Supporting Our Indispensable Warriors

In 522 B.C., the Persian King Darius I (550—486 B.C.),[1] commonly known as ‘Darius the Great,’ began his reign over the vast Persian Empire. He began conscripting mostly farmers to serve in his conquering armies to fulfill his intention to rule the world. He was also known as the 3rd ‘King of Kings’ of the Achaemenid Empire, mainly because he ruled over many conquered vassal kingdoms.   

Darius conscripted such great numbers that once kingdoms were confronted by his standing armies, in most cases, surrender was voluntary. With the opposing army facing certain total annihilation, no battle was necessary. Once given, Darius’ demand for a token of ‘earth and water’  meant submission to his reign and oversight. For 32 years, Darius never lost a battle by virtue of the size and reputation for the brutality of his armies. That is until Darius sought to conquer the Greek city-state of Athens. In 490 B.C., the Athenians, facing total annihilation by the undefeated Persian armies, chose to fight and die rather than submit. The Athenians’ use of military strategy and the element of surprise would inflict upon Darius the first (and last) defeat of Darius’ reign at the Battle of Marathon.

Although Darius expired before he could return to exact his revenge on the Athenians, his son, Persian King Xerxes I (519—465 B.C.),[2] also known as ‘Xerxes the Great’ and the 4th  ‘King of Kings,’ sought to avenge his father’s defeat by personally leading a massive invasion of Greece in 480 B.C., which, also ended in Xerxes’ own defeat at the Battle of Salamis.

Borrowing the 3-strike baseball metaphor, Persian King Darius III (380—330 B.C.),[3] was the last of the Persian kings, who was confronted by Macedonian Greek King Alexander II (390—368 B.C.),[4] also known as ‘Alexander the Great’. In 331 B.C., in the 2nd and final battle between these two kings, Alexander managed the complete conquest of the Persian Empire.

In brief, these three examples of Persian hubris demonstrate the refusal of men in power to study history and those predecessors who each sought to rule the world. Even the Greeks, who attempted to civilize the world as a whole of the time, failed to fully civilize the growing Roman beast. After initially cherishing and adopting everything Greek, the Romans ignored the lessons of civilized behavior when their ultra-efficient armies finally conquered the less militant democracy-inspired Greeks. Ever since then, many nations have sought to increase their territory by following Darius’ and Xerxes’ examples. The latest example would occur in February 2022.

Russian President Vladimir Putin conscripted more than 150,000 Russians to participate in his 2nd invasion of Ukraine in 2022.[5] Perhaps inspired by his Persian counterparts, Putin succeeded in his 1st invasion of Ukraine in 2014 to annex Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. In less than a month, Putin had occupied and then annexed Crimea, with the only response from the United States and the European Union being economic sanctions against Russia. Like Darius, before invading Athens, Putin had conquered the Crimean Peninsula - without any battle being fought.

Unfortunately, President Putin would learn what 100,000 years of evolution has taught some of us: not all men are well-suited to be warriors. It takes unique qualities and skills to produce an effective warrior. One of the qualities associated with the warrior personality is an enhanced sense of patriotism and loyalty, which makes the warrior unyielding in completing his mission.

As the only nation specifically formed to be — of the people, by the people, and for the people, America is now pledged to use volunteers rather than conscription to assemble its armies. Once America won its independence from England, it employed volunteers for all its conflicts except for limited conscriptions in the Revolutionary War, Civil War, and World Wars I and II.  Beginning in 1950, as America entered the Korean War, it began conscripting soldiers like every other nation that maintained a military force.

On July 1, 1973, it was reversed, returning the American military to its original form — an all-volunteer force of warriors. Once our military again became an all-volunteer force, those who instinctively are drawn to warriors made it far superior to any other nation’s military force.

As American citizens, we individually and collectively revere and appreciate those of us who choose the military as their own mission. But something has occurred in the last decade. Thanks to an explosion in media choices and a 24-hour news cycle, we, as a country, have forgotten the simple truth of civilized behavior by its citizens. We now have legions of well-meaning citizens whose mission is to assist our veterans who have been damaged, either physically or emotionally, by the hell that is war. We could have predicted this once our warriors’ plight was incessantly repeated during each commercial break on TV screens. And that is the problem!

Our volunteer warriors are paramount to our federal government’s ability to accomplish its first and foremost mission — the safety and security of American citizens. They protect our lives and livelihoods from foreign and domestic enemies. Our federal government continues to provide them with the best weapons of war so that America has the military strength to discourage aggression.

Unfortunately, the most essential component of our military machine has been overlooked. Our finest patriots — those warriors who have sacrificed for their country — have been shuffled aside by our federal government, leaving it to our citizens to implement ways to care for those who left parts of themselves on the battlefield.

As the employers of our representative lawmakers, we citizens must forcefully, if necessary, lobby lawmakers interested in keeping their jobs to make our active duty warriors and veterans of combat the federal government’s most preeminent priority. The federal government is the only vehicle capable of providing healthcare, homes, and services for injured or retired combat veterans and their precious families — not private citizens. American citizens will always try to do their best to help, but most are consumed by the task of caring for their individual families. If we revere our warriors, we must demand our government step up and do right by them — our veterans stepped up for our government to protect our nation. After all, we, the taxpayers, are the ones who will foot the bill.

The federal government is responsible for ensuring the well-being of veterans and their families and for helping them find the best-suited employment. Police, security, and politics are obvious choices, but there are many others based on a warrior’s individual experiences and passions. Our government trained our warrior class to kill. It must now assume the responsibility of retraining them for life after war.

Since we taxpayers pay for everything our representatives authorize anyway, we might as well demand our government stand by our warriors.

 
[1] See Fig. 1 above, a scanned detail of a drawing of Darius’ rock relief at Behistun, by Eugène Flandin (1840). CC

[2] See Fig. 2 above, depiction of King Xerxes I, killing Spartan King Leonidas at the Battle of Thermopylae. CC

[3] See Fig. 3 above, depicts Darius III in, a Roman floor mosaic circa 100 B.C. CC.

[4] See Fig. 4 above, Darius III, no match for Alexander’s military genius, is depicted in this fateful battle of empires— Painting by 17th-century artist Charles Le Brun.CC.

[5] On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in the largest conflict in Europe since WWII, caused hundreds of thousands of military casualties and tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilian casualties.