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Published: 1 December 2008
Air & Space
Power Journal - Winter 2008
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John R. Leibrock*
MAJ BRYAN D. Watson’s article “A Look down the Slippery Slope” (Air and Space Power Journal, Spring 2008) should be required reading for every military commander, contracting officer, and support-function service member who looks only for the cheap way of meeting the mission. People other than legal staff members such as Major Watson need to know, appreciate, and write about the danger. The article should also be read by our elected officials who put us on this “slippery slope” to begin with, when they opted for the all-volunteer force because it was politically expedient. This force was just the first step toward our society’s current acceptance of the commercialization of national defense.
Traditionally the US military culture about which Major Watson writes has consisted not only of a core cadre of “professional” military personnel with traditions and customs, but also of a generous complement of individuals from all segments of our society. That sometimes contentious mixture kept the military in touch with society’s values—and engendered the trust and confidence of the citizenry. I do not want to disparage members of the all-volunteer force. They are, I believe, competent, well-trained military men and women who believe in the armed defense of our country. But they also comprise a decreasingly representative cross section of our society. More and more, military service is viewed either as a purely financial decision or as a business/professional pursuit—but not as a societal obligation to be borne in some manner by all members of our society.
If our military leaders are brutally honest with themselves, they should recognize that the all-volunteer force was the first embrace of the “let’s hire our self-defense” approach. Once we accept that notion, contracting out our national defense does not seem too radical. US business has a long history of making money by supplying the military with defense hardware. A democracy grounded in capitalism can tolerate that, but it will not survive business’s providing the “man and woman power” of defense. Our uniformed services should be populated with strong, independent, patriotic citizens loyal to the ideals of their country—not to the bottom-line deals of their company (or, in the worst-case scenario, the belief that the military knows what is best for the country).
Major Watson, a judge advocate, used the phrase “slippery slope” to describe what has happened or will happen to our military culture. Another device, the “parade of horribles,” is often used in arguments before a court to describe what could happen in the future if some course of conduct is not reversed. My parade of horribles is this: Because of ill-advised military entanglements, the country loses its commitment to personal military service. Requiring universal military service is politically untenable, so the country goes commercial by increasing monetary incentives to join the service, calling it all-volunteer. But that gets very expensive, so the politicians hide the costs by drawing down the uniformed force and hiring contractors to do the jobs. That is still too expensive and the population is complacent, so, what the heck, we just hire mercenaries. Even cheaper and more motivated, they will be honest, loyal, devoted defenders of our democratic liberties, won’t they? We are, after all, paying them good wages. And we can all just sit on our entitlements to a safe and free society while our heavily armed hired help happily fights and dies for us, right? If we as a society won’t require sacrifice of ourselves, then we are already sacrificing ourselves to the next motivated and determined authority.
In my opinion, a society is best served and defended from both external and internal military dangers by armed forces that consist of members from all strata of that society.
Randolph AFB, Texas
*The author is a retired Air Force reservist, an attorney, a labor-relations adviser, and a citizen concerned about the willingness of our society to defend itself and its basic principles.
Disclaimer
The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University
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