The Constitution expressly forbids a standing army and the professional liars weaseled around it. Now we are reaping the results. We live under the heel of a tyrannical government. The blood of our sons and daughters put money in their pockets. Your tax dollars at work.
“The Constitution expressly forbids a standing army...blood of our sons and daughters put money in their pockets. Your tax dollars at work.” [SanchoP, post 26]
Whatever the Constitution says or doesn’t say in a legalistic manner about the detailed organization and activities of the armed forces, it is incontrovertible that the militia system of the early Republic was deficient in providing for the common defense. This was realized on a practical level during the War of 1812; the professionalization of the military was begun after that war ended and went hand-in-hand with technical advances made possible by the Industrial Revolution.
Today, forum members who pine for the days of naught but citizen soldiers armed with naught but small arms had best resign themselves to losing.
The draft ended 46 years ago. All fretting about what leaders are doing with “our sons and daughters” became irrelevant at that moment: today’s troops are not helpless children being exploited, they are adults who volunteer. Indeed, the very fact they have volunteered elevates them to a higher moral plane of adulthood than isolationists, conspiracy theorists, libertarians, and pacifists.
There is but one choice: pay in money now or pay in blood later. Choosing the second alternative brings uglier outcomes. And the final bill will be much higher.