The military is an absolutely essential institution, but for the sake of the civilians and the soldiers, we shouldn't forget its function: Kill people and destr

The military is an absolutely essential institution, but for the sake of the civilians and the soldiers, we shouldn't forget its function: Kill people and destroy their creations. I saw a recruiting commercial for the U.S. military showing an aircraft carrier and calling it a 'global force for good'. That misleads recruits: It's a global force of death and destruction, and that will be your job if you sign up. We don't like to think that, and we can't let that result in rejecting all use of the military - which is just as irresponsible - but we must face the reality of a very serious subject so we can think seriously about it. When we imagine that the military is something else, especially something glorious, not only do we risk the worst evil of humanity, war, but we also harm the soldiers (and sailors): War is very damaging to them, and not just the dead and the physically wounded, but causing and experiencing death and destruction results in great psychological harm. Humans are not cut out to do it: IIRC the details, on D-Day in WWII, half the soldiers didn't fire their weapons when they should have. After every war, you can read that people 'were not the same' when they returned; many are damaged. Suicides are (or recently were) very high among U.S. soldiers, and the current wars are relatively very low risk for them. I've read interviews with elite special forces soldiers who talk about how hard it is, psychologically, to kill. Another consequence is that we put soldiers in positions to fail: We send them to wars that they cannot win, usually because we ignore the essential requirement of a stable political outcome - Afghanistan and Iraq are only the two most recent examples. Many in the U.S. like to imagine an invincible force, a panacea for international problems, but just a brief glance at history shows otherwise: since WWII, there has been one clear victory (Gulf War), two endless stalemates (Korea, Afghanistan), one ongoing quagmire of mostly negative results (Iraq), and one loss (Vietnam). We also ask soldiers to do jobs they are not trained for, such as policing: Police are there to bring and maintain peace and public order; soldiers are trained to do the opposite, kill and destroy. When we have a clear idea of a military's function, we can align outcomes with our values, minimize the use of soldiers precious lives and health, and put them in a position to succeed. To ignore the reality of the military's function, of killing people and destroying their civilization, is immoral IMO.