- Joined
- Feb 2, 2008
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- 3,059
article from Foreign Policy last month by LTG (Ret) Dave Barno is worth contemplating. I don't particularly like LTG Barno as I believe he is a truly arrogant guy (and one in many ways was the "Toxic"leader that the Army CofS has made such a crusade of eliminating - demeaning to subordinates and "right because his rank said so and you are a colonel and can't argue back " kind of a guy). But- he is undeniable a bright guy and I think this article does identify a real strain and concern for the US and its military- it's well worth reading.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/09/a_new_moral_compact?page=0,0
The question is though- how do you have a professional Army and yet have a draftee Army? And if you don't have a draftee Army- how do you ensure that the population is involved in the consequences of the decisions that they make?
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/11/09/a_new_moral_compact?page=0,0
Yet at what point are we morally compelled to in some way expose every American family to our fights abroad, to invest some moral equity as a nation and a society into fighting our wars? Absent any prospect whatsoever for our current or future wars to touch any of us personally, where is the moral hazard -- the personal "equity stake" -- that shapes our collective judgment, giving us pause when we decide to send our remarkable volunteer military off to war? They are fully prepared to go -- but they trust the rest of us to place sufficient weight and seriousness into that decision to ensure that their inevitable sacrifices of life and limb will be for a worthy and essential cause.
Throughout our history, American decisions on going to war have been closely connected to our people because they remain matters of life and death. And they were always seen as matters of deep import to the nation as a whole, since all could be called upon to fight. Today such profound decisions are all but free of consequences for the Americans people. When the lives and the deaths of our soldiers no longer personally impact the population at large, have we compromised our moral authority on war? How can our elites and our broader populace make wartime decisions in good conscience when those paying the price are someone else's kids -- but assuredly never their own?
The question is though- how do you have a professional Army and yet have a draftee Army? And if you don't have a draftee Army- how do you ensure that the population is involved in the consequences of the decisions that they make?