One of the most important functions of the IDF today is getting your Hesder Yeshiva student, talking with and becoming good friends with the Druze Arab, or the Secular Atheist.
A volunteer army will find the country becoming splintered and each community will create a new sector, and each sector will divide and divide until there is nothing holding the country together.
They didn't manage to revive Hebrew in Israel by letting each person and community do as they wish.
I like a lot of your ideas Moshe, but not this one. The Israeli army does not suffer from over capacity and there is a need to keep the current setup of Northern, Central, and Southern Commands, each of which has fighting units assigned to it. When one front opens up, the other units are kept in reserve should another front open up, or if it is needed to reinforce the opened front. Sure, there might be a lot of unemployed jobniks, but are you going to risk closing down fighting units because of a reduced order of battle? What about the subsequent reduction in reserve units over time, the reserve units that are the actual backbone of the fighting force?
I don't think we reached the time when we can do this 'professional' volunteer army thing. Do we not learn from the rest of the world's armies which, in general, get filled with lower-class and less educated soldiers, er, mercenaries who join for the money and/or free college degree while the 'smart' people are starting their lives three years earlier than the enlisted?
But, I also don't buy the argument that the army keeps Israelis cohesive. A nationa depending on its army to be the main common denominator is a weak nation, and that is definitely not us.
One of the most important functions of the IDF today is getting your Hesder Yeshiva student, talking with and becoming good friends with the Druze Arab, or the Secular Atheist.
ReplyDeleteA volunteer army will find the country becoming splintered and each community will create a new sector, and each sector will divide and divide until there is nothing holding the country together.
They didn't manage to revive Hebrew in Israel by letting each person and community do as they wish.
I like a lot of your ideas Moshe, but not this one. The Israeli army does not suffer from over capacity and there is a need to keep the current setup of Northern, Central, and Southern Commands, each of which has fighting units assigned to it. When one front opens up, the other units are kept in reserve should another front open up, or if it is needed to reinforce the opened front. Sure, there might be a lot of unemployed jobniks, but are you going to risk closing down fighting units because of a reduced order of battle? What about the subsequent reduction in reserve units over time, the reserve units that are the actual backbone of the fighting force?
ReplyDeleteI don't think we reached the time when we can do this 'professional' volunteer army thing. Do we not learn from the rest of the world's armies which, in general, get filled with lower-class and less educated soldiers, er, mercenaries who join for the money and/or free college degree while the 'smart' people are starting their lives three years earlier than the enlisted?
But, I also don't buy the argument that the army keeps Israelis cohesive. A nationa depending on its army to be the main common denominator is a weak nation, and that is definitely not us.