A Look Down the Slippery Slope

This paper discusses two simultaneous trends inside America's military culture - its increasing domestic role and its growing reliance upon defense contractors. First, the appropriate role of a standing military in a democratic society is an issue that has been the focus of significant debate ever since the founding of our republic. The issue becomes even more complex when the military's mission takes on a domestic tone; in other words, domestic military operations can quickly result in diminished public support. Second, recent conflicts have shown a dramatic increase in the extent to which American armed forces rely upon commercial enterprises in order to achieve military objectives. Despite that fact, there exist certain fundamental differences between uniformed military personnel and their commercially-oriented contractor counterparts; these differences are profound and involve basic issues that go to the heart of military service and the nature of the modern profession of arms. This is true despite the fact that a great many individual contractor employees are extremely patriotic, and have a deep appreciation for men and women in uniform. Together, these two independent trend lines may point to a troubling future that includes a dramatic erosion of our military culture. If that is true, America's long-term ability to project combat power may ultimately falter as well.