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modernstoic's review against another edition
4.0
I think this book is very important to read, however, it is not easily digestible imo. It is a collection of thoughts and interpretation of poll data by several people familiar with the military.
The most important takeaways from this book is the need for civilians to educate themselves on the military.
Even after reading this book, I find it a bit difficult to articulate exactly the most pressing problems the military faces.
The US military has changed drastically since Vietnam. We don't believe in the draft, even if we do, most Americans are too out of shape to pass the basic army fitness test. Our military is now all volunteer and it is a tiny shrinking portion of the population. (1%) Overtime, they can become isolated from civilian society. The military holding itself most accountable in the civilian-military leadership is not a particularly good idea. Military Justice and ethics is fundamentally going to be different from civilian's idea of justice. The military is an organization that is given authority by its own government to kill people at the orders of civilian leadership. Their culture and rules should be different, we shouldn't force liberal ideas too quickly. They are capable of great violence and great good. When civilian leadership doesn't trust military advice, it can lead to bad policies getting Americans and other people killed in a losing/incoherent strategy.
The plethora of different issues that the military raises, unfortunately I do not see being addressed. I fear that the US military has a PR problem. In today's age, the blame game gets much more attention than a book attempting to solve real life problems.
The most important takeaways from this book is the need for civilians to educate themselves on the military.
Even after reading this book, I find it a bit difficult to articulate exactly the most pressing problems the military faces.
The US military has changed drastically since Vietnam. We don't believe in the draft, even if we do, most Americans are too out of shape to pass the basic army fitness test. Our military is now all volunteer and it is a tiny shrinking portion of the population. (1%) Overtime, they can become isolated from civilian society. The military holding itself most accountable in the civilian-military leadership is not a particularly good idea. Military Justice and ethics is fundamentally going to be different from civilian's idea of justice. The military is an organization that is given authority by its own government to kill people at the orders of civilian leadership. Their culture and rules should be different, we shouldn't force liberal ideas too quickly. They are capable of great violence and great good. When civilian leadership doesn't trust military advice, it can lead to bad policies getting Americans and other people killed in a losing/incoherent strategy.
The plethora of different issues that the military raises, unfortunately I do not see being addressed. I fear that the US military has a PR problem. In today's age, the blame game gets much more attention than a book attempting to solve real life problems.