Certainly the American Armed Forces are federal bureaucracies, and vast ones at that. And certainly they contain their fair share of incompetents, time-servers, martinets and bullies, and dirty office politics, just like any large organization. But there is something different here as well that I have sensed over the years from all the active and retired military people I have been privileged to work with. There is a prevailing sense of mission, a sense that there are causes beyond oneself that are worth fighting and even dying for, a sense of taking care of one’s people, a can-do spirit in the face of difficulties.
When there is a problem, the first instinct of the politician seems to be to find someone to blame, preferably from the other party. The first instinct of the bureaucrat is to be sure they can’t be blamed. But over and over again I have seen military leaders say explicitly. “It doesn’t matter how we got into this mess. Just tell me how we are going to recover.”
Perhaps if politicians and bureaucrats had to work on military pay scales, and risk their lives every now and then, they too would learn this spirit.
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