john t reed's thoughts on war and the military:
http://www.johntreed.com/military.html
Q: Do people glorify war?
My guess at the moment is that the answer to that question depends on what you mean by "glorify".
Q: What does it mean to "glorify" war?
Q: Why do people glorify war?
A: My initial guess is that war-making has been an evolutionarily-successful behavior, and that since it is an extremely risky activity, and since each individual person has an incentive to back off and let his buddies take the risks, praising soldiers is an evolved behavior (maybe only socially-evolved, maybe genetically-evolved) that encourages people to do things that otherwise they would have little incentive to do.
- it seems to me at the moment (istmatm) that you need to know what you'll be up against way before you actually start to fight; you need to know what the other side is preparing before and while you're preparing your own plan. gathering accurate information on your opponent's condition and plans is half the battle.
ex1: rock-paper-scissors - if there was a way to figure out what the other side was going to choose that would be the way to win.
ex2: some strategy games have a "fog of war" in which you can't see everything going on in the world; you need to have units present in an area to see what's going on there (ex of fog of war: starcraft; ex of no fog of war: chess and risk). a huge part of the fight then becomes gaining accurate information on what the other guy's situation is.
- istmatm that things are always changing, and groups can get in trouble if they stay the same while other things change.
ex1: my understanding is that the french got steamrolled at the beginning of WW2 because they were expecting it to be like WW1
ex2:
Articles:
- John T. Reed's article on elite-but-not-really military units is the most damning critique that i've ever read on the subject, and he provides very compelling reasons for the claims he makes:http://www.johntreed.com/ranger.html I can attest, though, that these units can attract first-rate individuals.
Books:
- Where Men Win Glory (skimmed it) - seems to have lots of info on pat tillman's experience in the rangers (wasn't a good one even before he was killed by friendly fire)
- Victory Point (read the website) - lots of info on operation red wings / fighting in afghanistan. its big thing is providing compelling arguments that "lone survivor" was not an accurate account of what happened. for example, those SEALs were not fighting off hundreds of guys; it was probably ~10-14. also, the helicopter that was sent in to rescue them was probably shot down by a heat-seeking anti-aircraft missile, not an RPG. most memorable: afghan math - take any reports of enemy combatants and divide by 10 to get the real number (100 fighters = 10 fighters).
- War by Junger - i got the impression he was trying to write another hit book (Junger also wrote "the perfect storm"). it does seem to give a good idea of what it's like at the tip of the spear in afghanistan. the most memorable thing about this book was how small it made the war seem; pretty much all the fighting is being done by a couple hundred guys at any one time. something like 80% of the bombs being dropped are being dropped in a single valley. and this book takes place just a couple hundred meters from where "victory point" takes place and where "lone survivor" takes place. a lot of the enemy fighters are from outside afghanistan, and there aren't very many of them. also, everyone at the tip has volunteered to go there; you don't just end up there by chance.