Quote Originally Posted by BayonetBrant View Post
I sure you didn't mean for this to sound quite so... soviet. But it does.
Yes, I did intend for it to sound that way. Usually (but not always), the military is employed towards some political end. If we are to maintain a reliable, all-volunteer military force to achieve the occasionally controversial political objective, then either the reliability of the volunteers needs to be a criteria for their selection, or more effort needs to be made to find consensus among the volunteers. During the Revolutionary War, unpaid volunteers simply walked off the job. Now, disgruntled volunteers can compromise national security to a surprising scope and depth. The problem isn't the soldier, his access to information, or even the fact that he released classified material to the public. The problem is that we have yet to reconcile the all-volunteer military concept (and the unique accompanying characteristic of American culture to glorify and hero-worship military service) with the increasingly expeditionary character of our military operations.