We discuss new IDF plans to draft some soldiers for as long as eight years and others for as short as perhaps a year. Is the ideal of a “People’s Army” obsolete, like pay-phones and personal privacy?
This is a segment from The “Oslo at 25” Edition.
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As I have neither risked my life nor the life of loved ones for Israel, It would be immoral for me to tell Israeli families how they should staff the Israeli Army. I do not know what it is like to live in Israel and I have no military experience. With humility I suggest that there are aspects of the American experience that Israeli’s should consider before shifting from a ‘people’s army’ to a ,professional army’.
In the United States, and elsewhere, the professional army has keep much off the citizenry protected from the negative consequences of war. This is a mixed blessing. The professional army allows military brass to plan and effectuate strategy and policies largely without interference. It allows leaders to be more militant without suffering political consequences
The lack of consequences has oft led to a cavalier attitude by citizens, military and political leaders alike. The Vietnam War was highly popular until college draft deferments were eliminated. The Pentagon was not even held to task for equoing soldiers with faulty rifles. Poor strategies and faulty tactics were left ignored. Human rights abuses were not reported. As the numbers of middle and working class white soldiers, who were not career military, increased the much needed questions and oppositions increased.
More recently, President Bush was re-elected even after the citizens knew that the war was based on faulty intelligence, there was no strategy for successful occupation and soldiers were told to make do with inadequate protective armor. If more citizens and their families shared the risk, there is a probability that there would have been political and career ending consequences for the bungled mess. Today there is almost no discussion about the ongoing Afghanistan quagmire.
The IDF like any bureaucracy is not immune to the danger that its analyses and strategy will be corrupters by expediency, careerism, ideology, internal and external politics, and wishful thinking. There is a natural wish to hide mistakes , mismanagement, and human rights abuses. Israeli leaders are not immune from the lure of choosing to easily incorrectly choosing military solutions or choosing the incorrect military solution to problems. Without citizens in the military there would be far less accountability.