Frank's Musings

Why Do We Support Our Troops?

Ever since the end of the Selective Service draft over forty years ago and the institution of an all-volunteer U.S. military, the only thing compelling enlistment in the Army, Navy, Marines or any other public service has been economic need. There are, of course, many volunteers who are natural warriors and are willing and able to develop and use their own skills to participate in seemingly inevitable international or civil violent conflicts or to help allay natural disasters.

Fire-, police- and emergency- men and women perform the bulk of the latter function; but it is questionable whether violent international conflicts would exist were it not for conscripted or volunteer armed forces. On the other hand, it only takes one militarily effective aggressor to make armed forces widely necessary for national self-defense. Organization of world affairs into competing nation-states, of course, is one of the root origins of the violent resolution of conflicts between them, or one of the results of the resort to violence for the resolution of conflicts between men, families, tribes, and larger social groups.

Support for our troops, then, is the way we recognize our failure to find a more rational, gentler, less costly way to resolve differences between us. Until we do, someone has to perform the violent conflict-resolution function at personal risk and danger. The ultimate purpose that our troops accomplish is not a noble one, but honor is awarded to them for making it possible that the rest of us can avoid paying with significantly reduced livelihoods for inattention to solving our problems without war or for not coming up with an alternative.