Perpetual War

According to Deuteronomy 20, any man who had built a house, planted a vineyard, or married a wife without enjoying their benefits and joys was excused from military service. While it was certainly possible for a 20-year-old Israelite to be unmarried and propertyless, it would seem that the military was largely made up of men who already had these benefits of peace. I base this on the supposition that men would be entering on an independent adulthood at 20, the same age they became eligible for military service. Also, I’m assuming that Israelite ages of marriage were comparable to other ancient civilizations; Roman girls, for instance, were considered marriageable at 12 and adults at 14, at which age men would begin to call them “domina.” Thus, Israel’s army would largely consist of men who already had some experience of the benefits of adult life in peacetime.

This has important effects on the makeup and psychology of the military. First, the men going to war had some sense of why they were fighting and what they were defending. Second, home, vineyard, and wife provided a triple anchor that kept an Israelite warrior from getting too attached to the battlefield. This was particularly important in the ancient world, when war was for some men was life, not an irritating interruption of life.

Nearly 99,000 of the total 281,000 members of the Air Force are single, and about 112,000 of the total number are under 25. (See www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/demographics/ReportSearch.asp.) What kind of incentives are we building into our military by sending twentysomethings with no life at home and nothing to lose into battle?