Reform the Military

The Atlantic Magazine did this long article on the present state of the military. My good friend sent it to me. These comments are in response. Here is the link, if you have any interest. 

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

Russell, (my good friend and patriot), I actually thought of you as relates to this article. I read it through twice. I personally think Fallows is "right on."  In fact, I have blogged much of the comments. 

I have tried hard to make a little dent in this chasm between the military and the civilian community, with no success, I might add. My idea is that if all faced a common experience, the chasm wouldn't exist or certainly be lessoned. My thoughts have been that as a country, we need some sort of community service. As I have tried to promote it, mostly the "nobody is home" look is pretty prevalent. 

I think Fallows points are very good and I've actually read him before. There are a couple of good zingers he left out and would have bolstered the argument or ideas I think. One is, we have way too many generals and his quote was right on about generals becoming "risk adverse" as they don't want to risk screwing up. The military system is very unforgiving even on minor things. When you get to Colonel, all records look the same. Those who make general usually have some high ranking sponsor who pushes their career. Once a general passes one star, he is as political as any politician. (You can understand, the generals owe their allegiance to their sponsors and when they can influence the system for the retired general who was their sponsor and now maybe works for a defense contractor, they will do it).

Personally as I have viewed the generals relationships with the president, in the beginning especially, he was intimidated by the generals. The generals would show up with all those medals, in uniform, the Prez had had no military training, he was bamboozled as we say in NC. 

We could easily reduce the generals by half or more. A good example is Fort Bragg (NC) in your neck of the woods. They have 28 generals which means that every general must have his own parking space and a bevy of aides. It is ridiculous that we have allowed this situation. 

One subject that almost nobody takes on: The vast cost of the Volunteer Army. And, the fact that we have three Service Academies when we could easily combine into one, saving millions but you better believe nobody will touch that. I've read that It cost a minimum of 1 mil to educate each cadet at the academies. Honestly, I think it's more. 

Fallows did admit that he legally dodged the draft. I surely don't blame him but am convinced that the great reverence for the military came about partly because the public treated Vietnam vets so badly, actually blaming them for the war. It is a wound that I don't think can be healed. 

There is a personal note to this article. Fallows referenced my good friend,  Cecil Currey, who pointed up the same thing as Fallows, almost 20 years ago. 

Cecil was a Prof at South Florida U and author of several books. One was a book about the "Disintegration of the American Army." He was "right on." In fact, he wrote the book under a pseudonym, Cincinatis (I remember discussing it with him and even discouraged him from publishing the book).  We debated it. He was uncovered. He was a Reserve chaplain and on his way to becoming a general in the Reserves when he wrote the book. After publication, he became persona non grata. Nonody would give him a job. Briefly, he came to work with me. (Cecil was one of my dearest friends and died a couple of years ago). A memorial to him is on the Airborne Press website

To me the most scandalous part of the article was something any of us who have been around the military already know. Great numbers of generals step right into these lucrative jobs with defense contractors. Big-time conflict of interest. These contractors don't hire these generals for their looks. Your fellow North Carolinian, Stanley McChrystal, from Statesboro, fired for bad mouthing the president (My conspiracy theory is that he set it up to get fired) really landed himself a big job with big money. . 

Russell, I think you hit the nail on the head, ruckus? Forget it. I have been very discouraged over the last dozen years or so about Iraq, Afghanistan--there have been some really good books written, articles like this one. Nothing happens. We make the same stupid decisions. The military/diplomats give us the same rosy reports. Bullshit. To me, it is very discouraging. I am not giving up as you aren't but to be honest, I don't see anything happening. PRETTY SAD.