You can fight a war, but you can't fight a people.
I think the greater part of the military should be toned down to national guard et al, and the cancelation of a good chunk of the recruiting. If we had a smaller army, we'd be much less tempted to stick our nose into places people don't want our noses in.
What screws the States over most of the time is its politics and red tape. I want to go back to the days of Lincoln, baby.
I mostly agree with you. The USA can indeed fight a people, counterinsurgency has been developed quite a bit. Look at Iraq, for an example. It was seen as unwinnable and while it still has problems, it is basically under control.
I think the active army should be smaller and the national guard/ reserves expanded. No point in a huge standing military unless there is a war, but it is immensely valuable to have large amounts of soldiers that can be called up in times of war.
There are problems with this models though. Employers in the USA don't like hiring such part-time soldiers. They get stuck in an awful legal bind if one of their employees vanishes to go fight a war, they have to hold the position vacant until they return. Reserves and national guard are great because they are inexpensive to maintain, but it is difficult to find people who can hold down a full time job and be soldiers at the same time, hard to find employers willing to deal with that kind of shit.
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Topic: Things that made you sad today thread. (Read 9704927 times)