A couple of people expressed interest in discussing military matters, and I added /War since there are aspects of War that aren't limited purely to the military.
My 2 cents to open the thread:
With each year I am removed from my own participation in the military/my experience in war, my education and further life experience has changed and shifted how I perceive what I have come to conclude is an inescapable aspect of the human condition, and if it is inescapable then one must deal with this aspect on those terms, not from a utopic kumbaya position.
All of that said, it would be dishonest if I didn't admit some bias in this, for I've come to accept that my orientation is to echo the sentiment expressed by Robert E Lee:
From someone with this orientation, the politician is possibly the most odious of people, and one can find any number of quotes, from any number of famous military leaders and also from those in less prestigious positions in their respective warfighting organizations, expressing intense disgust, anger, disdain, etc regarding all things orbiting and occurring within the political sphere; a loathing of The Politician. This orientation derives primarily from three real and/or perceived differences between The Warfighter and the Politician. The politician is perceived as lazy, greedy, and corrupt, and functions to deprive the Warfighter of the necessary things required perform the job of defeating the enemy Warfighter or at a minimum to merely do nothing. The Warfighter acts, the Politician talks. The Warfighter earns his keep, the Politician does nothing of use. The Warfighter protects, the Politician is a traitor.
There is also a very paradoxical relationship with the Citizenry. On the one hand, the Warfighter is drawn from the citizenry, and in a vague sense often sees the military as the bulwark defending The Nation (or The Tribe), which is made up of the citizenry - including the Warfighters (but interestingly enough not always the politicians). OTOH, when presented with specifics about the citizenry, there is often a similar response of disgust as when presented with the politician, and for similar reasons. The citizenry is seen, at a minimum, as largely comprised of lazy slobs.
By their usual nature of being essentially government bureaucracies, militaries are plagued with many of the problems you might find in something much more benign, like the DMV. Waste, bloat, oceans of paperwork, piles of protocols, etc. I would assert that these are much more likely to occur in a "peacetime force", as "make-work", than a military engaged in war.
When a military is operating as a well-oiled machine, when it applies and executes overarching strategy and tactics on the ground against a foe that lacks either the planning, training, or execution to match, it is a thing to behold. Posts in this thread should be mostly limited to topics that involve planning/procurement, training, and examples of execution - outstanding, good or even poor. The nationality of the military is open (although it is unlikely anyone is really going to spend much time on the military of some modern east Asian country or Canada lol, as are historical eras.
Edit: @rms @H.P. Lovecraft
My 2 cents to open the thread:
With each year I am removed from my own participation in the military/my experience in war, my education and further life experience has changed and shifted how I perceive what I have come to conclude is an inescapable aspect of the human condition, and if it is inescapable then one must deal with this aspect on those terms, not from a utopic kumbaya position.
All of that said, it would be dishonest if I didn't admit some bias in this, for I've come to accept that my orientation is to echo the sentiment expressed by Robert E Lee:
From someone with this orientation, the politician is possibly the most odious of people, and one can find any number of quotes, from any number of famous military leaders and also from those in less prestigious positions in their respective warfighting organizations, expressing intense disgust, anger, disdain, etc regarding all things orbiting and occurring within the political sphere; a loathing of The Politician. This orientation derives primarily from three real and/or perceived differences between The Warfighter and the Politician. The politician is perceived as lazy, greedy, and corrupt, and functions to deprive the Warfighter of the necessary things required perform the job of defeating the enemy Warfighter or at a minimum to merely do nothing. The Warfighter acts, the Politician talks. The Warfighter earns his keep, the Politician does nothing of use. The Warfighter protects, the Politician is a traitor.
There is also a very paradoxical relationship with the Citizenry. On the one hand, the Warfighter is drawn from the citizenry, and in a vague sense often sees the military as the bulwark defending The Nation (or The Tribe), which is made up of the citizenry - including the Warfighters (but interestingly enough not always the politicians). OTOH, when presented with specifics about the citizenry, there is often a similar response of disgust as when presented with the politician, and for similar reasons. The citizenry is seen, at a minimum, as largely comprised of lazy slobs.
By their usual nature of being essentially government bureaucracies, militaries are plagued with many of the problems you might find in something much more benign, like the DMV. Waste, bloat, oceans of paperwork, piles of protocols, etc. I would assert that these are much more likely to occur in a "peacetime force", as "make-work", than a military engaged in war.
When a military is operating as a well-oiled machine, when it applies and executes overarching strategy and tactics on the ground against a foe that lacks either the planning, training, or execution to match, it is a thing to behold. Posts in this thread should be mostly limited to topics that involve planning/procurement, training, and examples of execution - outstanding, good or even poor. The nationality of the military is open (although it is unlikely anyone is really going to spend much time on the military of some modern east Asian country or Canada lol, as are historical eras.
Edit: @rms @H.P. Lovecraft
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