QotD: The purpose of the military

The Army is complete and utter totalitarianism. When you enter, you're stripped of all individuality, then built back up into a proper, orders-taking, unquestioning drone. Dissent is punished. At the onset of your career, all facets of your life are dictated to you. Whatever the state orders of you — even if it orders you to your death — you're trained to comply willingly and with vigor, and to never question the validity or morality of the order. [. . .]

I'm not an anti-military libertarian. I think it's necessary, and I think there are times when it's necessary that we use it. When used properly — to kill people and destroy infrastructure — it's marvelously good at what it does (it's not so good at building liberal societies from sand, rubble, and ethnic strife, but that's another discussion). But that is what the military is for. It's for destroying things, including large quantities of life. The values Wright so admires — and the procedures the military uses to instill those values — are emphasized because time and experience has shown that those are the values most conducive to the military's mission. Which — at risk of repeating myself — is killing people and destroying their countries.

Radley Balko, "We're All in the Army Now", Hit and Run, 2007-04-05