American Mercenaries?
The Mudville Gazette has a great posting in response to a New York Times article that compares the US military to a bunch of mercenaries. Here is some selected quotes from Mr. David Kennedy’s article:
The United States now has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today’s volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits – a compensation package that may not always be commensurate with the dangers in store, as current recruiting problems testify.
(…)
Some will find it offensive to call today’s armed forces a “mercenary army,” but our troops are emphatically not the kind of citizen-soldiers that we fielded two generations ago – drawn from all ranks of society without respect to background or privilege or education, and mobilized on such a scale that civilian society’s deep and durable consent to the resort to arms was absolutely necessary.
Leaving questions of equity aside, it cannot be wise for a democracy to let such an important function grow so far removed from popular participation and accountability. It makes some supremely important things too easy – like dealing out death and destruction to others, and seeking military solutions on the assumption they will be swifter and more cheaply bought than what could be accomplished by the more vexatious business of diplomacy….
I like this quote from Greyhawk on this:
He’s right, in a limited way. The American Left is far, far out of touch with the American military. Since the abolition of the draft Leftists don’t serve.
And when an American Leftist says “mainstream American” they mean themselves – exclusively. They are ignorant of the other, much larger segment of society that does not subscribe to their rigid dogma. (This also is helpful in understanding their confusion over the elected government of the nation.)
Basically what Mr. Kennedy is trying to do is continue to beat the liberal drum that the draft should be reinstated. They want the draft reinstated not because they actually care about everyone participating in the defense of this country, but because it would be political suicide for the Republicans and the Bush administration to do so. What I find really interesting about this arguement is that these same liberals are the ones who fought against the draft during the Vietnam War and now want to bring it back the draft when they are to old serve.
Wonder if my extra $300 bucks a month AIP puts me in the Hessian Mercenary tax bracket?
