End the All-Volunteer Force

[Entropy]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Entropy
All true, but then he says that conscription "is the best way to reconnect the people with the armed services." Unless he's going to greatly expand end strength it will still be 1% bearing the burden and like today, most people won't know anyone who serves.

End strength won't expand until we fix the gross budget irregularities and waste in the un-auditable Defense Department's spending practices.

First of all, why would we want to raise end strength? If ones' goal is to keep "unaccountable elites" from engaging in stupid wars then giving them more resources and manpower sounds like a counterproductive strategy to me.

Secondly, my point was to address Ricks' problem, which is that most Americans have no contact with the military. Again, if less than 1% of Americans serve it doesn't matter whether they are volunteers or conscripts - 1% is 1% and most Americans will continue to have almost no contact with the military. You can make more Americans aware and interested in the military by greatly increasing the size of the force which, obviously, conscription can do. That downsides to that are, however, pretty significant. Is it really worth it to raise a 5-10 million person military for some unquantifiable goal like making Americans more aware of and in tune with their nation's military?

Regarding "unaccountable elites" let's look at the record. Our current President ran on a platform of escalation in Afghanistan and ending the war in Iraq. He got elected and fulfilled both promises. Explain to me how that is unaccountable? Additionally, both these wars were specifically authorized by acts of Congress and Congress continues to support the remaining war, Afghanistan. Seems to me the accountability is pretty clear here. Ricks' seems to think that conscription would somehow generate more opposition to the war which would force policymakers to change policy. That might be true, but it hasn't historically been the case, as Ken's pointed out.

And, the "unaccountable elites" argument is one that should make us wary of conscription, not supportive of it. After all, if elites are unaccountable, then why would it be wise to give them access to a huge source of manpower via conscription? If elites are unaccountable, why should the people give them the authority to order involuntary servitude?

If the problem is to prevent the US from engaging in large, long wars of choice, then the answer, it seems to me, is not conscription, but an overall reduction in the active duty end-strength for both the Army and Air Force. Maybe you remember this quote from one of those elites: "What's the point of having this superb military that you're always talking about if we can't use it?"

Of course, turning the bulk of the Army and Air Force into reserve formations is just as much a fantasy policy as conscription is, but at least it has a better chance of accomplishing Ricks' major goal.