The valor of the US Military, of any army, is not inexhaustible.
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The valor of the US Military, of any army, is not inexhaustible. Yes, you can have superior technology. Yes, you can spend more money and have more training and more weapons. This can make a military effective, deadly, powerful.
But, these technologies mean nothing without the focus, commitment and personal investment of the people who use them.
Do those people believe in their mission? Can they reasonably be asked to believe?
If not? Everything becomes orders of magnitude more difficult.
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The valor of the US Military, of any army, is not inexhaustible. Yes, you can have superior technology. Yes, you can spend more money and have more training and more weapons. This can make a military effective, deadly, powerful.
But, these technologies mean nothing without the focus, commitment and personal investment of the people who use them.
Do those people believe in their mission? Can they reasonably be asked to believe?
If not? Everything becomes orders of magnitude more difficult.
This is why "questioning the war" can be positioned as "putting the troops in danger" by the cynical.
But if those questions are structural, as they have often been, it's misdirection to get angry at the person asking the question.
The use of deadly force should not be confusing and complex. It should be obvious why it is needed. If it isn't? Then it is war based on the whims of the powerful who think that the lives and commitment of those who fight are another product they can purchase.
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This is why "questioning the war" can be positioned as "putting the troops in danger" by the cynical.
But if those questions are structural, as they have often been, it's misdirection to get angry at the person asking the question.
The use of deadly force should not be confusing and complex. It should be obvious why it is needed. If it isn't? Then it is war based on the whims of the powerful who think that the lives and commitment of those who fight are another product they can purchase.
I'm uncomfortable with the way that militaries celebrate themselves, the glamorization of violence and patriotism.
Dulce et decorum est? Is it though? Is it really?
But, putting that aside as I don't think it's something some people will ever change their minds about. And putting it aside because I do think it can be true some of the time. In the abstract. I ask only that this not be a thought terminating cliche.
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I'm uncomfortable with the way that militaries celebrate themselves, the glamorization of violence and patriotism.
Dulce et decorum est? Is it though? Is it really?
But, putting that aside as I don't think it's something some people will ever change their minds about. And putting it aside because I do think it can be true some of the time. In the abstract. I ask only that this not be a thought terminating cliche.
What the US Military does is honorable because if you say it's not you will make them less effective. We can't reason under these circumstances.
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What the US Military does is honorable because if you say it's not you will make them less effective. We can't reason under these circumstances.
@futurebird the part where it is the largest fucking jobs and health care providers that the US government runs is kinda good. I mean, the jobs are not uniformly good jobs, and they’re not necessarily making a positive impact, and the pay structure is weird with a bunch of your compensation coming tax exempt; and the health care for the actual service member is sometimes gated in arbitrary and capricious ways, but I hear TriCare is really good for covered family members. And there’s pretty decent education benefits. And retirement plans.
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@futurebird the part where it is the largest fucking jobs and health care providers that the US government runs is kinda good. I mean, the jobs are not uniformly good jobs, and they’re not necessarily making a positive impact, and the pay structure is weird with a bunch of your compensation coming tax exempt; and the health care for the actual service member is sometimes gated in arbitrary and capricious ways, but I hear TriCare is really good for covered family members. And there’s pretty decent education benefits. And retirement plans.
@futurebird shame that it’s literally a apparatus for killing people at scale.
(I am a Navy vet) -
What the US Military does is honorable because if you say it's not you will make them less effective. We can't reason under these circumstances.
The unthinking veneration of our military and veterans is a social ill. It causes us to feel favorably about dubious endeavors simply because it's our military doing them.
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What the US Military does is honorable because if you say it's not you will make them less effective. We can't reason under these circumstances.
@futurebird The thing about honor is it is a perishible quality. You must keep earning it EVERY DAY, or it withers immediately. Even barring dishonor, the best you can do with past achievement is FADED GLORY. You must strive to behave honorably every day in every opportunity, else you're just a blowdried drunk living in other people's ill-fitting shoes.
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I'm uncomfortable with the way that militaries celebrate themselves, the glamorization of violence and patriotism.
Dulce et decorum est? Is it though? Is it really?
But, putting that aside as I don't think it's something some people will ever change their minds about. And putting it aside because I do think it can be true some of the time. In the abstract. I ask only that this not be a thought terminating cliche.
@futurebird I agree with Wilfred Owen When he calls it the "old Lie." If a deterrent has to be used , it is not a deterrent, and that is what the military is supposed to be.
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The valor of the US Military, of any army, is not inexhaustible. Yes, you can have superior technology. Yes, you can spend more money and have more training and more weapons. This can make a military effective, deadly, powerful.
But, these technologies mean nothing without the focus, commitment and personal investment of the people who use them.
Do those people believe in their mission? Can they reasonably be asked to believe?
If not? Everything becomes orders of magnitude more difficult.
@futurebird as an imperial army of an empire that is manifestly imploding, this belief becomes a very precious resource indeed, and very difficult to maintain. The mission of the army will probably change quite drastically in the coming years, with the loss of the system of alliances that sustained the empire. The Zoom call with the G7 where Trump gave the other western countries no clarity at all on US strategy will exacerbate this. I can't imagine what the lower level NATO talk is like now.
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I'm uncomfortable with the way that militaries celebrate themselves, the glamorization of violence and patriotism.
Dulce et decorum est? Is it though? Is it really?
But, putting that aside as I don't think it's something some people will ever change their minds about. And putting it aside because I do think it can be true some of the time. In the abstract. I ask only that this not be a thought terminating cliche.
>Dulce et decorum est? Is it though? Is it really?
No, for ones community perhaps, but not for ones country, meaning the state. The state is our enemy.
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@futurebird shame that it’s literally a apparatus for killing people at scale.
(I am a Navy vet)@c0dec0dec0de @futurebird In the 90s I knew a couple civil affairs officers my dad’s age and I could see the arc of the US military bending towards improving the quality of life on the global scale. Then like everything else it went down a different path after 9/11
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