Or Increasingly Unwilling To Pay For…

As long as war or threat of war existed, the professional mystique sufficed to provide cohesion within the profession and rationalization for institutional peculiarities and privileges.  But problems emerge when wars cease or when people perceive that wars are unlikely or unnecessary;  or when society becomes increasingly egalitarian and democratized – or when all of these occur.  Then the moral and ethical values of society may change and the worship of the military hero ceases.  Society may demand a new justification for the military institution.  It is just such an environment that has emerged in the post-Vietnam era.
—   Sam C. Sarkesian
From his book:  “The Professional Army Officer In A Changing Society“
[Or until such time as the cost of retaining a modern fighting force and its surviving veterans overwhelms the price the society is willing to pay.  After two “mostly” successful Gulf wars, the cost of peace has vastly outstripped the cost of battle and American society – at least the top 1% financially – are increasingly unwilling to pay the costs of the later, and seem equally unwilling to pay the costs of the former.  Of course, “mostly successful” refers to the actual military results, and not the political and economic destabilization which has followed our military “victories”.    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2014	Returning Time
2013	Gentle Invitation
2012	Pleading The Insanity Defense
2011	Graduations And Conservatives
	The Big Sin

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