Quote Originally Posted by Ken White View Post
I'd opt for paying a bonus to stay single but the Mothers of America and Religion Inc. would go berserk...
I have mixed feelings on this myself. I served my time as a single soldier, and sometimes felt that I missed out on having a set support at home, but by the same token, the divorce rate is so high, that even marriage wasn't really a guarantee. And for some people it was a real distractor.

That said, I don't think that we could successfully pay people to not get married. After all, the way that so many soldiers get engaged (e.g. to a local stripper) and married (e.g. after two weeks of knowing someone) divorce is almost a guarantee, and that is like fining yourself half of your pay for the rest of your life. That said, some of that is because of the incentives to get married in the military, and the short sighted nature of "Joe". In fact, we should start a new thread for all of the stupid "Joe got married and..." stories.

On that I don't agree; we could better select new entrants, have higher standards, refine the pay and training and have a waiting list to get in -- and if your suggestion of a revolving door were also adopted...True.
I don't think that we disagree as much as the initial nature of the comment sounds. I think we can shape the system and improve the incentive structure so that better outcomes are more likely. I don't think, nor do I think you believe, that we can guarantee outcome. Bottom line, with all the tests and waiting lists and everything, there will still be people who only last for so long, and we need to account for that in planning.

We should avoid some commitments because we'll merely become targets and we have to stop trying to fight nicely; that never works. Hard and fast will do less damage and create less casualties of all kinds. The harder and more rapid the better...
This actually gets us back to the political discussion that we were veering onto earlier in the thread. I personally would like to see less military adventurism, as long as that did correspond to denigrating military service, or a lack of willingness to use force when absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, historically there has been a correlation between the two. At the same time, the entire world is better off if we plan our devolution of power, rather than have it forced upon us by our own short sighted prodigality. I guess I look at the Indian sub-continent when Britain departed, and how the consequences of the precipitate nature thereof are with us today.