The Military Is Essential To National Life

The Military Is 

The Beating Heart of Any Nation

The Military of every nation on earth throughout history always represents the beating heart of the people and the nation. No matter how any nation’s military is abused, exploited for evil purposes, or sent on fool’s missions, it still remains the most respected institution in any society. This seems inexplicable to many, and yet it is a consistent fact, and just common sense.

Even in the most evil and disgusting regimes, headed by the most despicable dictators, the military remains, when all is said and done, the only good thing left in the nation. At the very time it is being used to oppress the people in the worst manner possible, it still remains, in the final analysis, the last best of hope of those very people.

That is hard to dispute, but what can we learn from it upon further examination? Firstly, that such great power by the military, also implies great responsibility and accountability, which is not always evident. Therefore, nothing could be more important than the training and education of the military, at all levels of service and command, and nothing can be more important than the restoration of the military, especially when it is totally defeated and destroyed in a war.

The first thing the Allies wisely did upon defeating both Germany and Japan was to rebuild their military, and rearm them. This simple act of understanding, and self-interest, has paid generous dividends to America. For a nation without a military is like a ship without sails, rudder or navigation ability, and therefore a floating derelict that is a menace to shipping lanes and everything that comes near her.

The worst of all conditions is for a nation to have a destroyed military, and history provides ample examples of this, from the French Revolution to modern day Iraq. The worst blunder America committed in the Iraq war was to foolishly destroy the Iraqi military, and the wisest thing General David Petraeus did to finally win that war, was to rebuild and restore Iraq’s former military, even though he had to do it in a somewhat covert way, by finding the money to pay them through their tribal chiefs.

What ensued after our victory and the consequent totally dismantling of Iraq’s former military was 5 years of total chaos fueled by those discharged soldiers who had nowhere to go but into insurgency in a partnership with Al Qaida. This gross mistake on the part of our Generals, and the DoD, eroded nearly all the fruits of our victory, and nearly brought to its knees the greatest nation on earth, the USA.

All the good intentions in the world are no substitute for a nation having a functioning military. The simple rule is, when you defeat an enemy army, you must just as quickly restore it to power, under your control, albeit changed to meet your minimal conditions. There is no escaping the logic of this imperative.

And if you want to rescue a society from some sort of total degradation, there is no better institution of reform to do it than that nation’s military. Failure to use the military properly, and failure of the military to assume social responsibilities, produces the basic ingredients of a failed state. Any time the people are disheartened by the mismanagement of their society they properly must, and do, turn to their military for a last ditch solution.

Especially in the modern world, which is beset by "democracy" run wild, such that many societies are strangling in the effluent of dysfunctional families, dysfunctional governments, and awash in inappropriate permissiveness. In those sad cases, that nation’s military remains about the only available curative.

Without Napoleon at the head of the army, taking over the nation at a critical moment, the French Revolution would have completely despoiled France beyond repair.

And recently, it was the Russian armed forces led by the elite military KGB that ended the cold war and saved Russian society from a blood bath and a general collapsing into Civil War.

Naturally, civilian elements, freed from customary tight controls, promptly ran to extremes, endangering the very existence of the state. This prompted the military, led by Putin, to reassert some corrective control to bring destabilizing "democratic" elements under some semblance of control in the national interest.

Unwisely, anti-Russian elements in the US do not like, or want, the sort of competition that a vital, stable and resurgent Russia is might give them, and this is understandable on an emotional level. But, in the long run having to compete with a reinvigorated Russia will be for our own good. It may force us to pay attention to a many of our own failing institutions and enact reforms that will enable us to compete effectively. Far better to compete with a new Russia, than to be enslaved by an "old" China. America has never fought a war against Russia, who has always been our natural ally, in some ways, even under the destructive yoke of Communism. 

Another added bonus is that China, and the Moslems along with other trouble makers on the world scene, will now have to now look over their shoulder at a resurgent Bear, hopefully friendly to America, coming out of hibernation.