Quote Originally Posted by Van View Post
... If you accept the premise that Small Wars are the norm rather than the exception (and I do, based on the number of years of U.S. history that have been spent engaged in SW vs. 'conventional war'),
Excellent and quite valid point. It raises questions.

Why have we not spent as nearly much effort trying to prevent those as we have preventing major wars?

What have we done that deters major war and what can we do that will deter small wars?
Bringing civilians to the battlefield was a stunningly flawed decision, driven by the classic "good, fast, cheap; you're not going to get them all" approach to problem solving (we chose "fast" at the expense of the others).
Partly agree. Flawed, yes -- but no so much fast. Expedient and necessary are better words -- both factors induced by PEACETIME thinking at high levels in the US Armed Forces and by Congress (intensely lobbied by Contractors who heavily contribute to Congressional campaigns...). Thus the Services against their better judgment acquiesced to DoD in order to get funds from Congress. We now get to reap the benefits of that...

Contractors do offer the ability to rapidly expand and contract structure and support that is efficient -- it isn't all that effective but it is undeniably efficient as it is cheaper than the military personnel cost for the capability would be and it is more flexible for hiring and firing than civil service. Contractors do allow more expensive military people per fighting element in any event.

The most significant downside is that the availability of contractors impedes the necessary effort to significantly reduce the support tail for committed forces.

MarcT made a really germane observation:
"Years ago, I read a novel by John Dalmas (I can't remember which on off the top of my head), where he made the observation that organizations are designed to create problems, not solutions. This has stuck in my head for a long time and, I think, has more than a germ of reality to it. Without getting into some really wonky metaphysics, organizations actually do create, hmmm, let's call them "problem-spaces", in which and through which individuals get to play at creating "solutions". If the "problem" actually disappeared, however, that would mean that no one could "play" there anymore, which would disappoint a lot of people!
Yes. Put another way, I think Einstein said "We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."

Back to Van:
Now there is a curmudgeon I can believe in...
I was going to use 'Curmudgeon' as an internet tag, shortening it because I'm terribly lazy to just 'Cur' -- my wife nixed the idea.