Outside The Beltway has an excellent post about the Guard and Reserves and how they're being used. These reserve forces exist for one reason, and one reason only: to supplement the full-time military when the need arises. They don't exist to provide extra monthly income, or a college funding plan, or to build additional work experience. They do these things, of course, but those are incidental. When you enlist in the Guard or Reserve, you also enlist in the possibility that your world may change dramatically if the President decides that events warrant.
Some people have speculated that the heav y reliance on reserves in Iraq may affect enlistment in these units. And the New York Times article referred to by OTB says, in part:
"Military commanders frequently said in private that a number of reservists arrive for duty ill-prepared for the challenges they face in places like Iraq and Afghanistan, in particular lacking specific combat skills required even of truck drivers. They say the reservists also do not have something more intangible but equally important: a warrior ethos, which can hardly be inculcated with one weekend a month and two weeks a year of training, or in the weeks of accelerated training before deployment."
We may well discover that these are related. If enlistments fall, but those enlisting do so because of a desire to serve in the reserves, rather than grab an extra few dollars per month, we could easily have a smaller, but more effective, force. And one that isn't as vulnerable to political gainsaying.
Posted by hboswell at July 4, 2004 08:12 AM | TrackBack