Human Capital

I was reading this today, which discussed the political ramifications of extended ground wars as well as the failure of the theory that fancy toys can lead to quick, decisive wars.  While the article is certainly worth reading, it misses the real moral of US wars from Korea to present day.  The lesson to be learned from the last fifty or so years of history is that there are significant flaws to our strategic thought, particularly regarding the decision to go to war and the broad policies concerning the conduct of war once begun.  Korea is a lesser example of this tendency:  inadequate thought was put into the force required to enact the preferred outcome and reactions within the region, but MacArthur also disobeyed orders  by pushing the North Koreans into China and over-extended his troops in his drive northward.  In Vietnam, the decision was made to prop up a weak and unpopular government against a battle-hardened enemy, the conduct of war relied on an ineffective strategy of attrition that played into the enemy's hands, and strategic bombing campaigns that could have significantly hampered enemy logistics were enacted much too late.  In Afghanistan, our initial troop footprint was too small, policies were put into place that encouraged sectarian violence, feudalism, and corruption, and the few resources that we had committed were soon diverted to invade Iraq.  We invaded Iraq for no reason, disbanded the Baathist party and the Iraqi Army which led to inadequate social infrastructure to run the country and 500,000 unemployed men who had both the motivation and the means to engage in insurgency, and generally conducted ourselves poorly.  


All of these failings occurred at the strategic level, which is to say that the failures were the province of elected officials, their cabinets, and high-ranking generals.  The military has by and large acquitted itself well. A few war crimes, or potential war crimes (Haditha, the Kill Squad) occurred as a result of poor leadership at the lowest levels, but the rest (Abu Ghraib) were the result of inadequate manpower that was poorly trained, and the result of policy decisions made at the highest level (George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld).  


The far greater tragedy, the waste of blood and treasure both foreign and domestic, is entirely the fault of flawed strategic thinking.  Moreover, the potent tragedies occurring on a smaller scale happened only because of the decision to go to war, which was certainly not a decision made my a Lance Corporal machine gunner.  The highest level of national leadership has failed us.  It has failed us in every major war since WWII.  Frankly, the blame for this failure rests squarely on the shoulders of America's citizenry.  Politicians are by nature stupid, corrupt, horrible creatures who will pursue ill-fated adventures ad infinitum if they aren't held accountable (Weiner's wiener being a microcosm of this phenomena).  


We simply have not been holding them accountable.  There's a strong argument to be made that the all-volunteer force insulates the population from the costs of war.  When less than one percent of the country is fighting the war, it certainly incurs less popular wrath.  And while reinstating the draft will certainly make it much harder to invade countries indefinitely with inadequate justification, the larger problem (which affects more than just the conduct of war) is that we have inadequately developed the human capital of our nation.  


Our citizens have trouble finding Iraq or Afghanistan on a map.  The debate about the merits of counterinsurgency is lost on them.  Heaven forbid we start talking about how the contracting process breeds corruption in Afghanistan, the counterproductive support for warlords, or anything complicated at all. They (including Congress, members of whom are also concerned about the possibility of islands capsizing) were convinced that Iraq had  weapons of mass destruction and connections to Al Qaeda (which, in case you haven't been paying attention, turned out not to be true).  


The simple fact of the matter is that our citizenry, generally speaking, is composed of stupid, bleating sheep.  They cannot understand the conduct of the government normally, much less in a time of war, and certainly cannot be depended upon to adequately restrain the hubris of politicians.  


Maybe it's time that we started funding education instead of superfluous carrier battle groups...