What I find fascinating about this is that so much of it is really not new. We're seeing the same sort of pressures on the military that we saw in the late 1800s and through about 1928 or so, although on a larger overall scale and with 'instant' coverage. Rhetoric aside, the American political body (and a fair percentage of the public) has always seen the military as a disposable asset. It's a fact of life in this country, and has been since the beginning. As a historian, Bacevich should understand this. Up until recently, the bulk of popular adoration was saved for the state volunteer or the wartime volunteer. It's an interesting study on its own.