Critical Issues Round Table
January 5, 2007
Great Expectations! A Call for National Service
A Critical Issues Round Table White Paper Major General Alan B. Salisbury, USA (Ret), Chairman “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country!” John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961 “This is the great ideological struggle of the 21st century, and it is the calling of our generation” George W. Bush, Address to Military Officers’ Association of America, September 5, 2006
On May 29th, 2004, the nation paused to dedicate a new memorial in Washington to those who served and those who died in World War II, a war that was fought by Americans across the far reaches of the globe to free the world from fascism and totalitarianism. Virtually all Americans contributed to that noble cause, including those who wore uniforms and bore arms, those who manned the factories of the “arsenal of democracy,” and those who bore the burdens of everyday sacrifices in almost every aspect of their lives. They have been called the “Greatest Generation,” in recognition not just of their sacrifices, but also of their strong character and sense of duty that united Americans from all walks of life in the common goal of victory. A New Century, A New Generation, A New War Today the nation is engaged in a new kind of war that was initially called the “War on Terrorism” or the “Global War on Terrorism,” and, more recently, has been referred to as the “Long War.” Names for the war aside, radical fundamentalist organizations, using the tactics of terrorism, represent perhaps the greatest threat to freedom and democracy since the fascist powers of World War II. Indeed, former CIA director James Woolsey was among the first to describe the current struggle as no less than “World War IV,” while attaching the “World War III” designation to the Cold War against communism and the Soviet Union. Whether or not we choose to call it a World War, the ongoing long war is truly global in scope and the stakes for our way of life and the future of freedom and democracy are undeniably no less than the perils that faced the world in the mid-twentieth century. A new generation of Americans is now deployed in this “first war of the twenty-first century.” As part of an all-volunteer force, they are actively engaged in combat in two major campaigns, one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. Concurrently, of course, our forces also remain deployed in a host of other hot spots around the world. What kind of generation is the current one? Only time will tell, but the early indications are promising. It is a generation in which a young professional football player walked away from millions of dollars to join the Army Rangers in Afghanistan, only to fall in the line of duty. It is a generation in which a young husband and wife, both graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, served as company commanders in Iraq; when the husband was killed and the wife was urged by his parents not to return to Iraq, she responded, “I have to go back. I promised my soldiers I would bring them home.” And it is a generation in which young men and women recuperating at Walter Reed from the loss of arms and legs in combat are vigorously fighting to return to active duty or even to rejoin their units. The seeds of greatness are there in the current generation, just as they are in every generation of Americans. In many ways, the times in which they live separate one generation from another. But the times do not so much shape the generation, as the generation, given the proper leadership, can shape the times. One thing is clear: when called upon to serve, and when the cause is clear and noble, Americans have answered and will answer that call en masse. The difference today is that no one has asked! A Shared Burden As our founding fathers taught us by their personal sacrifices, freedom isn’t free! Who should bear the burden and pay the price of freedom? The obvious answer is that it must be a shared burden among all Americans. 1