Quote Originally Posted by wm View Post
I suspect your "soldier" would be much more like what I might call a "warrior. " Militaries need some warriors at the pointy end of the spear, but the spear has a lot more to it than just the point. When a military has too many of them, it must create "special" forces of various kinds and keep pumping up their membership's egos by telling them just how "special" they are.
It is not my 'soldier'. It is in fact your - a US - soldier.

I hate to find it necessary to refer you to your own - US - manual FM 1 where contained in Army Values is the Soldier's Creed which starts with:

I am an American Soldier.
I am a Warrior and a member of a team.
I serve the people of the United States and live the Army Values.
May I suggest to you that it is rather you who is out of step with your own doctrine.

In order for an army to act as a deterrent to foreign aggression and be able to defeat foreign military aggression to the country or its national interests it is the combat arms of the service that stand ready to engage in combat. Yes there are supporting services which are necessary for success but never should the tail be allowed to wag the dog.

I suggest to you that this is exactly the problem with the US military which contributes to Lind's criticism.

While the US has been involved in wars for the last 12 or so years the deployed troop levels have never been at the level where the stateside institutions have been forced out of their peacetime mode of operation and importantly ... the peacetime thought pattern.

I'm sure that stories abound in the US as they do in the UK and elsewhere where the garratroopers put the soldiers returning from war in the picture.

The NCOs - who have never been ti war - waiting to smarten up returning soldiers with hours of drill in order to get 'back to some real soldiering'. Then a WW2 returning officer at a job interview being admonished for galavanting across Europe while the interviewing manager did the real work and battled to keep the wheels of commerce and industry turning at home.

Yes indeed, the tail is certainly wagging the dog when one hears that the army has too many 'fighting soldiers' and supposedly therefore too few 'real soldiers' in stores, academia and anywhere else far from the irritation of gunfire.

Lind is correct the US is in big trouble.