Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Standing Armies

This morning on the way to work I heard a radio broadcast with people critical of the USA having a large advanced fighting force. Their critique of the cost was valid, it is expensive to maintain an army, more expensive to replace it. My concerns comes with the idea that why have an army if you have no major threats or armies.

I call this reasoning out as bullshit (as Penn & Teller would say). You find a nation or empire that dismantled or stopped advancing their military and I will show you the ruins of that same nation. Be it barbarians, corruption, or being technologically out-classed, and possibly overrun by zombies - these nations always collapse at the thought of their own invulnerability.

Now the more peaceful of you may note that standing armies are likely to cause havoc, and their leaders will find wars for them to start to keep busy. These are all things that can be countered through administration by those in charge, thankfully no businesses have purchased a war recently, so at least our current president won't be invading anywhere new.

So yes, I am supportive of a strong well trained military. Discipline is a positive trait that we should have. It is also invaluable in a zombie apocalypse.

1 comment:

  1. In my pie in he sky, unrepentent child of the '60's mode, I say disband ALL armies, melt the swords into plowshares, etc. Realistically, however, I too believe we require an adequate military force. Don't kid yourself that we get into wars to keep soldiers busy; business doesn't need its own army, because they simply use ours. Halliburton leaps to mind, but there are many others. President Dwight Eisenhower, himself a distinguished general, warned against the "military industrial complex" back in the 50's. Too bad we didn't listen. Big business pretty much owns Congress, as well. As has already been demonstrated, they are perfectly willing to throw us [choose your metaphor: to the wolves/zombies, under the bus, etc.]
    English teacher note: the pronoun "they" in the previous sentence is meant to refer to both big business and Congress. Even if your "daddy's rich and your momma's good lookin'," you may be on your own when (choose your poison: zombies, aliens, Al Qaeda, etc.)attack.

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