two issues: PANAM and inci. The PANAM issue revolved around whether or not the Chief of the Joint Chiefs of Staff would send firepower to support PANAM allies in wars against old allies. The inci issue revolved around the fact that the military was rejecting all inci applications, a stance contradictory to the position of the Executive Branch.
Things reached a critical point today when Dimension published a mini tell-all about his twelve month experience in the eUS Military. I will not rehash the points made in the article. Most of you have read it by now, and if you haven’t you should read it now before moving on.
Coinciding with Dimension’s article was a slew of new topics created on the General Military Discussion board on the national forum by Michael Porter. The rapid fire nature of their creation irked some members of the JCS. Porter later admitted that some of the topics were created out of exasperation and annoyance with the military, however just about all of the threads raised legitimate questions.
To top it off, many citizens who would have otherwise not waded into this debate have done so because of the recently revealed fact that some citizens like Emerick, Michael Porter, and Publius are unable to join certain branches due to “security concerns.” The fact that Publius was unable to join the Mobile Infantry raised some indignation out of the normally docile ligtreb. He said on the matter: “Not letting Publius in is inexcusable. There's zero defense for that. Zero.” and later said “Any organization that discriminates against people like Michael Porter and Publius is one that has issues. Serious problems.”
The day, so far, has concluded with jankems, CJCS, replicating all of Michael Porter’s military questions onto the General Political Discussion board. Many posts were moved due to being downright derp, but some have been kept up. It appears he is trying to fight fire with fire.
Many prominent ex-Presidents have spoken out lately about the military, mostly in response to the article published by Dimension. His article appears to have burst open a damn that was once holding back a lot of private resentment by former Presidents. Now these opinions have been made public.
“If the military refuses to reform then cut all funding and reform it directly under a Defense Department. These fights every few months are ridiculous.” - Woxan, Former President
“The issue here is that the military has zero accountability, and we now know that because of it, some people in it are free to act like complete douches, refer to CoC and give each other the red tape just as much as they've been known to give the executive.
And now the question is: what are we going to do?” - Emerick, Former President
“Its not just Dim either. I've gotten a PM and have had IRC chats with others with similar horror stories about attempts to fix things going awry, or people putting personal image and rank ahead of progress.” Chocolate McSkittles, Former President
"Give me 70% of the budget and I'm sure I'd keep playing too... esp if I could yell OPSEC and never have to answer for it.
In my experience the military's hatred and contempt for politicians is just as great as anything I've seen from the political side. Is that scapegoating too?" - Colin Lantrip, Former President
There has already been significant fallout to the Dimension article. Bia Pandora, long time respected member of the eUS military and former General of the Training Corps, has quit eRepublik today because of the scuffle. In her words: “I'm not sure why people are acting like this, other than an obvious attempt at a power grab, and I am pissed as hell that he drug me into this, I don't like negativity and drama in my gaming, that is why i played in the mil.”
I think this quote uncovers an essential difference between many on the military side of things compared to those on the political side. Ironically, members of the military, whose job it is to kill things, generally abhor arguments and fighting about issues. Those on the political side tend to relish debate and politicking. This difference is certainly one root cause of much misunderstanding and mistrust between the two groups.
Is it possible that this split effects our strategic capability, militarily? What I mean to ask is “Is there a correlation between one’s tolerance of political maneuvering and one’s skill in strategic planning?” One former President once hinted at an answer this question to me:
[12:03am] redacte
😛military
[12:04am] redacte
😛some of the old (rhymes with bags)
[12:04am] redacte
😛cant please them
[12:04am] redacte
😛they sucked the enthusiasm out of me
….
[12:08am] redacte
😛they need to be restructured
[12:09am] redacte
😛the jcs model is bs imo
[12:09am] CRoy: JCS or all mil
[12:09am] redacte
😛they do nothing
[12:09am] redacte
😛they can have their generals
[12:09am] redacte
😛but they need to answer to a SoD
[12:09am] redacte
😛and he needs to be a legitimate strategist
So what comes next? Some reliable sources have insinuated that more resignations/quits are coming from members of the military. Depending on the mood of Congress, there may be a fight over funding. Most interestingly, with President Julian Mizu being away for an extended period of time, the Executive Branch is being headed by Mizu’s VP, a former JCS, GoalieBCSC. Will this help matters? Yes, but probably only behind the scenes.
Short of high level resignations or serious JCS restructuring, it will take an extremely gifted orator to heal the wounds exposed across this nation today. Is Goalie that person? Will Mizu be, if and when when he returns? Is there anyone gifted enough unify us all? Is there anyone bold enough to fight for complete restructuring of military command? Anyone foolish enough to try?
There are a lot of questions right now. There are a lot of unpalatable answers. The flood is coming. All that remains to be seen is who finds a way to stay dry and who is swept away in waters of change. Unfortunately, there will almost certainly be casualties before this is all said and done.
With a heavy heart,
Best,
~CRoy
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Comments
~_~
keduaaaaaaaaxx 😃
oh momma aint you gonna miss your best friend now?
you gonna have to find yoself a-nother best friend somehow.
So glad I am a Seal!
Jeez, a little more research? Michael Porter has never been denied afaik. He hasn't even applied, to my knowledge.
I've played long enough to see that this happens every, oh, 6 months or so, because the underlying problems never get fixed. The military-government relationship gets awfully bumpy and for a week it's a total mess. Then eventually everyone agrees to just stop arguing, and things go back to how they were, with nothing solved. Which of course lays the foundations for this to happen again.
Posting in a troll thread.
...wait a second...
You are a prolific writer.
And Emerick is banned from TC and #tc because of the numerous bigoted and racist comments he makes. Emerick's behavior in #tc and in the forums has left many things to be desired. I am sorry, but I refuse to allow i someone who makes racist comments on a regular basis, no matter how he means them or that he is joking. I don't tolerate that.
Voted from Belgium...
@Morrigan I said "unable to join certain branches," not denied. The CO of the MI has said anyone that was part of Exodus in Pakistan cannot join the MI. Porter was part of Exodus. I do my research just fine, thank you.
The eMilitary was going downhill when I left, I see now that it is even worse than I imagined. ST6 or some other legitimate militia is the place to be until reform occurs.
Publius is a spai xD
@CRoy, Has he even tried to join? Nope. I myself extended him an invitation to join the mil. I am sure, unless he has a murky erep past we don't know about, he'd get in just fine. Base things on facts not speculation. I think therefore doesn't work here.
tl;dr
Interesting stuff.
@Morrigan By your reasoning, Publius would get in just fine as well. We know this is not the case, nor is this an important issue in the larger scheme of what is going on right now and what this article discusses.
Give all funding to ST6
CRoy, if I get all frustrated and threaten to quit during this mess, I'm counting on you to keep me here.
I'll never let you go dani ♥
@CRoy Well, you discussed this in your article. I am responding. I can only speak for TC. I gave you my reasons for not allowing Emerick in and corrected the information about Michael Porter, which was erroneous.
"Ironically, members of the military, whose job it is to kill things, generally abhor arguments and fighting about issues. Those on the political side tend to relish debate and politicking."
Yes, I can see how clicking a fight button equates us to killers in your eyes. It is not so much the arguments and fighting that separates you from us but rather the trolling, disrespect, and lack of civility(debate and politicking in your terms) that we see everyday from several politicians that is often directed toward the military. Perhaps it is our sense of honor that causes you to despise us so much?. This is a game where we want to have fun, how are you surprised that the military doesn't take kindly to being trolled constantly. If you want answers, ask in a way that embodies respect instead of superiority. We are people too, not savages, treat us with respect and we will do the same to you.
that needs to be changed
I have been assured I can join the military. I have also not applied to any branch since WW3. Morrigan is not wrong in this case.
My original rage post speculated I would be denied due to TSEwell's comment about blanket denial of anyone who went to Pakistan. Jankems clarified the policy here http://eusaforums.com/forum/index.php/topic,3448.msg61967.html#msg61967
Thanks for the clarification MP
"If you want answers, ask in a way that embodies respect instead of superiority."
Have you read Dimension's article? He's tried asking and been told that he's out of line. The problem with the military is that too many think they're real life military and not just trying to organize damage in a BROWSER GAME.
And everyone thought that PTO's were bad. Where does a military coup of the government funded by my tax dollars rank on the sh!t scale?
@FirstLaw, I'm sorry but, when did this turn into a coup? I seem to have missed it.
The military junta over here is fairing decently.
Yes I have read Dim's article. Seems more like Dim is demanding answers, and when he is told off for it, he leaks everything. Being polite while addressing your superiors goes a long way.
RP is a part of this game and people like the structure that the eMilitary offers. How does merely "organizing damage" sound fun to you? It is the sense of community(created through this RP) that draws people into the military, and it is the same sense of community that keeps them there.
I still do not understand why we even have a Secretary of Defence or a PotUS for that matter, if the Military and JCS can do what it wants without punishment. When a Congress member refuses to do what is asked of them and in turn hurt the country or put it at risk, they are Blacklisted and striped of all priviledges. When a PotUS puts the country at risk, they are impeached.
What happens when the Military refuses to follow orders and puts the entire nation at risk? Nothing. I find something wrong with that. The whole policy on the military has to change. The PotUS and SoD should outrank the JCS.
Executive picks targets, military inflicts damage as instructed. Besides that, I'm quite pleased that the military remains out of the fray that is domestic politics.
I support military independance, with cooperation and respect between the two entities.
voted reyiz.
Good analysis.
FREE BELGIUM!
I didn't read voted.
v
@PigInZen, as has been stated by many of the JCS, Dimension's article was filled with fallacies. Jankems himself talked with Dimension the night BEFORE it was published and explained why each point was wrong. Dimension chose to publish the article anyway, in what seems to me to be an attempt to stir up trouble.
@BR, there's a difference between speaking to someone's concerns and allaying them. Just because I posted this, and countered your argument, doesn't mean that you'd be crazy to stick with your stance if I'm, in your opinion, wrong.
@Morrigan: I was assured a few days ago that even though I'm not blacklisted, I would be denied from any branch simply because of how people view me, which is usually way out of proportion an perpetuated through rumors in the closed doors of the military.
While I'm not rich, I do my best to do good damage in serious battles, though I'd be contributing a lot more if I were in the military. But whatever, it's not me who's denying America damage because of personal reasons.
Good read except I would argue that this is not your "normal" jcs vs executive debate, as painted in the introduction, esp considering Goalie is the current exec.
Most of the debate has been sprung based on internal military members opinions and the opinion that theres needs to be structural reform as well as more accountability to *congress*.
>as has been stated by many of the JCS, Dimension's article was filled with fallacies.
Yet instead of addressing those, the CJCS went on a trolling spree on the forums posting what was to the effect of "no u" and generally making a joke of his position.
Normally the excuse is that the "JCS IS TOO BUSY TO EXPLAIN ITSELF". What is it this time? He certainly had time to post a bunch of troll threads, why couldnt he have posted more than ~4 out of ~32 posts in the mil discussion boards?
@Emerick: Maybe had you not used disgusting and at some points racist names and in general not acted like a 4chan troll, you might have been received better. However you made the choices you made and its no secret you've wanted to do away with the JCS for quite some time so at this point your milking the situation you put yourself in for all its worth in order to further your goals.
Fire the JCS. Appoint a mix of those who've held senior rank but are no longer part of the military establishment and those who are in the service now but are mid-level currently. Those fired get busted to common soldiers with no responsibilities, possibly forced into the NG or another branch besides their current so they don't get deferential and preferential treatment. Repeat every 3-4 months to keep CPs from appointing hacks and cronies and make appointments subject to congressional approval, with extensions possible during LEGITIMATE periods of emergency (which could only be an invasion).
"What happens when the Military refuses to follow orders and puts the entire nation at risk? Nothing. I find something wrong with that. The whole policy on the military has to change. The PotUS and SoD should outrank the JCS."
The problem is that the military don't think anything they do could put the country at risk. They do cast a suspicious eye at everyone else, however, and view any challenge to their authority as disloyalty and treason. In short, eAmerica is a military dictatorship/oligarchy with meaningless political elections and an elected figurehead president. The Nazis and Soviets would be proud.
>@Emerick: Maybe had you not used disgusting and at some points racist names and in general not acted like a 4chan troll, you might have been received better. However you made the choices you made and its no secret you've wanted to do away with the JCS for quite some time so at this point your milking the situation you put yourself in for all its worth in order to further your goals.
So you're saying that it's a good idea to deny people for personal reasons.