OPEN SOURCE: The Future of the All-Volunteer Military

Summary:

The goals and priorities of the second-largest standing army in the world.

Website:

http://www.radioopensource.org/the-future-of-the-all-volunteer-military/

Tones:

Authoritative, Contemplative, Edgy

Language:

English

Description:

The U.S. military has 1.4 million troops on active duty and another 1. 26 million in the Reserves, including 456,000 in the National Guard. We have 47,000 American troops stationed in Japan, 37,500 in South Korea, and 116,400 on bases all across Europe.

These numbers confront us with a stunning paradox: America has the second largest standing army in the world, and yet, is desperate for more troops. As the President announced his plans to add 21,500 troops to the 152,000 already in combat in Iraq, it was not entirely clear where he planned to get them.

There hasn?t been conscripted military service in the U.S. since 1973, but as the military moves thousands upon thousands of human chess pieces around the global board to meet its various needs, some people argue that a ?backdoor draft? is already underway. For example: the military is making use of the long-established but usually rare practice of stop-lossing to keep enlisted men and women beyond their contractually agreed-upon period of active service, and is calling up reservists who may have thought their military careers were over.

What do these changes tell us about the wider goals and priorities of the military, and its future as a whole? How is the military coping with its need for more troops, and how are members of the armed services responding to these tactics? Are the problems facing the military just about this war and this set of demands, or does the shortage of troops bely larger problems in the structure of the military as a whole? Is there a way to redesign the all-volunteer military without pushing individual soldiers, their families, combat units to a breaking point?

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