Proponents of a standing army are forgetting that governments have used standing armies, not just at home, but abroad as well. There was the Shah of Iran, a brutal dictator who was reinstalled into power by the CIA, and whose national intelligence/police force was trained by the CIA in the art of torture. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. POLICY BRIEF #54. There are the decades of military and financial aid provided the brutal military dictatorship in Egypt under military strongman Hosni Mubarak, whose troops and intelligence forces worked closely with both the Pentagon and the CIA. Full Context. Teachinghistory.org is designed to help K12 history teachers access resources and materials to improve U.S. history education in the classroom. By Lt. Gen. Antonio Aguto Jr. September 8, 2021. If youre interested in learning more about the report, it will be available on the website of the Atlantic Council on September 21. If you are one of those people who never likes being away from the workplace, then the military is not for you. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. Most of the disincentives for war disappeared. 1. (Extra bonus: The Army wouldnt need to pay for many of these opportunities, thanks to the generous educational benefits provided by the Post-9/11 G.I. They largely shared the perspective of James Burgh, who, in his Political Disquisitions (1774), called a "standing army in times of peace, one of the most hurtful, and most dangerous of abuses . We cannot annex the Philippines without a large increase in our standing army. Shaw was conscious of the convoluted command arrangements he was to face, writes Akam, and so he used his personal contacts to secure a meeting with Nigel Sheinwald, Tony Blairs foreign policy chief at Number 10 Downing Street. Britains preference for finding local-based solutions shocked the United States at the time and quickly soured relations particularly during the ensuing Iraqi-led Operation Charge of the Knights in March 2008, triggered in response to the unintended consequences of bolstering the power of the militias in Basra. View more newsletters on our Subscriptions page. But Old Whig had another problem with federal control over the militia: Let us instance one thing arising from this right of organizing and governing the militia. As weve argued at War on the Rocks before, the Army is inundated with more regulations and bureaucratic processes than any other military service. Driven by a sense of purpose. The beliefs that grew organically from their experiences with the British also help explain Madisons passionate anti-military rhetoric (he would later refer to the establishment of a standing army under the new Constitution as a calamity, albeit an inevitable one); together, they cast a long shadow over the debates surrounding the kind of military the new nation would provide for itself. Reid, "Tongues of Conscience. Introduction Few ideas were more widely accepted in early America than that of the danger of peacetime standing armies. Since I have already explored at length the opinions of Brutus on this subject in a previous article (Brutus on the Evils of Standing Armies), I only present here something he said in his ninth essay on this subject: That standing armies are dangerous to the liberties of a people was proved in my last number If it was necessary, the truth of the position might be confirmed by the history of almost every nation in the world. The problem of the scientist's responsibility for war and peace has been analysed by R.W. The Good Operation guide, a distillation of the lessons learned from the Iraq intervention, has helped to shape a more professional learning institution. We hope the report will stimulate lots of discussion, creative thinking, and new ideas to help ensure that the U.S. Army remains the preeminent fighting force in the world in the years and decades to come. This article may not be republished, rebroadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without written permission. The Army should also reinstate the requirement for every career officer to develop skills in two specialties, rather than to focus narrowly on one. With funding from the U.S. Department of Education, the Center for History and New Media (CHNM) has created Teachinghistory.org with the goal of making history content, teaching strategies, resources, and research accessible. It's twice as dangerous to be a truck driver as a copat 22.1 per 100,000. Send him email. A large standing army is repugnant to republican institutions and a menace to the liberty of our own people. Left unchecked, the Armys camouflaged version of helicopter parenting will inexorably destroy the initiative and judgment of its junior leaders and ultimately debilitate the way the Army fights. Will your mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment?, Henry St. George Tucker in Blackstones 1768 Commentaries on the Laws of England: Wherever standing armies are kept up, and when the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction., Commonwealth of Virginia in 1788: that standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, and therefore ought to be avoided, as far as the circumstances and protection of the community will admit; and that in all cases the military should be under strict subordination to and governed by the civil power., Pennsylvania Convention: as standing armies in time of peace are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up; and that the military shall be kept under strict subordination to and be governed by the civil power., U.S. State Department website: Wrenching memories of the Old World lingered in the 13 original English colonies along the eastern seaboard of North America, giving rise to deep opposition to the maintenance of a standing army in time of peace. Among the Romans it was a standing maxim to excite a war, whenever a revolt was apprehended. Easy access to firearms, people who are mentally ill being able to purchase firearms, a lack of trust amongst others, lack of access to health care, lack of employment opportunities in some areas of the country. Such sentiments may be understandable during wartime, though they inevitably have harmful long-term consequences. But in so doing, although the magnanimity of their minds will be extinguished, yet the meaner passions of resentment and revenge will be increased, and these in turn will be the ready and obedient instruments of despotism to enslave the others; and that with an irritated vengeance. The Constitution. The Anti-Federalist who signed his 1788 essays in the Baltimore Maryland Gazette A Farmer gave historical examples in his second essay to show that both political and civil liberty have long since ceased to exist in almost all the countries that now employ standing troops, and that their slavery has in every instance been effected and maintained by the instrumentality and invariable obedience of these living machines to their chief. He mentions not only that in England a standing army is declared to be contrary to their constitution, and a militia the only natural and safe defense of a free people, but also that in America the constitutions of all the States positively forbid any standing troops at all, much less laws for them. For example: Massachusetts: And as in times of peace, armies are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be maintained without the consent of the legislature. Pennsylvania & North Carolina: And as standing armies in the time of peace, are dangerous to liberty, they ought not to be kept up. Maryland & Delaware: That standing armies are dangerous to liberty, and ought not to be raised or kept without consent of the legislature. A Farmer also mused in this essay: I was persuaded that the grave would have closed on my bones, before this question would be publicly proposed in America. To see what I mean, lets take a look at the introduction of the permanent standing army in 19th century America. "A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty," he argued. When Maj. Gen. Jonathan Shaw, the Parachute Regiment officer who had previously led the United Kingdoms special forces, found himself taking over command from Maj. Gen. Richard Shirreff in 2007, he was well attuned to the complexity of the security situation. Nonetheless, no soldier refused the presidents order to invade Iraq. It is very true, that the celebrated Mr. Wilson, a member of the Convention, and who we may suppose breathes, in some measure, the spirit of that body, tells you, it [a standing army] is for the purpose of forming cantonments upon your frontiers, and for the dignity and safety of your country, as it respects foreign nations. All too often, government-produced defense is discussed as an ideala force that protects people and their rights. Warfare is inherently dangerous, and especially so on land. Once established, a government's military, its bureaucrats and leaders, as well as laymen all face a different set of incentives. Kohn, Richard H. Eagle and Sword: The Federalists and the Creation of the Military Establishment in America, 1783-1802. Instead, the support and defense of such regimes has always been considered to be part and parcel of working with our partners and allies in the defense of national security. As Williams points out in her op-ed, the soldiers job is to obey the orders of his president, not determine the rightness of them or their constitutionality. DeWitt also equated the revenue, excise, impost and stamp officers that would be introduced under the new Constitution with a standing army. Soldiers and their officers will not only be required to close with and kill the enemy but also place their deployments and actions in a broader social, political, and cultural context while appreciating the truism that the enemy also gets a vote. The Roman army was the largest fighting force in the ancient world. The Federalist Papers. Its also why the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits the federal government from depriving people of fundamental rights and why four different amendments require long-established procedural protections before federal officials can do bad things to people. On September 21, the Atlantic Council will publish our major report, The Future of the Army: Today, Tomorrow, and the Day After Tomorrow. In both todays and tomorrows world, however, effective organizations must make decisions almost instantaneously in response to data that flows at the speed of light. As the army had not deployed in large formations in some time, this was to be expected, though it inevitably generated leadership and organizational challenges that Akam retells with considerable detail. To this our young men will be more immediately subjected, as a select militia, composed of them, will best answer the purposes of government. The renowned anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski observed of tribes that they are essentially groups of people who conjointly exercise a type of culture and that they transmit this culture in the same language, according to similar educational principles, and thus they are the unit through which the culture lives and with which a culture dies.. A near-universal assumption of the founding generation was the danger posed by a standing military force. Image Credit:PxHere (https://creativecommons.org/choose/zero/), , and he has written on libertarianism, anarchism, and private alternatives to state authority. Military Leadership. What we know is that U.S. presidents, the Pentagon, and the CIA have long supported, defended, and trained tyrannical regimes, in the name of protecting national security.. The power of a standing army, Adams counseled, should be watched with a jealous Eye.. Shaws purpose was to get a sense of Londons political intent. Army leaders must find more protected ways to encourage open debate and legitimate (if tactful) disagreement, such as designating a devils advocate for all discussions. Thus may the militia be made the instruments of crushing the last efforts of expiring liberty, of riveting the chains of despotism on their fellow-citizens, and on one another. But it's an aspect of their work which is widely ignored - even by the soldiers themselves - and this can cause them great . The reasons for invading Iraq seemed disingenuous, at best. Violence against the troops escalated and reached a strategic tipping point in 2007. To sign up for Barno and Bensahels Strategic Outpost newsletter, where you can track their articles as well as their public events,click here. That legislation further aggravated colonists hostility towards the British Army. Multiple reasons. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. These measures would help rising Army leaders think more creatively about the wide range of challenges facing the Army and contribute more effectively at the strategic level within the Department of Defense or the wider interagency arena. The Impartial Examiner wrote essays for the Virginia Independent Chronicle in 1788. No man that loves his country could object to their being raised for the first of these causes, but for the last it cannot be necessary. Yet, on a training exercise in a phony war, it was applauded by his superiors and quickly assumed its place among his regiments tribal myths. Besides being useless, as having no object of employment, they are inconvenient and expensive. The Federal Farmer, in his eighteenth and last letter, which was published in the Poughkeepsie Country Journal in January of 1788, argued that only state militias could protect the powers and liberties of the states against a federal government with a standing army. . What assurances have they that either their taxes will not be exacted but in the greatest emergencies, and then sparingly, or that standing armies will be raised and supported for the very plausible purpose only of cantoning them upon their frontiers? Open disagreement and divergent views tend to be deeply discouraged within the Army, ranging all the way from its smallest units to the highest levels of the Army staff. Madisons language reflected a common concern that the maintenance of a standing army in the new United States would place similar burdens on the young government; their experiences with the British army under Parliament in the 1760s and 1770s likewise led to concerns that the executive would use a standing army to force unpopular legislation on an unwilling public in similar fashion. It found that it was literally impossible for Army officers to meet all the requirements imposed on them by higher headquarters, yet also found that failing to meet those same requirements was professionally unacceptable. Meanwhile, the Coalition Provisional Authority had taken the decision to demobilize the Iraqi Army in late May 2003, effectively creating a massive pool of disaffected and experienced military hands from which terrorists and insurgents could draw. Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people.". Throughout all Europe, the armies kept up under the pretext of defending, have enslaved the people." In June of 1787, James Madison addressed the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on the dangers of a permanent army. If you join the military at 18 years old, you can retire and start collecting your retirement at 38 years old. All quotations from the Anti-Federalists are taken from Regnery edition of The Anti-Federalists: Selected Writings and Speeches, edited by Bruce Frohnen. The experience with professional armies during the 40 years before the Constitutional Convention, and the values that sprang from those experiences, helps explain why the founders never seriously considered maintaining the Continental Army past the end of the War of Independence. This military hegemony has brought. While polls today generally indicate that Americans think of the military in glowing terms (rightly associating terms like sacrifice, honor, valor, and bravery with military service), Americans of the 18th century took a much dimmer view of the institution of a professional army.
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