The AVF is -- despite the fact that everything is reported and every transgression noted --- the most professional forces in the history of the planet.

By far.

Money corrupts. Money is not why you have wars, if you must have them. Sooner or later the Mercs decide to cut out the middle man, they've been working on it here already.

Do I necessarily want servicemembers to be battling like gladiators for decades at a pop? Hell no. But this is the 21st Century and the learning curve is STEEP. The time to teach people how to do what needs doing is before the poop hits the fan.

You do understand that when I say "professional," I mean trained, educated, responsible uniformed service members, under oath to support, protect and defend the Constitution, and if enlisted, to obey the orders of the commissioned officers appointed over them....?

And sorry--it IS about money. The laborer is worthy of his or her hire. The military member has as much right to a spouse and family as anyone else. And you can't have that with just love and pale moonlight. You need a decent paycheck, safe and affordable or subsidized housing, good schools for your children, and regular promotions.

I refer you to the post you responded to:

That is what you seemed to be saying.

See, they get great (almost unbelievable) pay, but their benefits suck. Their benefits depend on what their contractor wants to give them, and that ain't much, usually.

IF they are lucky enough to survive without injury, they can make a nice payday. If they are injured, their long-term care is down to how good their private insurance is. They get no support from the military. They're pretty much hung out to dry.

Most "mercenaries" (the Blackwater Contract Security Personnel types) are older--they want a massive payday and they all think they can play the odds and come out a winner. And most do. It's the ones that don't that make it all rather sad. And they are usually military retirees--they have great knowledge and skills, but they don't want to go back in the service. They want that BIG payday.

In any event, I like an AVF. You have a motivated, quality force--not smartass trouble makers who are joining the military as a diversionary program to avoid jail, or people who would rather be somewhere else.

I am OK with the new professional Army (AVF), I met many fine officers who came out of that, before it was too corrupted, what I am not OK with is private Armies (Blackwater or whatever they call themselves now) or large standing forces and a MIC roaming the world looking for trouble. What we need (IMHO) is a trained professional cadre, all the time, and enough draftees to keep them busy and proficient, and us ready to deal with minor problems without training up a real army.

Edit: the draftees, once out again, form a ready reserve, spread military knowledge around, etc. We had a whole bunch of ex-Gi's running around after WWII, and it was not a bad thing. It keeps the connection between the public and the military clear and open. You don't want a whole bunch of people who think war is their key to success. We need to find economically productive uses for most people, not dump them in the military because the private sector is too greedy to give them decent work.

I have been amazed that the numbnuts in DC do not understand the danger that private armies (Mercs) and the obese security apparatus we have constructed pose to THEM. History is not ambiguous about where these things wind up.

We also need to rebuild our own nation before the issue becomes moot. We are not doing well, as a nation.

That is probably the one thing that every senior military leader agrees upon, and has agreed upon since Saint Ronnie of Raygun left office. I promise you, if you see a draft happening ever again, kiss your butt goodbye, because it will be WW3 and not a good thing at all--everyone to the ramparts, the end is nigh.

The reason we now have--as of 2012-- a reservist general (Chief of the National Guard) serving on the JCS is because the reserves -- who do their little weekend warrior/2 weeks a year stuff--are getting more training and more funding to make their training more "real world." They're no longer neglected step-children training with embarrassingly out of date equipment for the "last" war.

I agree that contractors are out of control; a new paradigm is needed, perhaps one that incorporates civilian (or even retired) assets but is run out of reserve shops. This would probably cost more over time, if we're to be decent and not leave injured contractors to fend for themselves. There needs to be more oversight of the overseers, and that just isn't happening with the current system. They'll have time to think about this stuff in the outyears--it's a good topic for a graduate thesis at the war colleges.

I'm not in the mood to write more dissertations at the moment, and I suspect you know the arguments anyway.

We have done it before. Now that we put a lot of the load on the reserves, it's not so hard to pivot and shrink--and that is what needs to happen.

USAF is getting ready to do a Selective Early Retirement Board for 0-5 and 0-6, that will break up their logjam re: promotion flow.

You'll see some iteration of that elsewhere too--either voluntary calls or "Out You Go's" with the other Services....