Leaving the community

Peter Duniho wrote:

The military that makes a living going to war for the US?

It doesn't work that way. Sir Arthur Harris (commander of Bomber Command in WWII) put
it very well in his memoirs. During peacetime, soldiers get paid for doing a few
exercises. They have a fair amount of leisure time. When war breaks out, those near
the action have a relatively high casualty rate until things pretty much stabilize.
They are subject to the vagaries of weather, can't bathe, and are poorly fed. Low
ranking officers tend to have a very high casualty rate, though the chances for
promotion are good for the survivors. High ranking officers may be prematurely
retired or, conversely, yanked back out of retirement.

If you win the war, once peace settles in, many of the officers are discharged as
surplus and have their military careers cut short when they would have otherwise
served for decades at somewhat lower ranks. If you lose, many of your officers are
shot.

The last person who wants to go to war is the one who has to fight it.

Paraphrased from "Bomber Command", Sir Arthur Harris.

George Patterson
If a man gets into a fight 3,000 miles away from home, he *had* to have
been looking for it.