What is [this]thing, this sense of duty? What tugs at a person until he or she says "Send me"? Why, in an age when so many have acted only in pursuit of the narrowest self-interest, have the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines of this generation volunteered all that they have on behalf of others? Why have they been willing to bear the heaviest burden?
Whatever it is, they felt some tug; they answered a call; they said "I'll go." That is why they are the best of America, and that is what separates them from those of us who have not served in uniform -- their extraordinary willingness to risk their lives for people they never met.
Whatever it is, they felt some tug; they answered a call; they said "I'll go." That is why they are the best of America, and that is what separates them from those of us who have not served in uniform -- their extraordinary willingness to risk their lives for people they never met.
The Editor at at Midknight Review has an answer for the questions Obama asks and for which he has no answer. What do you think?
Obama's questioning fails to register the difference between the National Fighting Force of the Past and that of the most recent war efforts, namely The Gulf War, Samolia, Grenada, Afghistan and Iraq. The difference is profound. All our wars have been fought by those who were drafted to its fields except for the most recent Actions just cited. These were fought by a volunteer Military. That Obama does not allow for this difference.
Why did our soldiers fight in WW II? For most, it was because they were given no choice. They had to go. Of course this does not detrack from their sacrifices nor from their heroism. My brother was one of those who landed at Normanday the morning of June 6, 1944. He lived to fight to the end of the War. He came home. And his life was destroyed by the memories of what he saw and the guilt he felt for being only one of three surviving troops in his company.
We honor those brave warriors by finishing what we began. except, of course, in Viet Nam.
When the call to arms is given as it was for WW II, the Korean War, Viet Nam and, now, Iraq and Afghistan, there are those in each generation who believe that the call is made by Leadership that will support them to the end of the battle. These Americans respond without debating the righteousness of the call
