Alcohol policies for military personnel

¶ … Prohibited Consumption of Alcohol at Camp Bonsteel in Kosovo is neither necessary for camp operations nor beneficial to the morale of enlisted personnel. The current prohibited status of alcohol on the base is ineffective in terms of compliance and is associated many of the same problems and consequences that should have provided lessons about the prospect of alcohol prohibition from the Prohibition era in the United States in between 1920 and 1933.

General Order 1 is widely ignored and is substantially impossible to police efficiently. Instead of eliminating alcohol consumption among enlisted personnel, General Order 1 merely forces them to fulfill their desire for alcohol off the base, invariably increasing rather than decreasing the range and potential seriousness of problems associated with drinking. While the stated purpose of General Order 1 is perfectly valid, the actual impact of the restriction is more likely to undermine rather than further continual readiness, force protection capabilities, security, health, and welfare of U.S. forces. Similarly, instead of enhancing U.S. relations in the region in a more productive and sanctioned manner, the restriction imposed against alcohol consumption on base actually eliminates potentially positive opportunities to further its stated purpose in that regard in at least two different ways.

It is therefore respectfully suggested that opening a bar & grill on camp grounds would further the stated purpose of General Order 1, benefit enlisted personnel, Camp Bonsteel, and also contribute more positively to relations between the U.S. military and the local populace than prohibition of alcohol on the base.

Argument:

The National Prohibition Act (or "Volstead Act") introduced by the 18th Amendment to the Constitution outlawed alcohol consumption throughout the U.S. from 1920 until it was repealed by the 21st Amendment in 1933 (Friedman, 2005). In addition to being an abject failure at eliminating alcohol consumption, it created such a demand for black market liquor that it financed the astronomic growth of criminal syndicates to levels of strength and public influence that were far more damaging to society than even the worst consequences associated with alcohol consumption (Dershowitz, 2002; Taylor, 2002).

Within Camp Bonsteel, General Order 1 has been largely ignored in much the same manner as Prohibition-era laws under the Volstead Act. Whereas political officials and police administrators provided tacit approval for Prohibition-era violations in the 1920s primarily motivated by financial greed, superior officers at Camp Bonsteel routinely ignore violations of General Order 1 mainly because they understand the adverse effect that its strict enforcement would have on morale. Generally, superior officers maintain the necessary veil of ignorance with respect to violations and enforce it only reluctantly when specific conduct and circumstances pierces that deliberate veil.

Invariably, this dynamic undermines the essential respect for the integrity of command that is the backbone of the military hierarchy because it suggests that certain orders may be less valid than others. In fact, it is fundamentally impossible for the awareness of deliberate ignorance on the part of superior officers not to result in some degree of psychological erosion of the general respect for orders (Aronson, Wilson, & Akert, 2003; Myers & Spencer, 2004).

Moreover, the official prohibition of alcohol in Camp Bonsteel undermines its purpose of ensuring the security, health, and welfare of enlisted personnel. It exposes them to the environment of illicit alcohol procurement and consumption outside the base and in circumstances more likely to precipitate threats to their safety and potential adverse interactions with local civilians than permitting responsible alcohol consumption in camp. Likewise, whereas another purpose of General Order 1 is to enhance U.S. relations in the region, it prohibits at least one useful mechanism for achieving that objective. Specifically, employing local civilians has long been known by sociologists to be beneficial to in terms of enhancing relations between foreign military forces and civilian populations in the local region (Henslin, 2002; Macionis, 2003). In that regard, opening a bar & grill on the ground of Camp Bonsteel would maximize this principle and allow local civilians employed by the venture to interact with U.S. military personnel in a much more positive context than their exposure to military patrols and other military operations.