On the All-Volunteer Army

All-Volunteer Army has Failed, says Boston Globe Op-ed "War is the great auditor of institutions," the British historian Corelli Barnett has observed. In Iraq, the United States has undergone such an audit and been found wanting. The defects of basic US national security institutions stand exposed. Failure to correct those defects will only invite more Iraqs -- unnecessary wars that once begun prove unwinnable. (On-Point)

This is an interesting piece, but what I find even more interesting are the follow up comments. While most of these well educated gentlemen (and ladies) seem to be well briefed on their Clausewitz most seem to be missing their Sun Tzu and their Heinlein. Both men would tell you that the volunteer army will work, but not in the mode and method that it is currently being utilized.

Sun Tzu said of Waging War: When you engage in actual fighting, if victory is long in coming, then men's weapons will grow dull and their ardor will be damped. If you lay siege to a town, you will exhaust your strength. This is Iraq today.

Heinlein went one step further. In Starship Troopers Heinlein perceived a nation-state where citizenship and the right to vote was only conferred upon those that had served time in the military. Further there were jobs that could only be granted to veterans because only veterans had been there done that to understand and fully grasp the complexities of the issues. While some of the theory falls down, I have been thinking what sort of nation the United States would have been if you could only vote (and one assumes also run for office) if you had to serve time in the military? And in Heinlein's definition, this was a voluntary commitment. You could be just about anything you wanted to be without doing a hitch, but you could not be a full citizen. An interesting concept if carried to its logical conclusions.