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It\u2019s said that real love only comes with sacrifice, that real love requires placing some cause or some one first, and truly giving of yourself for that person or cause.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s said that real love only comes with sacrifice, that real love requires placing some cause or some one first, and truly giving of yourself for that person or cause.<\/p>\n
Several stories have \u201cpercolated out\u201d following the two recent US Navy collisions at sea which include a number of sailors who gave their lives for their ship and shipmates\u2026<\/p>\n
But we\u2019ve also heard that several senior Navy officers were aware of training shortcomings, particularly on ships stationed in Japan, and did little to correct the problems. If the stories are correct, they were apparently willing to \u201csign off\u201d on these shortcomings, allowing ships to engage in activities for which officers and crew were arguably not prepared. And so, two collisions and 17 deaths.<\/p>\n
Is this the same military that conducts incredible midnight raids to rescue hostages \u2013 or kill a terrorist; operates submarines under the icecap; flies fighter jets against any threat; or move tens of thousands of tons of material around the world at a moment\u2019s notice?<\/p>\n
The cognitive disconnect between the image of extreme professionalism of our nation\u2019s soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines that has become part of the tapestry of the nation, and this suggestion that admirals were apparently unconcerned with the declines in readiness, insufficient training, and personnel; of the operators of huge, complex systems with out-of-date qualifications \u2013 represents a chasm seemingly too wide to bridge.<\/p>\n
How can the same bureaucracy that produces the best special operations personnel, the best fighter pilots, the best submariners \u2013 in the world, be run by admirals (and generals) who seem to fall so far short, and who\u2019ve adopted such a laissez-faire attitude to our national security?<\/p>\n
The short answer is that admirals and generals are human. They\u2019re neither ten feet tall supermen and intellectual titans, nor are they conniving, self-serving seekers of ever-greater fame. Instead, they\u2019re all remarkably human, with all the strengths and weaknesses that go along with being so. And they\u2019ve always been so; the difference is not in them; perhaps the difference is in those they serve.<\/p>\n
Not only has there been a steady decline in the percentage of Congress and other senior officials who\u2019ve served \u2013 though with a slight up-tick since 2001; but there\u2019s been a steady decline in the percentage of the citizenry who\u2019ve served.<\/p>\n
With service comes a host of things, among them a greater appreciation of the frailties and limitations of senior officers, and a greater appreciation of the difficulties of running a large military organization.<\/p>\n
That appreciation is essential to Congress \u2013 and the citizenry \u2013 understanding that every sergeant, even the ones covered in medals, isn\u2019t Sgt. Rock, every ship captain isn\u2019t John Paul Jones, every general isn\u2019t George Patton. More importantly, Congress \u2013 and the citizenry \u2013 needs to be able to recognize the difference between Sgt. Bilko and Sgt. Rock.<\/p>\n
There are all sorts of steps that might be taken to address the immediate problem: fewer admirals and generals, with clear responsibility for readiness and training; slower promotions to allow greater development of professionalism; longer tours to allow focus on war-fighting skills, etc.<\/p>\n
But we need citizens who understand that. There are many reasons why a draft should be looked at warily, but the understanding of both the capabilities \u2013 and limits \u2013 of our military (and our government) that a draft would bring is one very large reason to consider its merits.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s an additional reason; one that arguably outweighs mere understanding.<\/p>\n
Many in our country seem to like America, but they\u2019ve never sacrificed for her and as such can only with great difficulty ever love truly her. This is particularly true among certain segments of our society, those that fashion themselves to be our leaders: whether in politics, fashion, culture, high finance or technology. Their love for America often appears to be conditional; they\u2019ll love America when she is great, when America makes them proud, when America rewards them.<\/p>\n
GK Chesterton once observed that Rome wasn\u2019t loved because she was great, she was great because she was loved.<\/p>\n
If we wish to fix our many problems \u2013 in the economy, the military, or the government as a whole \u2013 if we wish to make our country great, we must first love her; and to love her we must be willing to sacrifice for her, and to do that we need to understand, truly understand, those sacrifices.<\/p>\n
We must first love her; only then can she be great.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2017 Arrias
\nwww.vicsocotra.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s said that real love only comes with sacrifice, that real love requires placing some cause or some one first, and truly giving of yourself for that person or cause. Several stories have \u201cpercolated out\u201d following the two recent US Navy collisions at sea which include a number of sailors who gave their lives for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arrian"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16490"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16490\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16491,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16490\/revisions\/16491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vicsocotra.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}