Does this sound...hmm, a bit weird?

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I doubt the following was written by native-English speaker. What do you think?

Context:

Our 30-year old all-volunteer Army is crucially close to being broken.

Never in the history of the post-Vietnam volunteer Army has such a beaten up and over-tasked force had to sustain itself in the face of ever-expanding requirements and constantly accelerating deployment tempos that we see today.

The quality of our force is suffering. Anybody who denies that fact is either blind or ignorant. If the military is not bolstered, very soon, with an infusion of smart, well-trained, and highly-motivated volunteers, the force will suffer even more.

Where do we start pointing the finger? Do we just sweep this under the rug, chin up, and stop our bellyaching? Not on your life, because if it is not cured now, it is going to fester into a quandary that will present the United States with an unprecedented challenge in this time of war.

A fix is needed and it begins with the Army personnel system. This is a system that has been in place since the waning days of our two-decade involvement in Vietnam.

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It feels american to me, but not well-written.

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Yes, that's native writing. Some style issues, but no glaring grammatical problems.

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I agree - a terrible writing style and full of jargon but a native speaker definitely.

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No reason to believe it was not written by a native speaker.

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Hi all.

Thanks for reply.

**********************
What does "sweep this under the rug" mean? I know the idiom "pull the rug from under" means "destroy one's plan". So does the idom "sweep this under the rug"? Does the "this" here mean "the suffering"?

Also didn't get "point the finger". Does it mean "point out where is wrong and where is right"?

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To "sweep under the rug" means they attempted to hide something. (someone who is in a rush might lift a cornor of an area rug and sweep dirt from the floor under it intead of sweeping it into a dust pan and disposing of it properly. The idea being that the room looks clean but it isn't.)

I think the "This" you are referring to is used to mean "The current system".

To "point a finger" usually menas something along similar to "assigns blame". You could technically "point the finger" at someone for good things too but it almost always has a negative connotation.

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Hi Oristar,

"Sweep under the rug" is a metaphor for not fixing a problem correctly. Rather than cleaning a dirty floor and disposing of the dirt and dust it's just hidden under a nearby rug. "This" refers to the quality of the forces in the writer's estimation.

"Point the finger" (one's index finger) is affixing blame to the party you feel is responsible for the situation.

regards

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i would question the efficacy of the query; to what end do you ask?
i would find the ethnic origin, or educational credentials of the author of little or no significance, and seek only to correct that which requires correction.

the point?

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Hi Fishin' and tycoon, Now I got the both clearly.
Thank you. Smile

Hello BoGoWo, sorry I don't get what you are saying.

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as with most of what i come up with; it's of little importance.........

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Oristar, Bo does not understand why you ask these things.

Bo, Oristar is a member who is in China and wishes to learn "proper" English in order to be a journalist, if i have not misunderstood. Therefore, it is important to Oristar to know whether or not something he reads is written by a native speaker. If so, then he can take note of usage and idiomatic expressions. If not, then the value of a piece to Oristar as an example of standard English would be in question.

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there now, that helps us out, eh (that's 'native' Canadia/en)

but on the subject of 'being a "native" speaker', relating to the English language; i'm afraid to me that would indicate the author was raised, and educated in Britian - i see 'American' speakers, in a distinctly different light.

this text was definitely written by an 'American' author in my opinion, and is 'clumsy' at best.

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Setanta is sharp eyed. Very Happy

Bo, if we said "English-speaking countries", we've indicated that the US, Canada, Australia etc have been included in the countries. That is, times have changed. A native-English speaker, not only means a native-Briton, but also means an American, Canadian, Australian etc whose mother tongue is English language.
Here:
Native English speaker = native English language speaker.

Anyways, thanks for your reply.

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Does this sound...hmm, a bit weird?

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