I\u2019ve long been uncomfortable with the idea of an all-volunteer military, not because of its professionalism and expertise, but because it tends to separate us as a nation from the serious nature of war itself. The debacle of recent wars and the present case of Afghanistan provide a case in point.<\/p>\n
For me the idea of hired professional soldiers brings to mind the Hessians employed by the British during the American Revolution and more recently the mercenaries employed by countries in Africa. Somehow it doesn\u2019t seem right to hire other people to fight our wars and defend us. We should fight our own wars. Perhaps then we would be more reluctant to go to war.<\/p>\n
I remember back in the 60s when I was confronted with going into the military. We had a military draft that required that all able-bodied young men serve time in the military; we all knew that it was obligatory and something we had to deal with, like it or not. I opted to join the naval reserve and get deferments to complete college before serving my active duty requirement. It was right before Vietnam and there was a scramble by young men trying to elude service altogether or cut themselves the best deal to serve the shortest time possible. Looking back, it was crazy and terribly inequitable with people taking advantage of joining the national guard, joining up for the army\u2019s six months active duty program or gaining a marriage exemption.<\/p>\n
Today our wars are fought out-of-sight, out-of-mind. Most of us don\u2019t have a dog in the fight, not our sons or daughters or even our personal well-being or standard of living. Life goes on as usual and is mostly enjoyable for us. Perhaps if members of Congress had sons and daughters serving in the military they would be more circumspect about becoming engaged overseas. And that goes for all of us. In short, there is no cost for politicians or us to send soldiers into conflict. After a while, contemporary wars are something that show up on evening television, but are not really on our mind or given much consideration. Life goes on uninterrupted by the death of others we don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know how to change this, but I can\u2019t stop feeling that we need to have some type of service requirement for all of us whether it be in combat or some other capacity. This is, after all, our country, not a place we simply rent. If going to war meant committing ourselves, we might consider the goals and consequences more closely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019ve long been uncomfortable with the idea of an all-volunteer military, not because of its professionalism and expertise, but because it tends to separate us as a nation from the serious nature of war itself. The debacle of recent wars and the present case of Afghanistan provide a case in point. For me the idea…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n