Joan, I'm missing a couple of your points. Re. your assertion that the military has increasingly, in recent years, relied on a strategy of preserving the lives of its combatants over lives of civilians on the other side -- perhaps you would put a date on the beginning of "recent".
Do you include Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima??? Bombardment of civilian populations, short of nuking them, is generally regarded as poor military strategy.
Actually, in recent years, the U.S. has been able to destroy all kinds of targets with an economy of human life (on both sides) that was unimaginable a few decades ago.
Ironically, this is not always good, as it can tempt us to do things we have no business doing in the first place.
IMO, the availability and capability of so many helicopters in Vietnam, made it awfully easy to take young men to deadly and otherwise inaccessible locations.
In the same vein, I think the Clinton Defense team (starting most definitely with Bill) thinks you can push a button and solve a "problem" hundreds, or thousands, of miles away. To his credit, though, he does understand the most powerful weapon in war, absent the nuke option, is television. One may marvel at the degree of restraint shown by the commander of the initial night landing force in Somalia, when greeted on the beach by TV lights and reporters.
What's up with the "perks" statement? Because a young soldier can buy a roll of film at the PX for only a few pennies more than at Wal-Mart.....because he's enrolled in a huge and rather screwy HMO system.....because of all that overtime pay.....because he has any choice in any matter
.....because a spouse can't establish a stable career, etc?????
When I was in the military there were always people giving speeches about those "perks" to get you to stay in. At one point there was even a kind of internal PR campaign to have us think about all the "invisible pay" represented by perks. They actually published pay charts reflecting "invisible pay." One thing about the military -
it can make you laugh about the saddest things.
Not wanting to fight. Just confused some by your meaning. |
