That might not be too much of a problem if the ranks of the military broadly reflected America's own political and cultural divisions, but as Bryant et al. note, they do not. Contra the blithe assertions of the Gates Commiss, the AVF does not look like America... 9/25
-
-
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
Näytä tämä ketju -
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
Näytä tämä ketju -
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
Näytä tämä ketju -
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
Näytä tämä ketju -
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
Näytä tämä ketju
Keskustelun loppu
Uusi keskustelu -
Lataaminen näyttää kestävän hetken.
Twitter saattaa olla ruuhkautunut tai ongelma on muuten hetkellinen. Yritä uudelleen tai käy Twitterin tilasivulla saadaksesi lisätietoja.