You wanna see a good fight? Then watch the various factions in the political sphere fighting over what kind of army we are going to have.
There's the old guard, who believe we should have an army that can FIGHT, and save our country from invaders, and go and fight on the cause of the 'right and just' overseas. They want our soldiers to be many, and to have lots of guns, tanks, strike aircraft, frigates and money. There's a few younger people that would also want to have an army like this. It supplies employment for a lot of people and gives them the exceedingly useful skill of doing what they are told to do. They also learn how to stand up straight and use an iron. As well as shoot to kill.
And at the other end of the spectrum is the total peace niks, who want no army at all. Not for peacekeeping, not for disaster relief, not for running the prisons if the prison guards go on strike. Definitely not for war mongering, whether at home or overseas.
As well, of course, there are the mulitple middle grounders. There's those that want to be able to send peacekeepers, but not with guns, or some are okay with guns. There's those that want to fund the army better than the present government, and those that don't want to increase the allocation, and some that want to decrease it. There's more shades of green, pink and blue than matisse used. Right at the moment we have an army run by middle grounders. Which is quite good in my mind, cos it means there are about three people in the country who have the army they want.
In this country the soldiers have very little say in these things, its up to the policy boffins in the Ministry of Defense and the politicians. But soldiers generally want more toys, and more chance to use them. Otherwise, why would you join the army? So I definitely don't think they should decide. Whoever's army it is, it ain't the soldiers one. And that's been true since private armies ceased. Which they have in NZ, but probably not anywhere else. And there may be very small ones here - what do I know?
for the Friday theme
Posted by Toni at May 29, 2005 03:06 PM