Volunteers!!

[Bob's World]

I have never argued that any RC army could be as fast and effective as a regular army to rapidly deploy and engage effectively. But that is not the point, and such a capacity has never, ever, been needed by our country. But the very effectiveness of such an active force is its greatest weakness as well. It is always an attractive option, and no President has shown the ability to ignore such an attractive option. This is a fact recognized by our founding fathers, that Kings always find good reasons for war that others don't see. That is why that power was placed firmly within the Congress. Not just to declare, but also to agree to resource and form such an Army in the first place. A cooling off period was built into the system and we have the geostrategic luxury to have such a period. Having a standing army in peace disrupts that system, and the facts speak for themselves. They founding fathers were spot on. Presidents find excuses for war and have worked to cut the congress out of the equation. It has not served us well and it has not made us safer.

For expeditionary interventions we have the USMC and a small number of Army units. That is more than sufficient to that mission. If a true war must be fought we have the time to build and train an army and to dust off our national militia as well.

When one commits the Army it commits the nation. It creates a de facto "war" and wars must be won. How many times must we fall into that trap before we learn that lesson??

[Bob's World]

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."

"Political Observations" (1795-04-20); also in Letters and Other Writings of James Madison (1865), Vol. IV, p. 491

"The constitution supposes, what the History of all Governments demonstrates, that the Executive is the branch of power most interested in war, & most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care, vested the question of war in the Legislature. But the Doctrines lately advanced strike at the root of all these provisions, and will deposit the peace of the Country in that Department which the Constitution distrusts as most ready without cause to renounce it. For if the opinion of the President not the facts & proofs themselves are to sway the judgment of Congress, in declaring war, and if the President in the recess of Congress create a foreign mission, appoint the minister, & negociate a War Treaty, without the possibility of a check even from the Senate, untill the measures present alternatives overruling the freedom of its judgment; if again a Treaty when made obliges the Legislature to declare war contrary to its judgment, and in pursuance of the same doctrine, a law declaring war, imposes a like moral obligation, to grant the requisite supplies until it be formally repealed with the consent of the President & Senate, it is evident that the people are cheated out of the best ingredients in their Government, the safeguards of peace which is the greatest of their blessings."

Letter to Thomas Jefferson (1798-04-02); published in The Writings of James Madison
(1906) Edited by Gaillard Hunt, Vol. 6, pp. 312-14

[Dayuhan]

For expeditionary interventions we have the USMC

Indeed we do... does anyone else remember Tom Lehrer? Remember, it was 1965...

Send the Marines

When someone makes a move
Of which we don't approve
Who is it that always intervenes
U.N. and O.A.S.
They have their place, I guess
But first... send the Marines

We'll send them all we've got
John Wayne and Randolph Scott
Remember those exciting fighting scenes
To the shores of Tripoli
But not to Mississippoli
What do we do, we send the Marines

For might makes right
And 'til they've seen the light
They've got to be protected
All their rights respected
Till somebody we like can be elected

Members of the corps
All hate the thought of war
They'd rather kill them off by peaceful means
Stop calling it aggression
We hate that expression
We only want the world to know
That we support the status quo
They love us everywhere we go
So when in doubt, send the Marines