Generational Psychologies

[Chris]

The "endless wars" have had very little effect on your average American. These are imperial wars fought far from home and by a volunteer army. Aside from their despicable hypocrisy that is one reason why the anti-war movement proved to be such a joke.

Max Boot calls those imperial wars small wars in his The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power. Goes back to the Barbary Wars. We've always been fighting those wars.

[Mister D]

Max Boot calls those imperial wars small wars in his The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power. Goes back to the Barbary Wars. We've always been fighting those wars.

Britain too and in very similar circumstances. The Victorian army was a small, professional force fighting wars in places most Britons would never see and couldn't care less about.

[Mister D]

I think I have heard the term "small wars" before.

[Chris]

I think I have heard the term "small wars" before.

There's a Small Wars Journal and a Small Wars Manual and it seems to be used in foreign policy talk.

[Mister D]

In fact, I think the US would probably have won the Vietnam War had she been able to satisfy her manpower needs without a draft.

[Mister D]

There's a Small Wars Journal and a Small Wars Manual and it seems to be used in foreign policy talk.

I'm not sure where I heard it. I may have head about the book at some point. Now that I think about it it does sound familiar but i have never read it.

[Peter1469]

There's a Small Wars Journal and a Small Wars Manual and it seems to be used in foreign policy talk.

Small Wars Journal

It is probably above what most here can handle- not silly trash.

A couple of us here use it.

[Peter1469]

In fact, I think the US would probably have won the Vietnam War had she been able to satisfy her manpower needs without a draft.

We would have won the war had we fought it. Bomb the crap out of the North, then invade it and kill all opposition. The NVA was defeated. They only won because we pulled out.

[IMPress Polly]

Chloe wrote:
I’d be curious how this ends up with kids now, especially considering all people born between 2001 to today have only known the country to be in an endless war on “terror”.

If the perspective I advanced in the OP holds true, then the new generation will turn out to be a more conservative one. By "conservative" here I mean as in to say less idealistic, less politically inclined, and more survival-oriented. Of course, each generation has its own distinctions: being essentially survival-oriented appears to mean something different for today's younger people than it might have a generation or two or three ago. Where say in the 1950s it typically meant pursuing a safe, stable union job, being as those safe, stable union jobs no longer exist today, it now instead means being hyper-competitive and entrepeneurial. The specifics of course will be interesting to see as they begin to reach adulthood.

The impact of war was more strongly felt in the 2000s than today, being as we withdrew more than 90% of our troops from the fields of battle over the course of the Obama tenure, but at the same time, the Recession hit, which really impacted more people directly. But looking ahead today, with (more or less) stable economic conditions and concerns about war so far removed from the average American's list of concerns, it's no wonder the surveys of younger people today indicate a growing optimism about the future. That is the logical trajectory of a more conservative generation: growing up in harsh times and maturing into better conditions.

[Captdon]

How many of those people have actually been part of it?

Few in comparison to other wars. They keep rotating the same people over and over.