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A comment on Economic costs of war. Parent comment

Re:Economic costs of war by koolba on Monday August 16, 2021 @07:23PM (#28204120)
> People that spend a year as soldiers in Afghanistan can't spend that year doing something else.

The greatest asset the US has built up over the past twenty or so years fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan is a reserve of soldiers with real world military experience. I’m not saying it justifies the cost. Far from it. But it’s not a complete wash from a mid term strategic analysis.

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Re:Economic costs of war by cyber_kinetist on Monday August 16, 2021 @07:41PM (#28204275)
Given how the army was incompetent in really doing anything from looking at released documents (https://twitter.com/richardhanania/status/120416649507430400...), I think the experience in Iraq and Afghanistan would have actually deteriorated the quality and morale of the army.
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Re:Economic costs of war by kondor6c on Monday August 16, 2021 @09:05PM (#28204923)
Some of those examples are not very stellar examples, I understand that they are just samples but trying to share some of my experiences to help illustrate a better picture. If listening to locals about placing a well or a playground or a zoo, I think you'll quickly get people saying yeah closer to us and not them. You are allocated finite resources to help improve living conditions, sometimes there are compromises. Just noting that transporting fuel by helicopter should not be the gauge regarding incompetence. Many of the bases are very remote, there are different fuel types and/or routes could have been closed and the requirement to get fuel to a location or other emergencies might be a driving factor. But it does sound like something that is pretty inefficient and dangerous.

From my experience and social contacts, I don't think "incompetence" at doing anything is accurate or would I describe it as affecting morale. There are inefficiencies and incompetency with leadership or supply chains, some of this waste is part of running such a large organization like the military. One that sticks in my mind is having 60 people assigned to shake debris out of parachutes when there are only 25 hooks to hang the parachutes on, requiring US mail to be transported by US citizens, and I'm nit picking here: US Air Force intra-Base Security Police enforcing a 15 MPH speed limit...

There have been many lessons that have been learned, from these conflicts and I think a large contributing factor to the cost is rapid procurement of enhanced equipment such as individual and vehicular armor improvements; equipment that had been identified in review's as being a deficiency.

I think a positive attribute around the military is what is being viewed and cited, is lessons and critique. The Army does have strong systems in place for reviewing actions. I think it's something that I try to take a utilize in the civilian sector. I think there is waste, and certainly there could be modifications to improve efficiency, but I also think for a very large organization it does fairly well, and modernized fairly well to the challenges that were presented. However if I were joking around with some friends, I would totally would be tossing around incompetence left and right (haha)!

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Re:Economic costs of war by Johnny555 on Monday August 16, 2021 @07:29PM (#28204165)
The greatest asset the US has built up over the past twenty or so years fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan is a reserve of soldiers with real world military experience.

The average term of enlistment in the USA military is 15 years, 11 years for officers. So that experience gets lost quickly unless we keep getting embroiled in new wars.

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Re:Economic costs of war by hn8788 on Monday August 16, 2021 @07:37PM (#28204240)
There's no way the average term of enlistment is 15 years. Very few people choose to re-enlist after their first term, or are even allowed to. In 2016, there were almost 200k Marines, and they were struggling to get 10k people to re-enlist after their first 4 years[1].

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/your-marine-corps/2015...

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Re:Economic costs of war by Johnny555 on Monday August 16, 2021 @08:56PM (#28204855)
I just used the snippet returned a Google search, which said:

The average length of enlistment for U.S. military personnel is just under 15 years for all branches. The average service time for officers is a bit less, averaging about 11 years. The U.S. Air Force has an average enlistment time of 14.7 years. Oct 4, 2017

The referenced URL is:

https://classroom.synonym.com/beyonce-curls-8729.html

(yes, that "beyonce-curls" URL is the right one)

Surprisingly, it does include references, but only one of them still exists, which backs up the 11 year number for officers, but not for general enlisted:

https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2011/10/05/chapter...

The average officer in 2009 had been in the military nearly 11 years, slightly more than a year longer than the average in 1973.

The pattern among enlisted personnel is more complicated. The average length of service for enlisted personnel rose from 5.8 years in 1973 to a peak of 7.5 in 1994 and 1996, but then began drifting downward and now stands at 6.7 years.

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Re:Economic costs of war by babesh on Monday August 16, 2021 @08:23PM (#28204643)
https://youtu.be/sUndKrDbgD0

Some military pilots talking about Afghanistan

- drove people out

- airframe lifetimes consumed

- people not wanting to sign up

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Re:Economic costs of war by yunohn on Monday August 16, 2021 @07:32PM (#28204197)
You’re saying a 2-decade war murdering 100,000s of civilians, is “a great asset” and “not a wash from strategic analysis”?
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Re:Economic costs of war by handrous on Monday August 16, 2021 @08:09PM (#28204540)
> You’re saying a 2-decade war murdering 100,000s of civilians, is “a great asset” and “not a wash from strategic analysis”?

I'm not finding much of what you claim the poster is "saying", in their post.

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Re:Economic costs of war by Grakel on Monday August 16, 2021 @07:29PM (#28204162)
Sadly it would be a big problem if we went 20 years without a war, the military would be greatly deteriorated.
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Re:Economic costs of war by hn8788 on Monday August 16, 2021 @07:33PM (#28204202)
Nah, it was a wash. Senior military officials have been telling the president what needs to be done in Afghanistan since Bush was president, and they've been ignored by every administration. Afghanistan absolutely could have been "won", but politicians won't think past the start of their next election campaign.
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