Brutus,
I'm glad you posted! I am in a very similar position.
Although I am out of the NG, I would like to do my last 4 years someday and get my retirement. If and WHEN I go back in and what state I enlist with will depend on whether I choose NH or WY and what transpires in the way of our nation's foreign policy in the next decade.
In the meantime, I am working overseas as a high risk security specialist. I am an independent contractor, and although I work almost exclusively for government clients, I would prefer to get my paycheck from a private client, (as opposed to government money confiscated from U.S. taxpayers). However, it is very hard to do that when the Federal Government has a partial or almost complete monopoly on the security industry, and what little private competition is allowed is also heavily regulated.
I chose to leave the ARNG for a while and pursue a career in the private sector because it gave me the flexibility to choose my own assignments, participate in the struggle against the Global Jihadists in a purely defensive role and because it allows me to be at home with my family far more than the military ever would allow me to be.
As libertarians, we ALL struggle with the internal contradictions between our ideology and our lives. Thomas Jefferson, like many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, wrestled with his concince over the fact that he owned slaves. George Washington got the experience he needed to lead the War of Independence by serving as an officer in a militia under an imperial army which he later would meet on the field of battle. The founding fathers accepted aid from another imperial power which they themselves, as British subjects, had very recently fought against. Yet they decided that it was worth it to accept France's money and military aid in the hope that it would help bring about their own independence and inspire the French to have a revolution of their own.
I wish that I could say that the struggle for freedom was always fought and won only by those who were pure, unwavering and uncompromising in their principles. But that would just be historical revisionism. Freedom is won by those men and women who see contradictions, including the contradictions in their own lives, and decide to just press on towards liberty while trying to sort themselves out as best they can, little by little.
Some of the best libertarian minds in the last two centuries have been professors at government subsidized universities. Should they have abandoned their vocations as philosophers and economists simply because we believe that there should be a separation of education and state? Some libertarians might say, "Yes", but I would be very reluctant to say that.
As a veteran who is even considering participating in FSW, I would guess that the reason you want to stay in the military is because you have a calling to put yourself between innocent people and danger. It is a perfectly honorable thing to be a sheepdog against the wolves of this world. The problem is just that the government has a virtual monopoly over the defense industry, and that puts people like you and me in a dilemma. But I look forward to the day, even if it's not in our lifetime, when guys who are called to our vocation have the freedom to pursue their calling without having to go to a recruiter and wonder what on earth they might be signing up for.
