Imagine if the US military spent its budget on building increasingly sophisticated technology that can neutralise enemies rather than eliminate (which works wonders for breeding more enemies). Imagine if the rules of engagement treated foreigner lives as equal to citizen lives, or “criminal suspect” lives as equal to “innocent” lives. Even if it costs 100x as much to develop a nonviolent solution, this pales in comparison to the amount the US would save from throttling the cycle of violence, both internationally and domestically. Of course, the US treating enemies differently doesn’t solve anything if the US’ presence in a country is illegitimate in the first place, and there’s so much more wrong with the US criminal system domestically. So I don’t mean to present this as a whole solution to US militarism/policing, but it seems an important reform not fully considered often enough.
Whether through times of peace or of war, our military should be ready, I understand that. We also spend exponentially more money than of any other nation on military spending; no, this is not a criticism.
I would like to bring your attention to the future of our military, and ensure that our forces remain relevant in the coming times ahead.
Let’s talk first of domestic operations. The military is capable of so much, and as we face new challenges, so must our military adapt to the times.
I want to put policing to the side for the moment, all I’ll say is that military could teach police a thing or two about chain of command and proper protocol. I know what I said, come back to it later.
Let’s start with emergency services and disaster relief.
It should stand to reason, that preparing for all threats, both foreign and domestic, we should have a military capable of assisting civilian efforts. Contract military personnel to staff hospitals with shortages, train for integration with diaaster relief efforts, and be an active player in domestic activities. Firefighting, even emergency commercial infrastructure, like we needed during the pandemic.
Training in natural disasters would be good for the military, we should be testing ourselves against the greatest challenges, and there is no rival to Mother Nature.
And the military proves more useful than merely combat, which our military is indeed capable of so much more.
And the military presence can be brought into the public spotlight.
We can find veterans work, and work with the public and private sectors to acknowledge qualifications and skills of our retired soldiers.
I’d also like to speak briefly on military participation. Some of us, couldn’t enlist; whether it’s family, career, or any of the million reasons people don’t join the military.
5 years is a long commitment.
My wife uses my kids to keep me from joining. By the time they are old enough, it will be too old for me.
I’m not even sure what I’m suggesting, you don’t want people who only stay for a week, but looking for people to fill basic staffing needs to free up your more capable people might be beneficial.
Have work contracts for 2 years maybe?
Work with educators and entrepreneurs to build a program to learn and get certified to work in a qualified field.
Something our vets can do, if they can’t find work.
The idea is the more you integrate civilian and military efforts, the greater chance our civilization will integrate our military veterans; because of greater familiarity, veterans won’t come home feeling unwelcome anymore, in fact they might find readjusting to civilian life actually possible.
Military spending wouldn’t be as contentious an issue if that military spending is also benefitting the economy, and America will be better prepared to work amongst ourselves for the greater good and have a better chance of succeeding if and when the time comes to work together.
Military can promote recruiting through self defense education, and even shooting competition, but more broadly, the military can have it’s own expertise within every professional field, to put in place redundancies to ensure the survival of American Government; we could have real specialization recruiting for our Armed Forces.
Qualify our military for professional matters, and clarify the authority of the people over military regarding domestic affairs.
Or something to that effect.