A Force Unto Itself: A Military Leviathan Has Emerged as America’s 51st and Most Powerful State

[Jefferson23]

With the end of the draft came the end of America's citizen-soldier tradition. The new, all-volunteer military is far more powerful, far less accountable and far more dangerous.

By William J. Astore | March 24, 2016


Members of a private security company pose on the rooftop of a house in Baghdad, 18 September 2007.

In the decades since the draft ended in 1973, a strange new military has emerged in the United States. Think of it, if you will, as a post-democratic force that prides itself on its warrior ethos rather than the old-fashioned citizen-soldier ideal. As such, it’s a military increasingly divorced from the people, with a way of life ever more foreign to most Americans (adulatory as they may feel toward its troops). Abroad, it’s now regularly put to purposes foreign to any traditional idea of national defense. In Washington, it has become a force unto itself, following its own priorities, pursuing its own agendas, increasingly unaccountable to either the president or Congress.

Three areas highlight the post-democratic transformation of this military with striking clarity: the blending of military professionals with privatized mercenaries in prosecuting unending “limited” wars; the way senior military commanders are cashing in on retirement; and finally the emergence of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) as a quasi-missionary imperial force with a presence in at least 135 countries a year (and counting).


I’m a product of the all-volunteer military. In 1973, the Nixon administration ended the draft, which also marked the end of a citizen-soldier tradition that had served the nation for two centuries. At the time, neither the top brass nor the president wanted to face a future in which, in the style of the Vietnam era just then winding up, a force of citizen-soldiers could vote with their feet and their mouths in the kinds of protest that had only recently left the Army in significant disarray. The new military was to be all volunteers and a thoroughly professional force. (Think: no dissenters, no protesters, no antiwar sentiments; in short, no repeats of what had just happened.) And so it has remained for more than 40 years.

Most Americans were happy to see the draft abolished. (Although young men still register for selective service at age 18, there are neither popular calls for its return, nor serious plans to revive it.) Yet its end was not celebrated by all. At the time, some military men advised against it, convinced that what, in fact, did happen would happen: that an all-volunteer force would become more prone to military adventurism enabled by civilian leaders who no longer had to consider the sort of opposition draft call-ups might create for undeclared and unpopular wars.

http://billmoyers.com/story/a-force-unto-itself-a-military-leviathan-has-emerged-as-americas-51st-and-most-powerful-state/

[Fairgo]

1. A very complex issue

Interesting to watch it come around again. I was sooooo glad when the draft ended. Under the draft the rich could opt out in a variety of ways. In today's all volunteer army, the ranks are filled with the poor who no longer have a viable employment option. Either way, the powerful have no skin in the game and justice is in short supply.

Bad Juju all around. No surprise, we are talking about war here. There is no good answer when you are in the death industry. But it does seem that we are finding very creative ways employed by the ruling class to set up their publicly funded private security forces and market liberators. Death as a business model. The arrogance of the aristocracy blinds them to the truth of power. This new death business deals directly in power...they understand it better than the boardroom courtiers of corporate America. The power of money is an abstraction, as ephemeral a currency as tulip bulb futures. The captains and generals of the 51st state hold the very concrete power of bullets and bombs. All they have to do is lock the door and the coup is over.

Strange days indeed.

[Jefferson23]

3. +1. n/t

[braddy]

4. Actually the military are high quality people, depending on the recent year

only about 13% to 25% of the age group are even qualified to attempt to serve.

HUFFINGTON POST 2012
"Fact Of The Day #44: U.S. Military Better Educated Than Populace It Protects"

"As a whole, the U.S. military is far better educated than the American population it defends. 82.8% of U.S. military officers in 2010 had at least a bachelor’s degree, compared to 29.9 percent of the general population. 93.6% of enlisted soldiers had at least a high school diploma, compared to 59.5% of America."

[Fairgo]

8. I have no doubt that the soldiers are well trained

You draw a false parallel between economic opportunity and education. The fact is, the volunteer military is largely a career option for economically deprived communities. They go into the military for the training. The people who come out of those communities are just as talented as the rest of the nation and become an excellent fighting force. The issue here is the purpose to which the excellent fighting force is put, and by whom. So your facts are correct, I am sure, just besides the point.

[braddy]

12. I know so many military, and they are more employable than average, people

forget that many join the military because that is where the warrior life is, and service to their nation, it is why I enlisted the times that I did.

[Fairgo]

15. Agreed

Yes, military experience makes for excellent employees. That's kinda of exactly my point. It creates an option for those who have none. Do some pursue the "warrior life"? I have no doubt. I would expect them to stay in the military for a career; it's obviously a calling. But for poor communities it becomes a pipeline and a culture that limits choice. I built programs for disabled vets who could not find work when they returned and were removed from the "warrior life". They were abandoned by the machine that made them and dropped into a world without the support they had a right to demand. Why? Because the warrior has honour, the machine does not.

This op is not about training and it is not about the soldier. It is about the system that recruits, creates, and destroys the soldier for its own profit. It is about supporting a military that protects the constitution and supports its soldiers..as opposed to a military that is bent to the service of oil companies, the corporate state, and deluded power mongers.

And it is the last of these that I was talking about in particular. If you want to put on your best jingo suit for a moment...the U.S. has created the biggest, most lethal, military in the history of the known universe. Warrior life? We could kill everything if we put our minds to it. The military has one function. To make war...to kill people and destroy civilisations. It does not work well as a peace keeper, or as a nation builder or all that other bullshit marketing the death industry uses to expand their niche market. The ruling elite think they own the military, they use it to open markets for weapons, protect markets for oil, oppress the work force in third world countries...its not what you signed up to do....it is not what we want you to do...but it is the tool the military has become.

The arrogance of the ruling elite, who never watch how their money is made, is this. They own money...the military owns the guns. Money is an abstraction. Guns are solid, concrete, real. In a bunker with money in the pocket of the rich man and a gun in the pocket of the general, who do you think is in charge? When the military becomes disengaged from the state and a free standing tool of corporations, all it takes is one strong man (or woman) bring democracy to its knees. And all of the money and property in the world won't save the hides of the elite when that happens.

[braddy]

17. Actually I thought the OP was about the draft, and written by a guy who doesn't seem to know much

about it, since the volunteer military is what we have almost always had in America, even Reagan was a part of our all volunteer military in the 1930s as was my father, and with the exception of WWII, the Navy and Air force has never drafted.

Our military is not the biggest, it is fairly small today compared to much of our past of the last 75 years, it used to be big, not as big as some other countries at the time, but pretty big.

It is a myth that the poor with no options are the only ones who join, and that is especially true for the combat positions and the elite units, many still join to help their fellow man and to serve their countrymen.

Army Special Forces for instance are very much motivated by the desire to help people, it is even in their slogan.

[nikto]

20. But please, distinguish between "Military" and personnel

In terms of personnel, yes, our military is smaller (i.e.fewer people), but it is still
the most widespread and expen$ive military in the world, by far.

[braddy]

21. The expense is something that the draft could help greatly with, if it was used

correctly, deployments are purely political, the military doesn't deploy itself.

[braddy]

2. Strange article, the draft is a rarity in American history Astore gives the impression that

an all volunteer military is a rarity instead of the normal situation.

We had the only peace time draft in our history when we started a draft in 1940 and kept it until 1973, with no draft in 1948.

Astore doesn't seem to know anything about the draft and how does he figure that this military is more powerful than our massive militaries of the past, when we were prepared to fight 2.5 wars, today we can't fight a sustained major war, we are stretched to the gills.

[Jefferson23]

5. For one, our wars never end...they use to have a conclusion albeit with military bases

all over the globe. The reaction of a politician ready to send your kid to war
with a draft, they think twice if Americans are screaming not my kid? Did
politicians respond to the protests against Iraq? No.

[braddy]

6. Our big wars and heavy combat losses have always been during the draft.

[Jefferson23]

7. What did I just say..those ended and ended rather quickly. Now they go on forever. n/t

[braddy]

11. Vietnam was a major war that went on a long time, the Indian wars of 1865-1890, 25 years,

how many military deaths have we had in the last 15 years? In the 1980s we used to have about 2200 dead a year, in peacetime as we were in the early times of transitioning to a volunteer force.

Aren't current military uses more a political issue than a draft issue?

[Jefferson23]

13. We're going back to 1865?

How many deaths, we know..how many are maimed and have PTSD for life? Protests of the war
ended the draft after VN, right? The Iraq war protests didn't stop that war, did it?

Why is a draft a bad idea?

[braddy]

14. Yes, the article mentions centuries and I am pro-draft (if I could design it), not anti-draft.

Last edited Fri Mar 25, 2016, 10:47 AM - Edit history (1)

[Jefferson23]

16. Mentions briefly and you're right, VN was a long engagement. If you're pro-draft

what do you see as the benefit?

[annabanana]

9. recommend Rachel Maddow''s book "Drift" . .

Addresses exactly the phenomenon of disconnect...

[Jefferson23]

10. Thank you, anna. n/t

[blackspade]

18. Holy shit.

[Jefferson23]

19. Yea, my thoughts exactly. n/t

[FairWinds]

22. The Forever War is not the answer . .

Veterans For Peace

Wants You !!

One of our stalwart members, Chalmers Johnson, wrote

"the book" on the reality of the USAean empire.

Blowback, Empire of Bases, etc.