Single Warrior Combat

This is the first in a series of revisits to some of my previous ramblings. I hope to add and/or re-edit them as a means of updating and revisiting. I actually did a limited printing of these articles called "Uncommon Manifesto - A View From Smack Dab In The Middle". I was ranting about a different president then and a lot has changed since. The previous versions can be found on the Crooked Hook website.

www.crookedhook.com/ramblings.

Hope ya enjoy!

In this modern era of technological wonderments and increasing global conflict, the natural inclination would be - and has always been - to utilize the latest and greatest gadgets to aid us in fighting our wars. Smart bombs, precision missiles, GPS tracking, sattellite imagery - the list goes on. Certainly, it makes perfect sense to do so - after all, we devote a tremendous amount of resources to developing and outfitting the greatest military power in the world. The sad fact is that no matter how advanced our toys become, lives are still lost during combat. While we must continue to look forward into the future and continue to be innovative in our technologies and methods, we should also acknowledge past ways that had proven successful in a day and age when human lives were considered the most valuable asset. One simply has to study mankind’s history of warfare with an open minded approach in order to make the observation that single warrior combat would appear to be the most efficient form of battle.

Single warrior combat. An all out, no holds barred fight to the finish. The Victor takes all. This concept sure sounds barbaric. But is it more brutal to put forth a sole willing and capable individual into combat as opposed to sending potentially thousands of young troops into harm’s way.

In fact, we could hold a national competition for our warrior. Everyone would be eligible. Military combatants, professional atheletes, incarcerated felons, the average blue collar worker, doctors, lawyers - even Indian Chiefs would be considered. Hey, I bet we could turn a buck on this whole ordeal. An ongoing televised contest in the vein of “American Idol” would generate tremendous viewership and, an enormous amount of advertising revenue. Through this type of system we would be able to maintain a “Top Ten” group of warriors ready to act at a moment’s notice. These individuals would enjoy a celebrity stature that is above and beyond that of movie stars, rock stars or sports superstars. Even the merchandising - action figures, posters, tee Shirts, bobble-head dolls, would be extremely lucrative. Once it was time for an actual battle, a massive worldwide pay-per-view would provide further impetus for victory - again, to the victor go ALL the spoils of war. We had might as well get in on the the betting action too, before all that dough goes into the “underground economy”. Hmmm, maybe even a DVD release after the fact...

Now, I’m certainly not advocating the dismantling of our military. Absolutely not. A single warrior can’t provide the peacekeeping services that we have been supporting Europe with since the end of World War II or South Korea since the end of that war. Realistically, we need to maintain a top notch military force in order to have the ability to negotiate peace from a position of strength. But, the military would become just that - an instrument of peace by virtue of being a superior war machine. The tremedous amounts of revenues made from the commercialization of our warriors could be utilized to finance the reasearch and development of of advanced technological weapons delivery and electronic surveillance systems. Only the actual combat would fall on the shoulders of the single warrior, leaving the military free to shore up our national borders and concentrate on the ongoing War on Terrorism and other issues that could not possibly be solved in this manner.