I'm A Mercenary
Apparently I'm a mercenary. What a shock...first of all where the hell is all of my money?
New York Times
July 25, 2005
The Best Army We Can Buy
By David M. Kennedy
The United States now has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today's volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits - a compensation package that may not always be commensurate with the dangers in store, as current recruiting problems testify....
Some will find it offensive to call today's armed forces a "mercenary army," but our troops are emphatically not the kind of citizen-soldiers that we fielded two generations ago - drawn from all ranks of society without respect to background or privilege or education, and mobilized on such a scale that civilian society's deep and durable consent to the resort to arms was absolutely necessary.
David M. Kennedy, a professor of history at Stanford and the author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning "Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945," is working on a book about the American national character.
Where to start with this tripe? If Mr. Kennedy's gripe is that not enough of all the segments of American society are represented within the military I would say to him, "encourage all the left leaning, all the rich kids (I know he must come into contact with them...after all he's at Stanford) everyone he believes to be under-represented in todays military to join." That's right go out and join.
It's a volunteer military, encourage everyone of every socio-economic background to join Mr. Kennedy...but we all know that isn't his problem.
He's against the war in Iraq and maybe even the GWOT and he's using this argument (our mercenary army) to try and start a movement to enact a draft which he feels if enacted will effectively eliminate our ability to wage "unjust" wars across the globe. I can't prove any of this of course...so I may be full of it. But I'd bet a good deal of cash that I'm right.
I don't know his background, but I doubt he has served a day in uniform...so his opinions and observations of the military and the motivations of people in it mean squat to me.
A lot of people may join the Army for benefits or college money or to learn a trade. But let's be clear no one gets rich in the Army...even with bonuses. No one stays for any length of time in the military for monetary reasons. Calling us mercenaries shows a basic miss-understanding of what it is that drives the career soldier. Yes there are soldiers that are disappointed with the way things turn out and they get out. Yes, there are soldiers that somehow missed the point of the bayonet course and hand to hand combat in basic training and were shocked when the Army actually asked them to go to combat. I would never be able to explain soldiers and the Army to someone like David Kennedy because he doesn't want to know the truth. He has his opinions and the facts just get in the way.
It sad that he will never know the kind of people I have been privileged to serve with. People who swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies both foreign and domestic. Soldiers who have given the last full measure of devotion to be called a mercenary by some college professor in California...thanks for your support Mr. Kennedy.
New York Times
July 25, 2005
The Best Army We Can Buy
By David M. Kennedy
The United States now has a mercenary army. To be sure, our soldiers are hired from within the citizenry, unlike the hated Hessians whom George III recruited to fight against the American Revolutionaries. But like those Hessians, today's volunteers sign up for some mighty dangerous work largely for wages and benefits - a compensation package that may not always be commensurate with the dangers in store, as current recruiting problems testify....
Some will find it offensive to call today's armed forces a "mercenary army," but our troops are emphatically not the kind of citizen-soldiers that we fielded two generations ago - drawn from all ranks of society without respect to background or privilege or education, and mobilized on such a scale that civilian society's deep and durable consent to the resort to arms was absolutely necessary.
David M. Kennedy, a professor of history at Stanford and the author of the Pulitzer-Prize winning "Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945," is working on a book about the American national character.
Where to start with this tripe? If Mr. Kennedy's gripe is that not enough of all the segments of American society are represented within the military I would say to him, "encourage all the left leaning, all the rich kids (I know he must come into contact with them...after all he's at Stanford) everyone he believes to be under-represented in todays military to join." That's right go out and join.
It's a volunteer military, encourage everyone of every socio-economic background to join Mr. Kennedy...but we all know that isn't his problem.
He's against the war in Iraq and maybe even the GWOT and he's using this argument (our mercenary army) to try and start a movement to enact a draft which he feels if enacted will effectively eliminate our ability to wage "unjust" wars across the globe. I can't prove any of this of course...so I may be full of it. But I'd bet a good deal of cash that I'm right.
I don't know his background, but I doubt he has served a day in uniform...so his opinions and observations of the military and the motivations of people in it mean squat to me.
A lot of people may join the Army for benefits or college money or to learn a trade. But let's be clear no one gets rich in the Army...even with bonuses. No one stays for any length of time in the military for monetary reasons. Calling us mercenaries shows a basic miss-understanding of what it is that drives the career soldier. Yes there are soldiers that are disappointed with the way things turn out and they get out. Yes, there are soldiers that somehow missed the point of the bayonet course and hand to hand combat in basic training and were shocked when the Army actually asked them to go to combat. I would never be able to explain soldiers and the Army to someone like David Kennedy because he doesn't want to know the truth. He has his opinions and the facts just get in the way.
It sad that he will never know the kind of people I have been privileged to serve with. People who swore to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies both foreign and domestic. Soldiers who have given the last full measure of devotion to be called a mercenary by some college professor in California...thanks for your support Mr. Kennedy.
posted by Outlaw 13 at 22:26
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