The majority of men from a little after my era, going back to WWII, served some time in the military. While we often reluctantly did so, most of us learned a lot about organizations, competence, duplicity and stupidity that was useful to us for the rest of our lives.  We also learned about doing stuff we neither wanted to do nor thought we could do.  Even those who would never have chosen the military for any other reason would admit that they got something useful from it.

One important experience the military gave was the mixing as an equal with all kinds of people.  If you were middle or upper middle class, you learned that there were smart and decent people in other classes and other groups.  You learned that you could serve with them and depend on them as well as they on you (hopefully).  They learned equally that education does not necessarily confer competence, humanity or morality.  It was a worthy democratizing process for all.

I heard many during the civil rights days say that they were not prejudiced until they were in the service.  Actually they were prejudiced but they just tested whether they wanted to change those prejudices (and many did) or commit to harboring them, that is commit to racism.  As everyone is prejudiced (that’s conditioned),  committing to holding on to those prejudices is racism.

Recently we have begun to idealize the military and from positions of ignorance imagine that it is a nearly foolproof organization that excels in all that it does.  Before you accuse me of hating the troops, you better have some service under you belt or shut up!  Because I am not just Crabby but an old man, I have learned that all institutions seem marvelous unless you have to use them e.g., go to or work for a hospital, use or get used by the law,  deal with or work for a police department.  For each effective and necessary accomplishment there are mediocre, human, flawed and idiosyncratic functions.

I was struck suddenly when watching the events resulting from the excellent reportage on the Walter Reed scandal that this kind of thing and these kind of people were familiar.  In watching the comments, attitude and behavior of the commanding General of the hospital, I recognized this guy and his brothers from the days I was in the Army.  The ego hiding behind the rank and uniform (this pudgy, entitled oaf had a marine haircut like he was combat boy) brought flooding memories.  In the interest of truth, I have to confess that although I was regular Army and intended to make a career, in the end I was a very mediocre leader and a disastrous tactician on the ground.  I may have saved many lives by not going on to lead men to their deaths in Viet Nam.  I never got the knack in field exercises and our platoon was always getting flanked.  The military will put one in those positions to learn on the job whether one “has it” or “not.”   I can no longer imagine why anyone would want to become a general and accept the responsibility for the deaths of so many some of whom die because of shortcomings in one’s own fallible tactical and managerial sense.  I have come to think there is something wrong with a human who wants that.  I believe that the retirement of each general should be characterized by chronic guilt and depression, forever.  The retirement pay and perks are offsets.

Now to the main point.  When the professional military was started and the draft stopped, I thought it was a good idea.  We could cut back on defense costs and shift our emphasis to civilian enterprises the primary purpose of the country.  We could wag the military tail instead of seeming the reverse.  Later, I thought alternative but mandatory service would be good for our developing citizens to cause a bit greater participation in and sense of obligation to the country. I no longer believe that.  I think our citizens need to participate in the defense process so that they know what it is about and be willing to participate and make smarter decisions for our defense.  The military has been likened to a gated community.  When citizens had been in the military they knew what was inside.  Now they don’t.   Had they been there and their kids were going there they would watch and make sounder judgments about using the military.  They would be better able to judge if their commander in chief knew what he/she was doing and to influence his/her decisions.  They would have a vested interest in our wars and defense.  They might also be less afraid and less willing to give up our national values just to be protected.  “Oh save us, save us. We don’t care how.”

It is not a joke that the majority of the current and past leadership of this war were as they say, “chicken-hawks”.  It is crucial.  Dying in vain is serious business and nothing is more in vain than leadership based on vanity and pride and blindness of leaders.  Military service certainly does not inoculate against vain judgment but it is more likely to expose it an cause less tolerance for it.  There is no check on the leaders because blowhards and commentators who did not serve because they had pilonidal cysts (Chaney and Rush Limbaugh) feel they can advocate death with impunity and deride their betters.  I know I was not the only one with one of those cysts when I was in the Army.  I wonder how not sitting on their cysts in the service would have changed them.  Maybe not at all but I cannot help wondering.

If George Bush and actually gone on and served several things might have happened.  First, for the first time in his life he would have been equal to and his well being would have depended upon many people from walks of life he has never encountered.  He would have had to “take it” as well as give it out. He might have learned a little actual humility instead of the canned and superficial humility of his so called conversion and sobriety.  Second, he might actually have solved his life long father problem.  Had he actually risked himself in Vietnam  like his father in WWII he might have come out finally feeling like a man.  I’m pretty sure he is still play acting at manhood by doing lots of commander in chief roll playing as a temporary day to day solution.  Third, he may have solved his self reliance problem.  It seems he cannot really accomplish anything without being bailed out by older or more competent people. In business, life, school and now warfare, he has to be bailed out by someone else.  Somewhere down deep when he is not moving so fast in distraction, I suspect he feels that old nagging failure feeling catching up once again.  His defensive posture requires him to resist inputs or his awareness of his real self would flood in upon him.  His defensiveness is killing people.

Well, if we had all been in the military and some of us and our children were at risk to go, we might have compelled better decisions about this war.  We might have been less passive. We would have known more about the bill of goods we were being sold.  We might have decided to fight terrorism and Al Qaeda effectively instead of just militarily. 

Bring back the draft!  Our national defense is way too important to be left just to professionals.