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Commencement address Essay Miltary intervention in a Lesser Deveoped Country as defined by this writer is a deliberate entry by an armed regime, into a country with a low standard of living, and a undeveloped work base. Fifteen years ago the United States intervened into a lesser developed country and deployed their troops into the Gulf War. Back then General Schwarkopf was a national idol and boasted to the media along with the masses, We could have traded equipment with the Iraqis and still won. The troops returned from the Gulf to a heroes welcome, but times have changed. Today, as Journalists Don M. Snider, and Gayle L. Watkins puts it, there are many indications that the result is an Army quite unlike the victor of the Gulf War battles. It is instead an Army of decreasing effectiveness, one which suffers from a weakening relationship with the American public and, of more concern, with its own members. Â   Once again quoting both journalists, The Army that won the battles of the Gulf War in 1991 was on of the most professional ever fielded by America. So what are todays unique features of New Military Professionalism? To answer this question we have to back fourteen years, and as a case study, look at Africa. To quote the Civil-Military Relations in Post-independent Africa: South African Defence Review No3, Huntington gives considerable attention to the question of how civilian supremacy over armed forces might be assured. He begins by making a conceptual distinction between what he calls objective and subjective control. In the former, the officer corps is disciplined by its own professionalism, the most important constituent involving service to the community. Â   He concludes, that the more professional an army, the less of a threat it would pose this would coincide with the ideology of such countries as the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, the USA etc. So what are the unique features of New Military Professionalism? The answer is that the government should render the military dull, and unbiased. A highly trained, and mentally conditioned soldier will carry out any order his government dictates. To once again quote the Civil-Military Relations in Post-independent Africa: South African Defence Review No 3: *Â   break up the officer corps into competing groups *Â   establish political armies and special military units *Â   infiltrate the armed services with parallel political chains of command*Â   and by indoctrination, covert surveillance and close party supervision. This representation substantiates that military regiments will remain loyal to government command. The next inquiry that one might pose, Are military regimes successful in the political arena, and what are their objectives? You dont have to be a brain surgeon to realize that in lesser developed countries military regimes with out a doubt come out on top. In most third world countries a soldiers loyalty is bought and paid for, through money, privileges, and perks. In some countries high ranking soldiers are seduced into becoming a part of elites organizations. You must keep in mind that the majority of these recruits have never ever seen the other side of life- the priviledged side. Its not surprising that these impressionable few can be manipulated into blind allegiance to the ruling class. One can only hope that one day all this talk about military intervention will be a thing of the past. Lets contemplate on this notion. Is military intervention and war in a global sense on the decline? According to Gregg Easterbrook, from The New Republic, published May 30, 2005 pp. 18-21, it is. Easterbrook says that in the past fifteen years war has been on the down side. According to his findings the media has been manipulating us with horrific scenes of bombing and bloodshed. Due largely to the fact that today we now have 24 hour cable news channels, along with the world wide internet. People today even have cameras built into their phones. In his discourse he conveys that being killed because of war is the lowest its ever been. According to the statistics, The University of Maryland studies, find the number of wars and armed conflicts worldwide peaked in 1991 at 51, which may represent the most wars happening simultaneously at any point in history. Â   This would allude to the fact that war in a universal sense is half as it was fifteen years ago. The media has been filling our heads with falsities, the truth of the matter is that the majority of the population would rather watch a car bomb going off in some third world country as apposed to watching a report on flowers at our local botanical garden. Its sad but true, its the same mindset as when youre on the freeway and theres a car wreck: everyone slows down to see if someones been killed- its in our nature. Another great statistic is that worldwide military spending is lowering as well. The Center for Defence Information, a nonpartisan Washington research organization, states: in current dollars, annual global military spending peaked in 1985, at $1. 3 trillion, and has been falling since, to slightly over $1 trillion in 2004. Â   This magnificent reality once again has not been brought to light by news reports. These news stations would have you believe that the world is on the verge of mass destruction. There are only a few nations that are still increasing their military spending, one that poses no surprise is the United States; America accounts for 44 percent of global military spending. With the U. S. reshuffling funds to put towards combating terrorist groups, and peace keeping endeavors, they will wind up spending more on guns and miitary recruits than the rest of the world combined. The exact opposite holds true for many of the poorer countries, which is great, because the less money that goes towards guns can go into feeding starving bellies. So why is war becoming an archaic ideology? The first factor comes to no suprise, without a doubt its the end of the cold war. Due to this wonderful fact, tensions in an international manner have loosened, along with U. S. and Soviet support of proxy armies in lesser developed countries. There is also evidence that international arms dealings are slowly becoming a thing of the past. This reality could possibly result in lesser developed countries wanting peace, instead of war. Unfortunately you have to take the good with the bad. In an article entitiled The Syrian Dilemma, the writer alludes to the notion that if Syria is forced to leave Lebanon there could be a chance of Civil War; another Iraq, if you will. To quote the writer, The Baathist order has lost all legitimacy, sunk as it is in the most cancerous corruption and abuse of law and human right. To sum things up, military intervention, political objectives, lesser developed countries, military professionalism, and the decline of war is a perplexed concept, in other words, its not an exact science. Even President George Bush is vague on this subject. In a 2002 speech he gave to the graduating class at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, he summarized, We will extend the peace by encouraging free and open societies on every continent. Â   To wind things up, I guess all we can do is stick our fingers in the dike and pray. References Bush, George W. Commencement address. U. S. Military Academy. West Point, NY. June 2002 Civil-Military Relations in Post-independent Africa: South African Defence Review No3 from World Wide Web: http://www. iss. co. za/Pubs/ASR/SADR3/Baynham. html Easterbrook, Gregg (2003). The End of War? from The New Republic, May 30, 2003 pp. 18-21 Hirst, David (2005). The Syrian Dilemma. from The Nation, May 2, 2005 pp. 20-24 Snider, Don M. , Watkins, Gayle L (2002) The Future of Army Professionalism: A need For Renewal and Redefination. Journal excerpt, Vol. 30, 2000 The Center for Defence (2004) The University of Maryland (2004)