CDR SALAMANDER: Failure will continue until accountability improves. (Hopefully starting Nov. 5, 2024 and continuing beyond).

Empires don’t often die in a blaze of glory, no. More often than not they end in simpering apologies and excuses from poor leaders putting the wrong people in positions they have no place being, and when they fail - there is no accountability.

We are supposed to be a serious nation with serious obligations. We have serious competitor-nations who wish our nation and those we support harm.

We - and if we like it or not it is Uncle Sam and his taxpayers - inherited stewardship of the global system that cannot prosper when it’s primary force continues to demonstrate abject incompetence - from Afghanistan to Gaza - all the while holding no one accountable. Our enemies are encouraged and our friends disheartened. It is almost as if the humiliation and failure is the actual goal.

That last sentence rings true....