I spent last week at Angelo State University in remote central Texas as a panelist for the annual All-Volunteer Force (AVF) Forum. It was a strange forum in many ways, but nonetheless instructive. I was the youngest (and most progressive) member, as well as the lowest-ranking veteran among a group of leaders and speakers that included two retired generals, the chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell, a few former colonels and several academics. Despite having remarkably diverse life experiences and political opinions, all concluded that America’s all-volunteer military is not equitable, efficient or sustainable. The inconvenient truth each of the panel participants had the courage to identify is that the end of the draft in the U.S. had many unintended—and ultimately tragic—consequences for the republic.
The oft-praised U.S. military is, disturbingly, the most trusted public institution in the country. These days, active service members and veterans are regularly paraded before an otherwise apathetic citizenry at nearly every sporting event. Public figures and private citizens alike fawn over and obsessively thank the troops at every possible opportunity. It seems strange, however, that Americans are so hyperproud of their military, seeing as it neither reflects society nor achieves national objectives overseas.After all, the military only accounts for about 0.5 % of Americans and, as recent statistics indicate, the Army is falling well short of its recruiting goals. Not to mention that for all the vacuous pageantry and celebrations of a military that is increasingly divergent from civil society, few seem to ask an important question: When was the last time the AVF won a war?
The AVF is ultimately an unfair, ineffective and unsustainable organization charged with impossible, ill-advised missions by policymakers and a populace that actually care rather little for the nation’s soldiers. As the AVF nears its 50th anniversary, there’s no better time than now to assess the model’s flaws and its effect on American democracy.
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7 comments:
YES! Now we have a country full of Tide-Pod eating snowflakes!
Yes put All the p...y snowflakes in ????
Yup, now restart it and include girls, they can die right along side my sons!
Most young people are so immature and self absorbed graduating High School no matter how smart maybe a mandatory two years of service and discipline would actually proffer them with some maturity to actually take advantage of higher education and life's opportunities. Corporations might even invest in the notion to have a returning responsible and accountable work force ready to roll. This whole rolling back of school hours for high school kids is ridiculous. Oh they are not well rested.....boohooo. Don't stay up all night nursing your phone. What happened to paper routes ? After getting up at 5 am rolling and delivering papers on my bike I was ready to GO to school. Then involved in sports I would sometimes not get home until 7 and then do home work and crash.
Life was just different. You were expected at the table for meals. The TV was not on long after the news. My parents read dad had a workshop mom a sewing room we all seemed to be more involved in our heads and our own lives and not addicted to all that that's OUTSIDE the home. Sounds really square and old fashioned but it was really not that long ago. People can't even hold a pencil now or do math in their heads, measure or weigh anything or doodle a stick figure. We all have so much more potential than we have currently settled for.
11:25 Your comments are right on, 2 years of universal military training for both boys & girls & others would be a growing UP evperience
Send in the lesbiens.
It would teach some of these low life bottom feeder thugs some obedience and respect and learn how to do what you are told without a bunch of BS. No getting out because you can't adapt........you WILL adapt or else..........you will wish you would have because the alternative isn;t fun or nice. No running back to your homies because "NO one is gonna tell you what to do", so you are discharged. Uh uh , it won't be that easy. You will stay and you will listen when someone tells you what to do and how to do it.
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