Why America's All-Volunteer Force Fails to Win Wars
Why America's All-Volunteer Force Fails to Win Wars by Andrew Bacevich, Dallas Morning News
A conundrum: Today’s American soldier is by common consent the world’s finest, even history’s finest, but the United States doesn’t win its wars. Time and again, the mission – the overall aim of the exercise – goes unaccomplished, while the war itself continues as if on autopilot. Why?
Instinctively, and not entirely without reason, Americans hold politicians responsible for failing to deliver victories promised and expected. For many, it’s all George W. Bush’s fault. For others, it’s Barack Obama’s. Dig a bit deeper, however, and the American people themselves share in the culpability.
Put simply, the nation’s military system is out of sync with its military ambitions. That system, euphemistically known as the All-Volunteer Force or AVF, employs a mix of patriotic appeals and material blandishments to induce young Americans to go fight in distant lands. Yet those responding to these inducements are too few in number to get the job done…