I feel your pain....

It's not that simple. Aside from the trigger pullers and the bullet bringers, the bulk of the Army is contractors, Department of the Army Civillian workers, or soldiers assigned to jobs that do not involve what most people would consider an Army mission. I will link two examples.

1. The BOSS Program. Entertainment for soldiers actually has soldiers and contracted civillians paid to work for them. This is something that grew out of the need to entertain soldiers in WW2, USO and all that. This is sort of a union for single soldiers that live in the Army Dormitories.

2. Army Community Services. These guys provide a variety of services to soldiers, such as Loans and counseling. Think of it as social welfare for the Army.

I am not attacking these programs, or saying they are doing a bad thing. However, the Army makes quite a show of how we are a professional fighting force. Based on programs like the above, I would say that is only partially true. Blackwater is a professional fighting force. From what I can gather they are expected to each maintain a professional body of knowledge and show up ready to work. In this case train away from home or provide a military formation on another continent. They seem to be able to do this without any sort of welfare system that consumes resources like this happy fellow.

Sam Huntington tells me that the State has a moral obligation to maintain at the very least a body of professional cadre capable standing up and training a military force; and I believe him. I do not think that means we need an Army whos professional fighting men are vastly outnumbered by people who neither shoot nor support. You ask why not simply adopt their system, I tell you to adopt it means to cleave globs of useless fat off a side of beef. I believe our Army should be reduced to the size of the Marine Corp, or even to the pre-WW2 level. The private sector should be able to provide the rest.

This small force could do things we cannot currently do. For instance:

1. Not recruit convicted felons.

2. Pay highly trained soldiers what they are worth, and expect them to look after themselves and deploy when they are told.

3. Focus on warfighting, instead of spending crazy amounts of time with Equal Opportunity training and Sexual Harrasment training.

This leaner Army, along with the other branches of service would be able to respond to immediate threats and destroy a State Centric Center of Gravity. For anything larger the National Guard and Reserve could be mobilized. Unless anyone thinks the Russians are going to drive across Europe anytime soon, I think this is a more realistic goal.