Memorial Day
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, 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. 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 by reducing military manpower and fiscal requirements. Illustratively,
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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