There hasn't been an existential threat to the United States since the Civil War, and that one was self-inflicted. Obviously we need to maintain a military but 99% of what the current military does is either for economic goals or hollow national pride.
Aaron Sorkin unintentionally created some phenomenal performance art with the closing of that movie and various educated people seeing Jack Nicholson's character as some sort of hard defender of freedom.
Why do you think that’s relevant to the point?
Regarding the larger relationship.. bro, it's not the 1960s. Nobody is even trying to put nukes in Cuba and we could have easily established normal relations at any point in the last 50 years. The only reason that they are "enemies" is because we can't let go of a grudge going on 75 years that is completely irrelevant in today's world.
> It's relevant to the macho point of Jack Nicholson's character talking a bunch of shit about how he defends us. The Guantanamo base is irrelevant
You think a naval base on Cuba is “irrelevant” because it’s on the south side of the island and not the north side?
Is Cuba a military threat today? No. But that’s because we have had a navel base there for more than a century, and the Soviet Union is long gone.
The scene between Colonel Jessup, Lt Jg Kaffee, and Lance Corporal Dawson and PFC Downey is about the nature of contradictory duties.
Everyone in that scene has a sworn duty to the United States as active duty military.
However, their duties sometimes conflict with each other (Jessup and Kaffee), and are even sometimes self-conflicting (Dawson and Downey).
Bad doesn't always come with a sticker labeling itself, and there's trauma inflicted even in peacetime in the maintenance of military strength (in broken bodies, training deaths, and emotional trauma).
To hold ones nose and pretend there isn't constant violence, even absent declared war, being perpetrated to militarily protect the US and Europe is to be ignorant, willfully or otherwise, of the foundation peace is built on.
Jessup is a tale of the distinction between the reality of war and the higher ideals and laws of war.
Jessup is missing the forest for the trees far more than I ever could because it's not my job. He's getting kids killed for a bullshit assignment while being a Colonel.
How do you think an Afghanistan or Iraq veteran would regard the Cuba assignment?
And since Jessup seems to have been base commander for a while already, likely less than that.
The goal of the military (as a whole) is to make people substitutable per their rank and MOS.
Allowing good order and discipline to break down (as an officer, NCO, or enlisted) just because of current post is anathema to that.
The US has legitimate security interests in Cuba.
For Nukes thats just a given nowadays, humans have a remarkable ability to adapt to constant threats. Not in the sense of being able to do something against it but to know it exists and not be terrified every single day. So many things can threaten human life that exist around us and yet we do not get scared after some time anymore atleast not constantly. Look at people living in Australia the entire ecosystem is basically a giant threat to anyone living there. Look at people living in earth prone regions of the world. People adapt and keep on living their lives. This is a fundamental human skill.
True! This is precisely what really annoys me about humans, because it makes humans not care about many things, and it's a skill I struggle with, which causes constant anger and helplessness on my side of things. But I guess it's what allows people to have hope and being whimsical, happy and whatnot.
No, of course not. It's a threat to people within 15 miles of the explosion plus people who are outdoors and turn to look at the bright light in the sky.
And there's never been enough nukes to kill all human life. That statement is based on a despicable calculation in which it is assumed that people would assemble packed shoulder-to-shoulder in circles of just the right size and there are no structures or land masses to deflect the blast and no clouds or fog to absorb the intense light.