The Army’s Next Enemy? Peace.
The Army’s Next Enemy? Peace. By LTG David W. Barno (USA Ret.), Washington Post
The Army is emerging from 13 years of war, battle-tested but weary. It is under pressure from budget cuts, the return of nearly the entire force to domestic bases, and a nation wary of deploying land power after two long conflicts. Yet perhaps the most important challenge facing the Army is not about finances, logistics or public opinion, but about culture — its own.
A conflict looms between the Army’s wartime ethos of individual initiative and the bureaucratic malaise that peacetime brings. The Army is about to make an abrupt shift: from a sizable, well-resourced, forward-deployed, combat-focused force to a much smaller, austerely funded, home-stationed service. Training and preparation for war will take the place of actually waging it. The Army is moving from 13 straight years of playing in the Super Bowl to an indefinite number of seasons scrimmaging with itself…
I thought complacency and a certain ‘peacetime’ attitude of dragging out things did affect our forever global war-on-terror campaigns on some level? At any rate, regretting peace seems to be a negative outcome of the professional all volunteer Army, doesn’t it? And thus the fetishization of the sexy Special Forces raiding as the face of it all. Too bad. Your normcore qualities are your best feature.
Training and being prepared for the next war is what being a professional officer or NCO is about. There is more than enough things to focus on, to include achieving and sustaining readiness with reduced resources to keep these folks occupied.
Yes, the challenges will be different than the last 13 years, but they will be no less critical to the nation. Oftentimes, the hard work is dull, boring, and bureaucratic, but thats what separates a a professional force from a rabble.