"The Tragedy of the American Military" - James Fallows (Long and worthy read)

[Dawson Leery]

http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/12/the-tragedy-of-the-american-military/383516/

"This reverent but disengaged attitude toward the military—we love the troops, but we’d rather not think about them—has become so familiar that we assume it is the American norm. But it is not. When Dwight D. Eisenhower, as a five-star general and the supreme commander, led what may have in fact been the finest fighting force in the history of the world, he did not describe it in that puffed-up way. On the eve of the D-Day invasion, he warned his troops, “Your task will not be an easy one,” because “your enemy is well-trained, well-equipped, and battle-hardened.” As president, Eisenhower’s most famous statement about the military was his warning in his farewell address of what could happen if its political influence grew unchecked.

At the end of World War II, nearly 10 percent of the entire U.S. population was on active military duty—which meant most able-bodied men of a certain age (plus the small number of women allowed to serve). Through the decade after World War II, when so many American families had at least one member in uniform, political and journalistic references were admiring but not awestruck. Most Americans were familiar enough with the military to respect it while being sharply aware of its shortcomings, as they were with the school system, their religion, and other important and fallible institutions."

[JonLP24]

1. The ways military spending saves money is the area that bothers me the most

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12675

My favorite military films actually happen to be Tropic Thunder & Hot Shots but they also seem to be the most accurate as well.

Hurt Locker was just so ridiculous, EOD units are nothing like they were portrayed. They perform their tasks in the safest way possible, driving 5mph w/ ultra bright headlines and sending a remote control robot to identify the control detonate the possible bomb.

I also remember the day of the "surge" Stars & Stripes ran the headline "All active duty Army units extended to 15-months" and I never seen such collective morale loss throughout the dining facility, no one was interested if the surge will work or not. In fact, things were calm & complacent all things considered and the surge led to violence & deaths on all sides, including civilian death tolls & two trucks were struck by EFPs. One was hit on the passenger side door and the other luckily struck the engine on the second to last convoy.

We lucked out though because we were part of a Joint Logistics Task Force which included Navy, Air Force, and National Guard units who did 6-month tours so our 12-month was easier to roll over into the next units.

Concerns over private security were overblown. They mainly did jobs like base security but something I'd view as controversial is how much effort was put into "watching the TCNs" who were doing most of the work, especially the grunt work such as serving meals, sucking shit out of the outhouses, etc for dirt pay (where are military spending is cost effective but unethical & unjust). Article focuses so much on how much a plane costs but most military will never even be around a plane, but there are things they hit the mark on such as callous support for deploying & redeploying without fully appreciate the complete costs such as high divorce rate & alcoholism among many other things they have to deal with.

I also have no fear over my opinion on effectiveness of military leaders, I don't understand the problem but it seems like things could help all parties & improve morale over things that can be figured out with common sense. A lot like to yell & punish for misunderstandings, many like to show how tough they are by making an example of the first soldier who gets in trouble & crossing that line of getting involved in your personal life. (They want to know everything but as far as needing help with something, it is more difficult. Things like AER (which is charity aided by donations by service members) weren't intended to be loans that were later taken from you which I didn't find out until after the fact which gave a little extra for coming underwater on rent or whatever. USAA was by far the best car insurance & financing organization I ever came across.