Sayanora, Total Army

The concept of the Total Army was developed and put into place after the debacle in Vietnam for a variety of reasons. This concept, in which reserve and national guard units comprised an integral and significant part of overall forces, was put in place, in part, so that it would be unavoidable to deploy “citizen soldiers” in major conflicts. This, in turn, would help to insure that such military action had broad public support. In short, the Total Army concept served as a deterrent to military adventurism.

The neo-con regime which came to power in 2001 is fueled by perpetual war, and the Total Army concept is an obstacle to the foreign adventurism on which the neo-cons pin their hopes. The neo-cons determined that they could undermine the reserve and national guard components of the army through extended overseas deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan before those conflicts became unpopular. By the time popularity for these military actions waned, the reserve and guard components would be “broken”, and this would pave the way for a reorganization of the army with greater reliance on professional active duty personnel. Back up functions could be performed by mercenaries, if need be, and the “citizen soldier” could be dispensed with. This would leave an army much less susceptible to political pressure and more readily deployable at the whim of the executive.