US Air Force officers are reacting with horror to a memo by a top general advising them to prepare for a conventional war against China within two years.
On January 27, thousands of airmen received a communique from Gen. Mike Minihan informing them that his “gut” told him the US “will fight [China] in 2025,” and demanding they be prepared to “fire a clip into a 7-meter target with the full understanding that unrepentant lethality matters most.”
“Aim for the head,” added the memo, which also included instructions to update their virtual ‘Record of Emergency Data,’ which informs the military what to do in the event of a service member’s death.
A number of Air Force members were left dumbfounded by the message, including an officer who recently told Military.com that many of his subordinates could not believe what they were seeing.
“Some of my airmen are going to get scared when they read this memo,” the officer reportedly said. “I felt like a random email blast to thousands of airmen was an inappropriate way to direct them to essentially prepare for war with a near-peer adversary.”
The officer reportedly pointed out it was “inaccurate” to describe a magazine as a ‘clip,’ and that the insistence airmen “aim for the head” was “dramatic.”
Furthermore, he noted the suggestion ran contrary to lessons taught to snipers during marksmanship, which encourage sharpshooters to aim for the center of a target’s mass.
“Someone sarcastically joked, ‘Aim for the head. Spoken like a true marksman!’” the officer reportedly added.
Another pilot pointed out the commands revealed an extraordinarily shallow understanding of the US military’s division of labor.
"I am not aware of a single incident where an aircrew member has shot someone in the head," the pilot reportedly said. "His direction completely misses the mark. AMC moves cargo; we are not SEAL Team 6."
Several advisers at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a leading US military aligned think tank, also greeted the general’s comments with dismay.
“What we're effectively signaling is we have no idea, and I'm not sure we understand just how damaging that is,” said an official, who added that “having this menu option of various years… I think comes across as undermining the credibility of our statements and our assessments on precisely the relationship where your words matter.”
Another reportedly added, “I think we are seemingly trying to talk ourselves into a conflict that doesn't need to occur.”