Postcards from the Digital Age
The Day After Memorial Day
Yesterday was Memorial Day. With ceremonies and speeches, with
long silences and with toasts we remembered. We remembered our
absent friends, for me, especially, Sario and Mike and Big Jim.
We
remembered husbands and uncles, fathers and friends and sons
and daughters. We reflected on them and on the sacrifice they
made for our freedom.
Today
is the day after Memorial Day. It's a good day to reflect on
how well we, the living, measure up to their example.
Let
me start in a different and distant place. In AD 9, Quintilius
Varus, the Roman governor in what is now Germany roused his
legions to put down what he believed was a small rebellion.
It was not.
The
German Arminius routed the Roman legions under Varus. Soon the
Romans had all fled back home, leaving Germany free of Roman
rule.
The
Roman historian, Cassius Dio, tells us that the Emperor Augustus
was worried about the Germans, and wanted to raise an army to
fight them. But he couldn't find any Roman youth willing and
fit for military service.
It
had not always been so. In the days of the Roman Republic military
service was a great honor. Then life became comfortable. Armies
became professional. And it became easier and easier to for
a Roman citizen to assume that he could pay someone else to
defend Rome.
The
price of freedom has always been paid in blood. During World
War II, millions of men and women put down their personal lives
and set off to war and to support the war. Almost half a million
of them died. Today, things are different.
In
1954, there were 3.3 million Americans on active duty in the
military. By 1980, the number was two million and by 2002 it
had dropped to 1.4 million. As we reduced our military forces
we had to find ways to get the military job done with less people.
We
used technology. More and more we've come to depend on technology
in the sky and on the ground to multiply the power and reach
of our ever-smaller forces. That has worked to some extent.
New technology was one of the reasons that our casualty rates
in the Gulf Wars were a fraction of what they had been in Viet
Nam or World War II.
But
technology, alone, can never be enough. War is ultimately a
ground acquisition game. If you think you can smart-bomb your
enemy into submission, you're wrong. They won't give up, they'll
just dig deeper holes. And eventually some 19 year old will
have to strap on his gear and go hole to hole, or house to house.
The
latest idea is to outsource. That's another name for hiring
mercenaries, except now they're mercenary companies instead
of individual soldiers.
Sometimes
outsourcing makes sense. It makes sense to use civilians to
do routine tasks that free up soldiers to fight and train. Today,
though, we have what are described as "civilian contractors"
escorting military convoys and conducting intelligence interrogations.
But the more important and exclusively military the function,
the less sense it makes to outsource it.
Civilian
contractors aren't part of the military chain of command. They
don't have to obey military orders and they're not subject to
military discipline. More important, they don't have the unit
loyalty that well-trained and well-led soldiers have.
That's
because when the bullets start to fly you don't fight for freedom
or national policy. When Marine Corporal Jason Dunham dove on
a hand grenade in Iraq, he didn't do it for some abstract principle.
He did it to save his buddies.
You
can't buy that kind of loyalty or courage or commitment. You
can't program it in. It blossoms from the spirit of patriotism
and willingness to sacrifice, nurtured by loyalty and leadership.
If we want to remain free, we will have to re-discover those
things.
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There is no industry association for private military companies,
but the International Peace
Operations Association comes close. The association describes
itself as "an association of Military Service Provider companies
- companies who work or are interested in international peace
operations around the world. This includes companies that do
everything from mine clearance, to armed logistics, to emergency
humanitarian services, to actual armed peacekeeping."
Its
stated purpose is "to institute industry-wide standards and
a code of conduct, maintain sound professional and military
practices, educate the public and policy-makers on the industry's
activities and potential, and ensure the humanitarian use of
private peacekeeping services for the benefit of international
peace and human security." The association site contains a list
of links that can shed some light on who the players are in
the private military business and how they see the issues.
If
you've been following the news lately you've probably seen or
heard or read at least one interview with P. W. Singer of the
Brookings Institution. That's because Dr. Singer is one of the
most visible experts on the private military, thanks mostly
to his book, "Corporate
Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry"
. In that book he describes the growth and change of the once-marginal
industry of providing direct military support services to governments.
His division of private military firms into three main groups
is very helpful.
"Provider
firms" military assistance ranging from training programs and
staff services to combat duties. "Consulting firms" offer the
expertise of retired senior officers in strategic and administrative
areas. Finally, "Support Firms" provide logistical, maintenance
and support services.
This
is must-reading if you want to understand the private military
business, especially if it shocks you to learn that ROTC training
has been privatized for almost a decade.
"Conflict
Inc.: Selling the Arts of War" was broadcast in 1997. You
can read the transcript of this show from America's Defense
Monitor for insigt into how the private military was veiwed
only seven years ago. I was especially fascinated to compare
quotes here from Lt. Gen. (Ret) Ed Soyster, now of MPRI with
some of his recent interviews.
It's
not exactly about the private military, but Victor Davis Hansen
has written a wonderful book that gives great insight into the
role of culture and warfare. Don't let the academic sounding
title, "The
Western Way of War: Infantry Battle in Classical Greece"
, put you off. If you buy the book and only read the chapter
on "The Western Way of War" you'll understand a lot about what
has, historically, made the US military so effective.
There
are some fascinating parallels between the histories of the
US military and our country and the intertwined histories of
Rome and its Army. Pay special attention to the material about
how Marius' reforms of the Roman army changed it in unexpected
ways that affected the situation that the Emperor Augustus faced
in AD 9 after his legions had been beated by Arminius. Check
out the Roman Army portion of a site on the history of Rome
.
My
own description of the situation was taken primarily from "Fifteen
Decisive Battles of the World: From Marathon to Waterloo"
by Edward Shepherd Creasy which is one of the great classics
of military history.
1 June
2004
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