{"id":408426,"date":"2017-08-17T15:07:52","date_gmt":"2017-08-17T21:07:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=408426"},"modified":"2017-08-17T15:07:52","modified_gmt":"2017-08-17T21:07:52","slug":"war-unseen-on-the-horizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2017\/08\/war-unseen-on-the-horizon\/","title":{"rendered":"War unseen on the horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>\u201cThere never was a war more easy to stop [which wasn\u2019t] than that which has just wrecked what was left of the world from the previous struggle.\u201d – Winston Churchill, speaking about World War Two<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>COMMENTARY:<\/strong> It is good that our world has not been in global military conflict since 1945. There have been some very nasty regional conflicts, but it has been 72\u00a0years since the entire world was at war.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_119613\" class=\"wp-caption module image alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 336px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-119613\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Swickard-Michael-336x356.jpg\" alt=\"Michael Swickard\" width=\"336\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Swickard-Michael-336x356.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/Swickard-Michael.jpg 451w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Courtesy photo<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Michael Swickard<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Unfortunately, in that time three generations of American leaders have emerged not steeped in the horrors of WWII. That puts all Americans in danger now. We are seeing saber rattling and belligerent talk out of today\u2019s world leaders.<\/p>\n<p>These hot, hasty words may push our world into a global conflict. Worse, there is an amnesia in our country as to the results of any real military conflict.<\/p>\n<p>I was speaking to a couple of young men. The potential for global conflict came up and they didn\u2019t seem concerned. I said, \u201cYou realize that you young men will fight the next war?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d one countered, \u201cI don\u2019t want to be in the military.\u201d The other one also didn\u2019t fancy serving in the military. \u201cBut you signed up for the military,\u201d I stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDid not,\u201d they both said. \u201cYou signed up for selective service when you turned 18.\u201d They were confused. \u201cBut we had to so that we could get student loans.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes,\u201d I agreed. \u201cBut you signed up with selective service so you can be drafted into the military if our country needs you to fight a war.\u201d That got their attention. Neither of them believed me, but I could see they were thinking about this and would get to the truth shortly.<\/p>\n<p>Prior to the first and second world wars, America had a small, professional military. That was exhausted in a few months and then came the push for civilians. In WWII about 16\u00a0million Americans served in the military. Most were civilian volunteers and draftees.<\/p>\n<p>What to do about this possible war unseen on the horizon? Ronald Reagan said, \u201cOf the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>For our country to stay out of war requires three interconnected actions: First, our country needs a very robust, well-trained professional military. Second, we need political and military leaders who can make tough decisions. Finally, a firm strategy for winning conflicts.<\/p>\n<p>More so, we need to know at what point we wave our flags, our bands play and we come home. We experienced the lack of this in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.<\/p>\n<p>It is what our country had in WWII and what it has lacked ever since, with the exception of the Persian Gulf War. America must have a firm grasp of the end in mind when it gets into shooting conflicts.<\/p>\n<p>If history is any guide, a larger rule is to take the politics out of military action. Hard to do, but never use a political solution for a military problem. Never.<\/p>\n<article id=\"post-399870\" class=\"hnews item post-399870 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-commentary category-guest-columns category-swickard-columns tag-children tag-education\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<article id=\"post-367194\" class=\"hnews item post-367194 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-commentary category-guest-columns category-swickard-columns tag-education tag-roundhouse\">\n<div class=\"entry-content clearfix\">\n<p><em>Michael Swickard is a former radio talk show host and has been a columnist for 30\u00a0years in a number of New Mexico newspapers. Swickard\u2019s new novel,\u00a0Hideaway Hills, is now available\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1530820103\/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_kMzexb10ADZ18\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">at\u00a0Amazon.com<\/a>.\u00a0Agree with his opinion? Disagree? We welcome your views. Learn about submitting your own commentary\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/commentary-submissions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ronald Reagan said, \u201cOf the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119613,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1192,16,4],"tags":[171],"class_list":["post-408426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commentary","category-guest-columns","category-swickard-columns","tag-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}