Suggesting, frankly, there is no norm there at all anymore, but rather a perception that the job ought to be held by the military. As I noted in my FP piece, creating such an organizational ouroboros is dangerous; on the dangers see: https://www.amazon.com/Absolute-Destruction-Military-Practices-Imperial/dp/0801472938 … 6/25
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That has to change and it is long past time for the civilian authorities - Congress, the President - to do their jobs and make it change. And to be clear, the culture of the military has *not* always been like this. 17/25
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The 'warrior ethos' was added to the Soldier's Creed only in 2003 - the old version of the Creed had no reference to being a warrior, but it did have a line about "restrain[ing]...Army comrades from actions disgraceful..." which got nuked out of the current version. 18/25
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The pro-warrior literature isn't that old either. Gates of Fire - the perennial target of my ire - was only published in 1998. Read some WWII veteran memoirs - 'warrior' is, in my experience, a very rare descriptor for military personnel. 19/25
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Finally,
@EmanThinks makes the argument that a 'warrior' mindset improves cohesion. It may well, but if it improves cohesion at the cost of the civ-mil relationship, it is worse than useless. This is the exact mistake of elevating operational/tactical considerations...20/25Näytä tämä ketju -
...to the strategic level. Cohesion and lethality cannot trump strategic considerations - if greater lethality comes with a threat to the democracy, you accept lower lethality. Because - as Clausewitz says (drink!) - policy must rule. 21/25
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It is striking to me that this particular error in military thinking is exactly the one that tends to occur when military decision-making is insulated from civilian policy, see e.g. I. Hull above, or S. Ienaga, The Pacific War (1978). Perhaps there is a problem after all? 22/25
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This kind of argument often comes with the suggestion that civilians don't understand and shouldn't have an opinion which just leads us right back up to tweet 3. "The civ-mil is great and also if you are a civ and you disagree, shut up" is a self-refuting argument. 23/25
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Finally, I want to stress again that this shift to warrior-ism, and the mil-exceptionalism isn't the age-old thing that many current folks serving think it is - it's an artifact of the GWOT era and doesn't go back much further than that. 24/25
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But since the GWOT turns 20 this year, most current personnel know nothing else. And that is a real proble, which needs addressing sooner, rather than later. end/25
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Keskustelun loppu
Uusi keskustelu -
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i’m confused on this word usage what baleful consequences exactly?
Kiitos. Käytämme tätä aikajanasi parantamiseen. KumoaKumoa
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