"The All-Volunteer Army at 50 – Does Milton Friedman’s Case" Topic

…Still Make Sense?

"On July 1, 1973, America instituted the All-Volunteer Force, capping off a tumultuous decade of debate and ending the longest uninterrupted period of conscription (23 years) in our nation's history. The transformation was a triumph particularly for 1976 Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, whose analytical arguments and towering intellectual presence on President Nixon's Gates Commission surmounted the significant institutional inertia favoring the status quo. But, as the military, and Army particularly, wrestles with the most severe recruiting shortfall over the past fifty years, is it now time to re-look Friedman's underlying assumptions and the state of volunteer military service, especially in light of the existential military threats from peer competitors like China and Russia?…"

Main page

link

Armand

Yes it does. The DoD needs to understand they aren't a company and can not compete with them, ever. The pay never will and the life style will never. If people don't sign on to the lifestyle and all the ugliness that comes with it they shouldn't be in. That means less missions, no more send troops wherever the wind blows, and saying "no" to non essential requests. Automate what you can and civilianize what you can, which also means the more $$ lucrative jobs leave military hands and that will drop recruits who may see those jobs as attractive reasons to join. Bringing back a draft military is a recipe for disaster, even more now than 20 years ago.

I enlisted in 1977 after an attempt to do so in 1974 due to a faulty physical diagnosis. I seen and endured some of the draft guys, it was nothing but ugly. By the first part of the eighties things had balanced out with the all volunteer force and it was good. It was obvious that those that were in wanted to be.

Thanks

Armand

And now they have poisoned the well so that many no longer want to join.

People from families that have served for generations are being told to find something else to do rather than join the military.

We lost 111,000 Americans to Fentanyl in the last 12 months, nearly all of it imported. What would we do if a foreign power killed 111,000 of our military?

Mike Bunkermeister Creek

Glup!…

Armand

Mike,
I was in at the end of the draft in 1972 when the standards were lowered to Mental Category IV with an IQ of 70-75. It was pretty bad.

Absolutely correct. However, the political-military-industrial complex cannot make any money fighting fentanyl.

I imagine this is China's payback to the West for the opium addiction of their population in the 1800s and their resulting downfall from the Opium Wars. It takes Sun Zhus' principle of how to win a war without fighting to the max. The US trade with China helps finance it too.

The politicians and corporations don't care as long as they are making money in China.

New development with the Cartels and fentanyl: link

Wolfhag