Another Veteran's Day's blown clean across America. Like a warm wind suddenly chilly, a stray cloud on a sun-rich afternoon. Like an army of old soldiers sailing past on a magic carpet. An almost invisible shadow shudders through frost-bleached prairie grass and up steep bluffs surrounding the bowl shaped valley. A gust frays threadbare trees. Thin grey branches warp by the thousands into blue sky framing a faded woof of carrot and ginger and dried blood colored oak leaves. As quickly as it came, it's gone, the magic carpet.
Commander-in-Chief Obama and his war counselors continue to study options for dealing with Afghanistan. Seems clear to this veteran that any decision to increase troop and resource levels along the border with Pakistan is probably only slightly less difficult that deciding not to do so. The massacre at Fort Hood – sounds like a major battle lost instead of a Muslim Major gone Postal – only complicates the already complicated issue of military readiness and willingness to fight, to die on foreign soil for often abstract patriotics: homeland security, American values, our way-of-life, our flag, our democracy.
The question that nags me about trotting out patriotism to justify waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan is, Where's the shared sacrifice? Shared service?
It's not just a rhetorical question about spreading the responsibility for defending American ideals, borders and babies, it's a question of democracy – like the cold shiver through prairie grass when the specter of America's military veterans passes overhead each November – it's a question of National willingness to send a family member, a child, a parent, a classmate or best friend into harm's way; or to collectively say enough-is-enough.
The All-Volunteer Army, which came about as a reaction to losing in Vietnam, is 35-percent smaller today that it was in 1985. This according to a report by the Army office of Demographics available on a website dedicated to well-being of the All-Volunteer force.
There are more officers now and fewer enlisted personnel. Blacks as a percentage of the population, serve in greater numbers than whites do, though the overall proportion has declined from 27-percent to 22-percent. The number of Hispanics has doubled in 20-plus-years. Combined non-whites on active duty today nears one-third of the total Army. Women make up 14-percent of the total force, up from 10-percent in 1985. Women today account for 17-percent of the Army's commissioned officers.
There's nothing wrong with the statistics. They reflect the structure of the Army the Pentagon wants. And the Pentagon certainly doesn't want to reinstitute a draft. Recruiters have worked hard to meet enlistment goals in all branches of the Armed Forces. Few in Congress support meeting defense needs through conscription. Even the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office argues against returning to a draft.
The key rationale – that volunteers make better soldiers than conscripts – is hard to quarrel with. But the argument overlooks the strain that the War on Terror places on today's military and military families, and it completely ignores the contiguous right-and-responsibility of a Nation's people, all of them, to wage war; or to make the often more difficult decision not to do so.
Minnesota writer Tom Driscoll reports on politics, economic development and life in rural America at The Small of America. He can be reached at [email protected].
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