The American Military Class

Curzon of Coming Anarchy is asking for input to a reader’s comment about “Should we be cultivating the notion of a military class in the US?”

Such a class already exists amid active, reserve and retired personnel who enjoy a range of opportunities unavailable to the common citizen.

The military experiences of the overwhelming majority of veterans separate them from their fellow citizens in a variety of noticeable ways, from the emphasis on personal discipline and responsibility to a sense of realism that informs and grounds their viewpoints and lifestyles.

In addition, as documented by the Vietnam veteran and conservative Boston University professor Andrew Bacevich in his book, “The New American Militarism”,  “[public] confidence in the military has found further expression in a tendency to elevate the soldier to the status of national icon, the apotheosis of all that is great and good about contemporary America.” Bacevich continues:
“Soldiers have tended to concur with this evaluation of their own moral superiority.  In a 2003 survey of military personnel, “two-thirds [of those polled] said they think military members have higher moral standards than the nation they serve… Once in the military, many said, members are wrapped in a culture that values honor and morality.”

Bacevich further evaluates how the modern officer class “has evolved its own well-defined worldview and political agenda.”  He mentions historian Richard H. Kohn, who wrote “that the present-day officer corps is more bureaucratically active, more political, more partisan, more purposeful and more influential than at any earlier time in American history“.

5 key features of the veterans and those on active duty stand out to further determine that this class already exists, in that they boast an:

1. Exclusive, effective health care network that offers a range of preventive medicine and treatment at little cost to the patient, freeing up substantial income for veterans in a matter that allows them to further enjoy economic opportunities (home-purchasing without a down payment, guaranteed pensions, small business loans, etc) many Americans cannot.
2. Extraordinary empowerment of vast education opportunities (GI Bill, in-service education even while deployed; i.e. the Navy’s NCPACE distance education courses).
3. Degree of professional training increasingly in tandem with Fortune 500 companies and top-tier universities (management and leadership courses designed by Ivy League schools, professional training from Microsoft, Motorola, etc. for specific career fields like IT)
4. Vast, extensive political network that secures benefits, contracts and influence across the board (from VFW to IAVA and beyond, the average service member is certainly represented on vital legislation and policies by lobbying groups like this)
5. Plenitude of industries and fields entirely devoted to military needs and challenges (as well as law enforcement and homeland security, which often are destinations for separating or retiring military personnel) that supply armaments, equipment and platforms to the military as well as offer employment for personnel upon leaving the service.

Even prisoner abuse and torture and failure on the ground in Iraq will likely fail to seriously affect how this class is publicly viewed.  Within the military, it will only embolden a new generation of officers and NCO’s to learn from the mistakes of their predecessors and to advocate an even more activist role within the government to ensure the military is not misused again any time soon.  In the name of “supporting the troops”, politicians will sign off even more benefits and programs to the military class with nary a serious degree of oversight.  Not that is necessarily a bad thing, but taken further into the policy realm, supporting the troops blindly while pursuing failed or misguided strategies out of fear of being called unpatriotic or treasonous is a serious problem.

In the long run, the point is clear.  For the average young American seeking to move ahead in life,  joining the military is perhaps the best, most lucrative option available, even more so if one graduates from college before enlisting or becoming a commissioned officer.  Unique in its features, opportunities and lifestyle, the military class is a reality that should be more widely acknowledged because of its impact on the American society, economy and political discourse.