Something I think about a lot, not only in the aftermath of the shocking murders by a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, is the hidden cost of not having a military draft in America. I know most economists will tell you that our current system is more efficient, that it makes more sense militarily. But perhaps there is not only human value but financial value in not allowing most of the burdens of war to be absorbed by a warrior class with the rest outsourced to corporate security firms. The draft was used initially merely to call young men to war, but it eventually was becoming something of a threshold that might have kept politicians from going to needless wars because the fallout and resistance would be too great. I know, I know: That’s no way to run a war, and maybe that’s the point.

I would think that advances in robotics and drones and such will greatly reduce our need  for ground troops, and that’s a good thing. But, of course, that technology will result in other costs of war being even further hidden.