Military Service Parochialism
All the services always want more
Yesterday, I posted the following comment to a fine article that addressed America’s nuclear triad and the reality that we really only need the Navy’s nuclear submarine force for deterrence:
My old service, the Air Force, will fight for new ICBMs and new "stealth" bombers just because they always want MORE. More money, more bases, more planes, more power. Doesn't matter if America needs them or not. Doesn't matter if new nuclear weapons may end the world. What matters is dominance, especially Air Force dominance over the U.S. Navy and Army.
"Nothing can stop the U.S. Air Force" in its budgetary battles at the Pentagon.
Honestly, this is self-evident to me. The Air Force always wants more planes, especially offensive aircraft like fighters and bombers. The Army always wants more divisions, more equipment, a bigger Army. The Navy always wants more ships.
Within the armed services, there are special interests. So, for example, the Navy carrier enthusiasts fight for their hegemony while the submariners fight to keep their slice of the budgetary pie. Within the “old” Army, the combat branches (infantry, armor, artillery) fought to ensure their continued relevance (and money). Now there’s an entire special ops and forces community, a military within the military, along with a new Space Force, a cyber command, various intelligence “communities,” all fighting for more budgetary authority and power.
Everyone always wants MORE. Victory in the U.S. military is measured by who wins the Pentagon budgetary battles, not who wins in Vietnam or Iraq or Afghanistan.
Service parochialism is encouraged at the highest levels and is instilled by the service academies. A friend of mine’s daughter recently received her acceptance letter to West Point. The letter stressed the proud tradition of the Army, and though it mentioned service, it said nothing about the Constitution and the oath of office. Each service academy stresses loyalty to service branch. Duty, honor, country takes a back seat to bleeding Air Force blue or Army green.
Pride in service isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it can be blinding on issues like building new ICBMs and stealth bombers. The default Air Force position is to support more missiles and bombers “just because.” Because they’re “our” toys, part of “our” mission, bringing with them bases, command billets, influence, and all the rest.
Service parochialism ensures a military that is wasteful, overly conservative, and dysfunctional. Too much bleeding of Army green or Air Force blue has led to too much real bleeding of red.
the war machine is a hungry beast needing slaying. Remember The Blob. it devoured and devoured getting bigger and bigger till it final got frozen o
in its tracks. we need to freeze this beast. Freeze this money grabbing blob of shit..
Thanks for pointing out how institutions actually work. My husband was stationed at Fort Wolters in Mineral Wells, Texas during the Vietnam War. Every year, just before the Army budget was due to be allocated, the fort opened its warehouse of supplies to everyone on base to help themselves to all the extra inventory that had gone unused since the last budget year. My husband brought home reams of typing paper, a typewriter, camera film, scotch tape, staples, you name it. I was shocked by the profligacy of the Army, just so it could justify a larger budget for the next fiscal year. It wasn’t the same as wanting more weaponry, but it sure didn’t justify confidence in the military.