Recruiting for SWC members because....

[jmm99]

My three or four cents worth.

My premise is that people post because of a combination (variable per person and per post) of (1) a desire to add value useful to others; and (2) self-interest.

Nothing about that is novel. Just over a century ago, James Malony Spaight, in his 1911 classic "War Rights on Land", pp.17-18, made both points:

Many causes are at the bottom of the general neglect of the study of war law. The time of officers is fairly well occupied, nowadays, in regimental duties and training work. They say, who know, that the British Army is a finer engine of war to-day than it has ever been. Most gladly and thankfully I accept that statement ; yet I am entirely and most sincerely convinced that one small, not unimportant, though neglected, part of the machinery needs oiling and attention. War law has never been presented to officers in an attractive form, as it might have been (I submit with diffidence) if the writers had insisted on the historical, human, and practical side rather than on the legal and theoretical one.

and:

... for an ambitious subaltern who wishes to be known vaguely as an author and, at the same time, not to be troubled with undue inquiry into the claim on which his title rests, there can be no better subject than the International Law of War. For it is a quasi-military subject in which no one, in the army or out of it, is very deeply interested, which everyone very contentedly takes on trust, and which may be written about without one person in ten thousand being able to tell whether the writing is adequate or not.

While I do post for Spaight's higher purpose (with emphasis I hope on the historical, human, and practical side, and staying away from the theoretical legal weeds), I also admit that I post for the fun of it - the dilettante subaltern at work.

This is strictly a personal preference, but I like SWC better than SWJ - the former being more fun to me. Others prefer to read and not post at all. Others prefer more academic articles and post to SWJ. Different strokes, etc.

And, for a lot of military people today, I expect that decompression is a more important project than being an author (dilettante or otherwise ).

BL: I intend to keep on trucking.

Regards

Mike