This is why I asked you if you were a reservist.

You really need to sit and listen to good Americans who joined the military to be professional soldiers over a career rather than as a hobby.

I put it to you that this is the source of problem in the military which Lind has highlighted.

The system attracts those with real potential to be professional soldiers less and less as the Congress continues to offer an easy and often cheap way to get a degree or as an option for a place of employment of last reort.

What gets lost in all the waffle is the aim of a military. What is the aim of the military of the US or any other state?

In my day the first principle (of war) was - the Selection and Maintenance of the Aim. It is against the aim that all this waffle about women, gays, intersex and demographics must be measured. It any of these aspects when measured against the impact on the military being able to meet its aim - its reason for existence - then it gets thrown out.

As a civilian you would understand that in commerce and industry any practice or procedure which reduces the bottom line gets tossed. The military's bottom line is the defense of the nation - any aspect which reduces its ability to achieve that aim should likewise also be tossed.


Quote Originally Posted by AmericanPride View Post
So it is a normative valuation, not a factual one.



What if both joined their respective jobs to pay for college or for the healthcare benefits for their families? There has been extensive discussions about values here, and you have made clear that it's based upon the assumption that people join "on behalf of others" and implicitly that culture and norms surrounding that act makes service-members in some way socially or even materially privileged compared to the public. But here the top 5 reasons people enlist:

1. Education
2. Stability
3. Respect (from community, family)
4. Sense of community
5. Adventure and challenge

Seeing how people join for self-gain, and that's how the military actively recruits and retains, on what basis can you argue that there's a special military culture and that this culture ought to be preserved?