I, retired United Methodist pastor Rodney Noel Saunders, recently talked to a 25-year military officer who served in a combatant command as well as Operation Enduring Freedom. 

     He said, “War requires plans and goals which require expert leadership, not a reality show host and a second-tier weekend newscaster. The U.S. military develops those plans at combatant commands requiring several thousand career experts. The plans lay out risks along with anticipated, ordered effects.”

     He said when he worked within a combatant command, the team studied and worked to predict down to the fourth order effect. “For example, a hurricane strikes the southeast. This event is the first order. One second order effect is emergency rooms get overrun. Another second order effect is widespread power outages causing medical emergencies for people using electric medical equipment, a third order effect. The fourth order effect is a second wave of local emergency rooms overrun four-seven days after the event. The military plans to that fourth order effect. In this scenario, planners would inform senior leaders that the military will likely need to provide emergency medical services to support civilian hospitals, so forces are in place around day three.” 

     He said, “United States Central Command (USCENTCOM), the combatant command in charge of military operations in the Middle East, undoubtedly knew that the Iranian military would close the Strait of Hormuz (second order) if they were attacked, along with the likelihood of civilian casualties. This leads to two conclusions. The first is the reality show host creates an environment in which general officers don’t inform senior leaders because truth gets them fired. After all, the weekend newscaster fired two four-star generals without cause shortly after swearing to defend the constitution. The second, more likely conclusion is the general officers briefed the third-order effect of oil prices rising to the highest level ever, and the administration simply replied with the equivalent of, ‘let them eat cake,’ then recklessly directed a missile on a girl’s school, relying on old-and-faulty intelligence information not up-to-date collaborated.” 

     He said, “Either conclusion is definitely plausible in a world where our leaders think they’re playing a video game in overthrowing governments. The current regime is like that hurricane with their response like a game show. A reality show host cannot fathom that when he tells the director to cut, not all the actors will stop. He attacked a sovereign nation that will not simply stop and cower like all his minions in the House and Senate. If you voted for him once, twice, or three times, you are complicit in the murder of over 100 school-aged girls as all this was predictable because it wasn’t planned appropriately with competent combatant command due to seriously incompetent leadership at the top two positions of the U.S. military — the commander-in-chief and the secretary of defense!”      After our talk it was obvious this officer should remain anonymous to avoid court-martial efforts, as happened to Arizona’s Sen. Kelly for legally using his freedom of speech. Sad but true.

Rodney Noel Saunders is a retired United Methodist Pastor. He resides in Florissant.