Today’s military: A whole new warrior

In the last week I met hundreds of the very smart, capable, positive and mission-driven people who make up our military.

They are men and women, racially diverse and better educated that any force we have ever had. Lots of them have college degrees. Many have completed graduate degrees while in the service.

Truth is the over 70% of the population don’t qualify for military service based on education, health and other factors. The days when a judge pushed a troubled teenage boy into the military (as opposed to jail) have been over for a long time.

While the Marines we met were young, their age of Special Ops troops ranged from early 20’s to mid-50’s.

Many are married and dealing with the impact of overseas service that keeps them away from their families for four to six months at a time. As you heard them discuss deployment, I kept thinking about my son, Nicholas, and how hard it would have been to miss even a month of his childhood.

They aren’t cowboys or mavericks. In fact, they are reversed and deffential in their speech. They have a pride for what they do but speak carefully about the people they fight. You hear them talk about being “diplomats with a small “d.”

Morale is high, more “purposeful” than exuberant.

Special Operations demands bright, committed problem solvers. Today's military is competing with corporate America for the best talent. The regularly recruit leaders who could easily make more money elsewhere.

The folks I met certainly filled the bill.

You find yourself, over and over again, thanking them for their service.

Who are the advocates?

As a country, it has always been important to for us to separate the military from the government. The concept of separating elected leaders from our generals is in our DNA, going back to George Washington.

At the same time, you wonder how well our defense effort is being positioned in Washington and with citizens and voters across the country.

After a long day in the field on Tuesday, I watched a C-Span discussion on the national debt. It was casually mentioned that cutting the military budget would need to be part of any effort to close the gap. Nobody disagreed. You wonder if the people doing the talking knew how immense the task of defending the country is and how our long term interests are at stake.

You sense a theme inside the services that goes something like “if people only knew.” They are right, people do need to know. Our military needs to make it easier for all of us to understand their role. Citizens need a deeper understanding of the world. The conference is part of that effort. But non-military leaders need to lead in this area.

We have an all-volunteer military today. The draft has been gone for 37 years. Many of our most influential zip codes send virtually no young men and women to the military. How do communities like Bloomfield Hills, Birmingham and Ann Arbor gain an appreciation for this complicated world?

Who are the trusted, balanced, committed voices for America’s defense?

These people need advocates who can tell thier story.

Do Americans know that this isn’t a “war?”

The biggest lesson of this trip is the simple fact that we really aren’t fighting a “war” in the way most people think of a war.

In truth, this is an effort to address something as large in scope as the Cold War but with new, very uncertain rules. We are fighting multiple enemies who are growing in number, spreading across the globe, and constantly re-energized. We are also fighting in a way we have never done before.

Many civilians have narrowed the conflict to two areas in their minds; Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet there are issues and organizations in South America, Africa, the Philippines, and across Asia that should give us great concern.

These aren’t armies, but loose networks of terrorists and criminals. This enemy is diffused and fights for a number of intersecting reasons. Some are tied to a country, some to a religion, and some are just committed to a hatred for Western life.

There are a growing number of issues to fight over and a need for our country to be prepared to defend itself in new ways. Beyond terrorism we are fighting a drug war in a number of areas and piracy on the seas. On the horizon are the environmental concerns and global population growth. In the coming years we are as likely to fight over fresh water as we are to fight of oil.

What happens when a country suddenly damns a river that flows into a neighboring country? How does that fight play out?

Imagine if the volcano eruptions of a few weeks ago was, instead, a power grid being blown-up in a major western country.

Even our national debt comes into play, creating leverage for other countries as they become the bankers for our lifestyle.

During the Cold War, there was a sense of the “rules of engagement” between Russia and the US. We faced a single enemy. Over the years, patterns were established. There was an arena and a sense of some level of dialogue. Today, none of that seems to exist.

How do you fight with an enemy who knows no rules and is willing to die in order to kill you and anyone else he needs to?