A COUNTRY WORTH FIGHTING FOR

My Great Uncle Harry was a veteran of WWI.  Whenever I visited him as a child, I would ask him to see his neatly folded uniform in the chest at the foot of his bed.  Despite my prodding, he would never talk about his time in France, other than to say it was “Hell on Earth.”  I offered the question… “Uncle Harry, if it was so bad, why did you go?” His answer has always stuck with me… “because that’s what young American men did.” He was an amazing man.

My job puts me in proximity of soldiers on a regular basis. On a recent visit to Ft Campbell, I had lunch with a group of officers ranging from a new 2nd Lieutenant to a Lieutenant Colonel. They talked with concern about the future of the US Army and the ever-growing shortage of new recruits. I asked a young 2nd Lt why she joined, and her response was “to help pay for college and get some experience for later in life.” The Lt Colonel, on the other hand, signed up after 9/11, passionate over the attack on America, proud of his country, wanting to make our nation safe for future generations. Such a difference between the two.

My family has a long military tradition going back before the Civil War. Every generation included young men and women who joined out of a sense of duty; none of them being drafted, all of them signing up voluntarily, most of them ready to die for their country. In WWII I lost a great uncle on Guadalcanal; In Korea, another at Chosin. We got through Vietnam unscathed, but the Gulf War claimed a cousin. They died for a country they loved… for a people they wanted to protect. They served America, because back then it was worth serving. Is it now?

Our armed forces from the US Marine Corps to the US Coast Guard are quietly facing a recruiting crisis. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out why. Since 9/11 America has steadily degraded. Once a proud nation, we are now a toxic swamp driven by politics and special interests. We are no longer a nation worth dying to defend. Our young people have more pride in rainbow and pastel flags than they do for the Stars and Stripes. Our potential military recruits are increasingly unwilling to take the risk. We comfort ourselves with the lie that technology makes humans less necessary in warfare, but any seasoned soldier will tell you that there is no substitute for boots on the ground when the shit hits the fan. We are in trouble.

History has proven that paid and conscripted soldiers aren’t nearly as durable and effective as those who are fighting for a cause they believe in. We won the Revolutionary War – farmers and shopkeepers against the World’s most powerful military force – because we loved the country we were becoming, and because our cause was worthy. I weep for the sacrifices that our current and past soldiers have made, and I am ashamed of what we’ve become.

So many have given all for liberty… and look what we’ve done with it.