But the hallmark of a cold war is also the warrior's greatest enemy no matter what the thermostat reads, tedium...Inactivity in a warrior's mind can lead to boredom, complacency, lack of attention and doubt, any of which can lead to a potentially deadly mistake...
Armed forces are trained to act and react in response to threat, or perceived threat...The price of error can be costly and disastrous...This is why the largest, and longest serving military branches employ teams which do nothing but plan for contingencies, even planning against less professional aggressors who might trigger hostility through their own lack of planning...
Such foresight and vigilance is why maintaining peace has become so costly in this age of massive and instant annihilation...Only the truly insane would risk dropping the hammer on a thermonuclear conflagration in the hope that he and his followers might be the only ones left standing on a field of desolation...
A cold war means employing standing armies and navies involved in around-the-clock training against enemies of unknown magnitude attacking from uncharted directions...Only a unified people dedicated to maintaining their way of life can absorb the cost of such vigilance in wealth and lives...
Leonard Courtney may have been the first to write, "The price of peace is eternal vigilance," but he was certainly not the first nor the last to embrace the idea...Leaders at the international, national, tribal and even familial levels have recognized its essential nature, and urged a bond in the interest of preservation of the unit...
Military analysts, together with their political counterparts, must constantly scan for potential changes in policy, both foreign and domestic, then accurately place them on a scale of potential harm or benefit, while deciding whether to nurture, contain, destroy or merely observe them for further change in the hope that their decision is best for the national interest...Meanwhile, armed forces must be kept in a state of readiness for anything that might develop...
Our generation's own Cold War produced its own heroes, villains and victims as nations vied for position to ensure that other nations knew and understood the price of escalation...Warriors undertook their assigned duties as citizen/soldiers, sometimes coming home to resume an interrupted life knowing they did what was necessary at the time, but forever wondering if they should have done more...Or less...
No matter their length of service, nor theater of operation, they sometimes carry lifelong doubts whether they did enough, or too much...In my view, they should accept that they did what was expected to the best of their abilities, and that they should expect the same of those who pick up the torch after them...
The satisfaction of maintaining peace by keeping the enemy at bay may not quite equal a different kind of gratification that can only come from looking into the eyes of a defeated enemy who knows he awakened the wrong giant...The professional warrior is prepared for either...
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