A 360 friend today posted a blog about guilt for protesting the VietNam war, and saying things back then he regrets today, particularly when meeting a currently serving member of the armed forces. We as citizen have a great deal of responsibilities, and appreciation for what we have seems to on the wane, giving way to the expectation that our way of life will go on forever. The founder of this country didn't think so, knowing that there would be periods of peace and war, the included in our constituion article 1 section 8. Among those items includes:
Powers of Congress
The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.
Thus the people granted authority for Congress to raise and maintain Armies and a Navy, the Marine Corps being part of the Naval Forces, and some would say the current Air Force being considered an Army, since its birth originated with the Army Air Corps.
During VietNam, as i recall, the people began to grow weary of the war, and denounced the war, denounce our leaders, and (incorrectly) assign blame to those who were conscripted to serve.
Even the conscription was challenged, during the Vietnam War, a lower appeals court concluded that the draft was constitutional. United States v. Holmes, 387 F.2d 781 (7th Cir.), cert. denied, 391 U.S. 936 (1968). The Court summarized the history of conscription in colonial America, a history that it read as establishing that the Founders envisioned compulsory military service as a governmental power. It held that the Constitution's grant to Congress of the powers to declare war and to create standing armies included the power to mandate conscription. It rejected arguments based on states' rights, the 13th Amendment, and other provisions of the Constitution. The concern over conscription vaporized when it was discontinued in 1973.
The US military is currently a volunteer military, although it has an operational Selective Service as a contingency. On July 1, 1973, President Nixon created the All-Volunteer Force as a result of the American public's dissatisfaction with the draft.
OK, there it is...so we started the volunteer force to avoid the protests in future conflicts saying we "forced" people to go to war. An now what do we have?? I cite an op-ed piece from the Washington Post:
One common strain of criticism surfaced in the Nov. 4 op-ed by Princeton professor Uwe E. Reinhardt, who asserted that "it is well known that to fill the ranks of enlisted soldiers, sailors and Marines, the Pentagon draws heavily on the bottom half of the nation's income distribution, favoring in its hunt for recruits schools in low-income neighborhoods."
The implication is that the military scoops up the disadvantaged, uneducated and unemployed from the nation's slums and sends them off to fight while the children of the upper and middle classes remain home in comfort and safety. That conveys an impression of military service as a last resort for those with nowhere else to turn. The reality is far different.
Come on people...
Each year about 180,000 men and women enlist in the active-duty forces (another 16,000 are commissioned as officers, and tens of thousands more, including many active-duty veterans, join the National Guard and the reserves). Those who enlist come from all parts of the country, from all races and ethnicities, and from households across the economic spectrum. Far from being concentrated among the poorly educated and economically disadvantaged, military recruits, the data show, represent the best of America's youth. More than 90 percent of recruits have high school diplomas, compared with 80 percent of American youth overall. About two-thirds of today's recruits score in the upper half of standardized aptitude tests. Military recruits are also more physically fit than American youth in general, and they are subject to strict character screening.
Finally, recruits come disproportionately from neighborhoods with above-average incomes. This was true before the war with Iraq, and it remains true today. In fact, those recruited during the war are more likely to come from affluent neighborhoods than are those who were recruited before the war.
Speaking of his fellow military personnel in Iraq, First Lieutenant Lee Kelley wrote, "We're not all walking idealist cliches who think your ability to work where you want and vote and associate with whom you want are hinged completely on our deployment to Iraq. But you know what? Our work here is part of a collective effort through the ages that has granted you those things. So don't forget about us, because we can't forget you."
1st Lieutenant Lee Kelley is a writer and Army Signal Officer serving near Ramadi, Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His unit has been in country since June of 2005, and he has maintained a blog documenting the whole experience. After this deployment, he returned to Utah and made up for lost time with his two children. LT Kelley is also currently at work on his first novel.
Let just wish everyone everywhere a Happy Thanksgiving
What words women use mean... 
Veterans Day
