Commentary

I was reading a commentary this morning by David Kennedy and I thought it was worth noting here. It was entitled “The Best Army We Can Buy” and it details the changes in our society in regard to our relationship with the military.

Mr. Kennedy writes, “…we now have an active-duty military establishment that is, proportionate to population, about 4 percent of the size of the force that won World War II. And today's military budget is about 4 percent of gross domestic product, as opposed to nearly 40 percent during World War II.”

And why is that a bad thing? It’s bad because it allows the citizens of this country to avoid responsibility for the actions of the military. For good or for bad. The military is simply a government labor force that we pay for. You probably don’t know someone who serves in the Army. And joining the Army certainly isn’t a preferred career choice. At the present time, the Pentagon is experimenting, trying to find out just what will be required to recruit a soldier. What pay package and fringe benefits will attract him or her? There is no appeal to patriotism; it’s simply, “an Army of one.” Or, “Be all you can be…” And that makes our Army a mercenary army.

We have a defense budget that equals the defense budgets of all other nations combined…and yet, on a personal level, we pay very little for it. 4% of GDP? That makes paying our “military bill” almost painless. And with only 4% of our citizens in uniform, the losses by death and injury are not noted in any personal way by the majority of us. And that is wrong!

We are heading down a very slippery slope as long as we allow our defense to be reduced to a line item in the Pentagon budget.