One of the many things that makes the American military the most powerful in the world, other than the $682,000,000,000 that is spent on it each year, which is more than the next 14 nations combined, is the fact that we have a voluntary military force. Many other countries also do these days, but it would seem that the United States has a pretty solid track record of putting its military to use on a regular basis to keep it sharp. Between constant use and training and an enormous budget it’s pretty safe to say that if it were necessary for the United States to use the full force of its military might in a conflict or war that it would presumably be a fairly one sided affair. That’s assuming that the next 14 countries in the highest military spending list don’t miraculously come together to invade the States.

The other day at the gym I was talking to some random guy in the steam room about the latest chaos in the world taking place in the Ukraine. I didn’t volunteer the fact that I was a veteran right away as we were just talking about a different situation, but we started talking about a scenario in which some able country were to invade America. He commented that if this were to ever happen he would try to enlist in the Army even though he wasn’t the most nimble of body or fleet of foot, and then he said he’d have to count on young men like me to join the military and fight the good fight. I think I surprised him with my response. I said, “In the highly unlikely scenario that America is invaded by a large scale conventional military then hell no I wouldn’t join the Army again. I would channel my inner Patrick Swayze and go Red Dawn style,” which was intended as a joke but was clearly not appreciated.

It was just a casual conversation between two partially clothed guys hanging out in a steam room talking about how to solve world problems, but it led me to thinking about what would happen if there was a large scale war in America at some point and what I would do. The more I thought about it the more adamant I became that I would not rejoin the military. Looking at some of the conflicts in recent history, the Taliban insurgency outlasted the Russian Army. A Somalian militia insurgency outlasted the most elite American Forces, Iraqi insurgents have outlasted American forces in Iraq, and the Taliban in Afghanistan is about to outlast another superpower in their home land of Afghanistan. The face of modern war seems to be changing. It is no longer conventional Armies facing off against each other until one side honorably surrenders.

Now, people are fighting because of ideologies. Ideologies that don’t necessarily go away with military defeat. They may go underground for a period of time, but as long as there is one individual who still believes in their views, then it will make a comeback when it is good and ready. Armies can be defeated, but ideas will never die. And when you have a group of people who live and die by an ideology then they will outlast any Army. Look at the US in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US Military is far superior but the enemies will can’t be broken. They don’t care if they die fighting because they’ll replace them, but how many American’s must die before our mission there is no longer worth it? How many soldiers had to die in Iraq before being there was no longer worth it? Unfortunately the people charged with answering that question don’t know either because they lead from the rear.

I guess if you are looking for a point to this article, the best one I can come up with is if America is attacked by a conventional military you will most likely find me armed to the teeth in a ditch asking myself, “What would Patrick Swayze do?”