Military vs Army
Identifying the difference between military and army is not difficult because, the army is a smaller unit of military. In other words, army is a part of the military, which happens to be the armed forces available to the government of any country to defend the country from any aggression from any other country. Military is also there to help internally in cases of natural and manmade disasters. In the modern world, every country has a separate military raised with sufficient weapons provided to various wings so as to be able to defend the territories of the country. However, the word military is a lesser used word, and often we hear the word army, which causes the confusion. In this article, we shall differentiate between military and army to remove the doubts from the minds of the readers.
What is Military?
Though the primary objective of both the army as well as the military of a country is to safeguard the safety and integrity of the nation at any cost, army is a constituent unit of the larger military, also referred to as armed forces. Military of any country has three important units, the army, the navy, and the air force. As the names suggest, army is that unit which consists of infantry comprising armed soldiers. Navy is there to look after the safety of the territorial waters of the country, while air force is the unit comprising of air power of the country. There are countries which are land locked. Such countries have no need for a navy and have only army and air force.
The word Military comes from Latin militaris meaning soldiers. It is not to be confused with the army, which is only a part of the armed forces that also have other constituents apart from the army. Militaries are powerful; there is no doubt about the fact. However, they remain under political control and, in some countries, military has been used by political leaders to have social control.
Different countries have different constituents that make up a military depending upon geographical and political compulsions. Thus, US has army, navy, air force, Marine Corps, and coast guards as five different constituents of its large military. Similarly, countries having no coastal areas need not have navy and different units are raised and maintained depending upon needs and requirements.
What is Army?
The word army comes from Latin armata that means armed forces. In fact, it is customary to refer to the entire military and not just army, as armed forces in all parts of the world. Talking of armies, PLA in China is supposed to be the most powerful army of the world, consisting of more than 2.25 million soldiers. Indian army is also believed to be one of the strongest in the world.
Army can be taken as a band of trained men standing to protect a piece of land in times of war. This is why army in any country is never disbanded and is pressed into action whenever there is a need. In fact, there are reserves that are kept in a state of readiness, to be pushed into action if there is any shortfall in numbers, in an army.
What is the difference between Military and Army?
• Definition of Military and Army:
• Army is a unit of military in all countries of the world. Army refers to armed soldiers that are in a state of readiness, to defend the patch of land called country at all costs.
• Military is all armed forces of a country joined together. That means when you say military, you mean army, navy, air force, and any other military forces in the country taken together.
• Size:
• Army is just an important constituent of military.
• Military is always bigger than army.
• Connection:
• Army is a part of the military.
• Missions:
• Army focuses on ground missions.
• Military focuses on ground, air, and naval missions.
• Ranks:
• In an army, there are different ranks for the officers such as Lieutenant General, Major General, Brigadier General, Colonel, Major, etc.
• In military, since it is a collaboration of all the armed forces you can see the different ranks of different forces. There are ranks such as Lieutenant General, Major General, and Major for officers from army. Then, for officers from navy there are ranks such as Midshipman, Commander, Rear Admiral, and Admiral. For officers form air force, there are ranks such as Air Chief Marshal, Air Marshal, and Wing Commander.
Images Courtesy: President George W. Bush with military personnel and US Army via Wikicommons (Public Domain)
