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Article 6953 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: sdr57@cas.org ()
Subject: Re: 21st Century Soldier
Message-ID: <1992Sep17.135131.21405@cas.org>
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Organization: Chemical Abstracts Service, Columbus, Ohio
References: <11SEP199211572401@dstl86.gsfc.nasa.gov> <FeaZqB5w164w@underg.UUCP> <1992Sep12.191204.1026@ariel.ec.usf.edu>
Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1992 13:51:31 GMT
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In article <1992Sep12.191204.1026@ariel.ec.usf.edu> mccolm@darwin.math.usf.edu. (Gregory McColm) writes:
>
>There is this fantasy that wars are different from politics,
>and if only we could keep those damn politicians out, we
>could win wars.

Wars are, in their execution, very different from politics.
The conduct of a war bears little resemblence in its
practical aspects to anything a politician, concerned with
the nuances of law and the details of relationships between
governments, would reasonably encounter. To suggest that
politicians should conduct the wars they decide on places
a great burden on one person, requiring that that person
be conversent with the skills of the soldier as well as those
of politics. Consider other examples - should the politicians
who order the collection of taxes be intimately involved in
their collection? Should your senator do the auditing or
should that be left to people with accounting training?
And if the congress passes a health care bill, does that
mean your representative should perform your surgery?
The argument that the military should be allowed to conduct
wars is the same as the argument that surgeons should be
allowed to perform surgery - let the people with the
training for it do the job.

Politicians are the ones (in the United States, at least) who
decide when and why we fight. This is part of their job.
In Viet Nam, the politicians failed by not giving us clear
objectives - they decided the when but not the why - and so
the conditions for victory became slippery. The military
failed also - not in the fighting, but in failing to get
the politicians to define the goals clearly enough so
that the military could tell the politicians whether or not
their goals were attainable.

******************************************************************************
Renegade academician. They're a dangerous breed when they go feral,
academics are...a chemist, too.
		    -(James P. Blaylock in "Lord Kelvin's Machine")

My organization hasn't agreed with any of my opinions so far, and
I doubt they'll start now.

Stanley "Ya nee speon" Roberts



