On
Memorial Day, the nation does well both to remember those who have died fighting
the nation's wars and the importance of the citizen-warrior for preserving
democracy.
Perhaps
the greatest threat the nation faces is internal rather than external. In a New York Times commentary published
yesterday, retired U.S. Army Lt. General Karl Eikenberry and Stanford history
professor emeritus David M. Kennedy expressed concern about the gap developing between
Americans and their military(Americans
and Their Military, Drifting Apart, May 26, 2013). They identified three
components of the gap:
- The post-Vietnam War decision to replace the citizen-soldier
Army with an all-volunteer force substantially diminished the tie between citizens
and the military. Only 0.5% of the population now serves in the military,
compared with 12% during WWII. In 1975, 70% of the members of Congress had
military service; today, only 20% do. Conversely, many military families
view the military as the "family business," perhaps signaling the
emergence of a military caste, something that history suggests will end
poorly.
- Technology helps to insulate civilians from the
military. The military's portion of the federal budget is under 20%,
compared to 45% at the height of the Vietnam War. Technologies such as
remotely piloted drones accelerate isolating civilians from the military
and its activities.
- Expansion of the military's role from
warfighting to nation building further blurs distinctions about the
military's proper role.
Eikenberry
and Kennedy propose restoring a draft, conducted by lottery, to meet military
manpower requirements, Congress taking back from the President its Constitutionally
mandated war making powers, paying for wars with taxes instead of off-budget
special appropriations, and decreased reliance on contractors. All of these are
good changes, ones that will reduce militarism and help to preserve, if not
strengthen, democracy.
My
fellow Bowdoin College graduate, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (a few years ahead
of me, I hasten to add!), wrote the following poem, the first well known poem
for Memorial Day (or Decoration Day, as the holiday was known in the Civil War
era), which The Atlantic published in June 1882:
Decoration
Day
Sleep,
comrades, sleep and rest
On
this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where
foes no more molest,
Nor
sentry's shot alarms!
Ye
have slept on the ground before,
And
started to your feet
At
the cannon's sudden roar,
Or
the drum's redoubling beat.
But
in this camp of Death
No
sound your slumber breaks;
Here
is no fevered breath,
No
wound that bleeds and aches.
All
is repose and peace,
Untrampled
lies the sod;
The
shouts of battle cease,
It
is the Truce of God!
Rest,
comrades, rest and sleep!
The
thoughts of men shall be
As
sentinels to keep
Your
rest from danger free.
Your
silent tents of green
We
deck with fragrant flowers
Yours
has the suffering been,
The
memory shall be ours.
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