The Volunteer Military and a Lack of Accountability

 

Compulsory Service and a 'United' Country

I’ve had Iran on my mind for the last few weeks. I didn’t think Operation Epic Fury was a good idea, but naturally I want the best outcome for the country. When it comes to war, the best way to ensure our leaders make wise decisions is to raise the stakes. We’ve had a volunteer force for too long. Too few people are connected, through a son or daughter, with loss. The conflict is far away, it affects others. Gasoline has ticked up because of the lack of shipping through the straits of Hormuz. That’s as much as we’ve felt here at home. There needs to be some skin in the game where wars are concerned, or we’ll surely have more of them. The less connection there is between the servicemen and women and the people who live here, the less it feels like a real thing. The US needs to institute compulsory service for every citizen and get back control over the military.

Efficiency and Access

Problems should be fixed in the quickest way possible. Layers add difficulty. In the federal government we call these layers red tape or bureaucracy. In the private sector it’s conglomerates. I’m not talking about efficiency only, but accessibility as well. If you need to update a driver’s license in a state you’ve recently moved, you’ll have to fill out a handful of forms. Make sure you’ve got 3 forms of ID and a recent water bill. God help you if you miss anything.

In the private sector the problems look a little different. If you rent an apartment in the city and need to complain about the air conditioner that doesn’t get cold, who do you complain to? If the property is owned on site, it’s easy. March up to the office, with a disgusted look on your face, and demand to speak to the manager.

 But what if it’s an out of state company? You can send an email and hope for the best. But even then, they’ll likely reply to your complaint with something dismissive like “We own, but don’t manage Crappy Living Inc”. You’ll have to find out who manages the company and send them an email. They’ll likely reply with “We sold off management of Crappy Living Inc to another management company out of New York called Crappier Living Inc. No email is available either. You do a little searching and find a phone number for Crappier Living Inc and decide to call. It’s an automated answering service and doesn’t have an option for complaints.

At what point do you finally give up and buy a box fan?

The lack of connection from owner to renter is a feature and not a bug. The accountability is to the shareholders of these conglomerates, and not the lowly renter. The more you scale up the worse it gets for you. It’s why the service industry is mostly terrible nowadays. Local businesses can be terrible too, but the impact of a bad review is felt immediately on their bottom line. They can’t afford to alienate their people who live in the same community they serve. The line between customer and owner is direct.

America’s Military

How does this relate to the military? America is a big country with a lot of interests and cultures doing their best to find commonality. Taxes and weather can’t be the only points of commonality. Military service should be compulsory for at least 2 years for everyone coming out of high school. When we object to foreign conflicts, we’re basically sending off a worthless email to be ignored. We have no real objection because we have a volunteer army. Technically we have a Selective Service that works like a backstop. That last time we used it was in 1972 for the Vietnam War. But a draft is a last resort. A better option is to have regular training for 2 years and avoid having to use a draft.

There is this idea on the Right that having a volunteer army means having a professional army. Because they want to be there, the thinking goes, their performance is high level. This is just ridiculous. We didn’t have much of an Army to speak of before World War II and still raised an amazing, highly proficient force. It’s called training. You can train most kids for combat. Some jobs are technical and some are physical, but everyone should have a place. It’s the connection that unites us together. The more the citizens of a country hold in common the easier it is to hold off threats to the homeland. Without that sense of duty to a place and a people, the further apart we grow in interests and philosophies.

As a side benefit, we’d have fewer wars. Americans would demand a serious rationale from their government before sending their kids off to a foreign country, the equivalent of stomping off to see the manager with a disgusted look on your face. A military that’s 4 times larger would guarantee a closer link between citizens and their government. Greater involvement means greater control.

Conclusion

 We use our military now like a mercenary force. They’re sent to countless Mid East countries, like Syria, that we aren’t even at war with. Parents with kids in the military today share too much of the burden of the loss. But the fix isn’t to just have a draft and bring in more kids. It’s to have a Pentagon (and leadership) that’s accountable to the citizens of the country for the well-being of the next generation. Having a volunteer force means the Pentagon can continue to send troops across the globe without a lot of objections from families. Their kids volunteered after all. Compulsory service encourages shared sacrifice across the country and is an effective brake on endless conflicts. You want fewer wars, demand compulsory service.