Citizens vs. Soldiers: The Growing Cultural Divide

[Wana88]

Interesting article, titled "Duties That Are Best Shared" from The Washington Post By Matthew Bogdanos
(Sunday, March 1, 2009; A17)

"Send in the Marines" has been uttered by every president since Thomas Jefferson sent a detachment of leathernecks to the shores of Tripoli in 1801. These words are likely to be uttered in the next four years -- of special interest to me as a Marine who has served multiple combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Veteran status is no guarantor of a leader's successful use of the military, of course; nor is its absence necessarily a harbinger of misuse. But in the 1970s, 74 percent of Congress had prior military service. Today: 23 percent. Barack Obama, though clearly respectful of the military, has never served in the military and has only two veterans in his Cabinet -- the fewest since Herbert Hoover. By contrast, John Kennedy, decorated for heroism in World War II, had only two Cabinet members who were not veterans.
...
The solution is an educated citizenry that understands its soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines -- understands that we are you.

Matthew Bogdanos, the author of "Thieves of Baghdad," is a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps Reserves and an assistant district attorney for New York City.

This thoughtful piece written by a Marine Colonel who has drunk deep at the well of liberty and the Constitution, highlights a disturbing -growing-- cultural divide: one group (the citizen-soldier)espousing the importance of "honor, sacrifice and country;" while the other -much larger segment- advocates immediate gratification, narcissistic self indulgence and political correctness (Soviet era lexicon) all in the name of "freedom." The latter group not forced to make any sacrifices as once famously advocated by JFK and Jefferson, and blinded by short sighted indulgences, doesn't recognize the grave peril we face. Our enemies watch in wonderment and rejoice: we are our own worst enemies thanks to a seemingly blind majority. Our most famous Citizen-Soldier and Founding Father George Washington must be turning in his grave.