Romney’s last stand
When
Mitt Romney withdrew from pursuit of the presidency, he inadvertently
performed a great public service: His speech announcing the suspension
of his campaign demonstrated a major problem with the all-volunteer
military.
Throughout his campaign, Romney worked to
reshape himself into the ideal social and economic conservative to
appeal to conservative Republicans. But the presence of John McCain in
the race prevented Romney from asserting that he would be the ideal
commander in chief. Nonetheless, on the way out the door, Romney the
neo-patriot burst forth with a speech full of saber-rattling.
First, he criticized President Bill Clinton of reducing U.S. armed
forces by 500,000 troops and cutting the military budget. Then he
asserted that while he would prefer to fight on to the convention, he
had chosen to step aside as some sort of boon to the war effort.
“We are a nation at war,” Romney said. “And Barack [Obama] and Hillary
[Clinton] have made their intentions clear regarding Iraq and the war
on terror. They would retreat and declare defeat. And the consequence
of that would be devastating. It would mean attacks on America,
launched from safe havens that make Afghanistan under the Taliban look
like child’s play. About this I have no doubt.”
In conclusion to this line of reasoning, Romney said, “If I fight on in
my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the
launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator
Clinton or Obama would win. And in this time of war, I simply cannot
let my campaign by a part of aiding a surrender to terror.”
Nowhere did our noble former governor mention that it would cost an
estimated $30 million of his personal funds to continue his campaign.
Nor did he note his family’s less-than-inspiring zeal for military
service: According to multiple published reports, neither Romney nor
any of his five sons have ever served in the military.
In an earlier era, the sons of the gentry were only too eager to train
for military service. Attired in their handsome uniforms, they were
sought out as companions for social galas of the times. Military
conscription was the national method used to raise military forces
since the Civil War, creating an armed service where rich and poor
young men served side by side. The draft was finally ended in 1972, and
several efforts to revive it have fallen flat.
Since then, America has had an all-volunteer military. While many
soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen hail from families with a proud
military tradition, there are still too many young men and women who
enlist because they have few other options.
In the 36 years since the end of the draft, Americans have grown
increasingly disengaged from the military. It used to be that almost
every family had someone in the military and were emotionally connected
to the service. The abuses inflicted on the soldiers in Iraq would not
have been politically tolerable in those days. These abuses include:
- Deployment of military vehicles with insufficient armor to survive the explosion of a roadside bomb;
- Ineffective body armor;
- Substandard care for wounded servicemen and women returning to Walter
Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.;
- Countless reports about unreasonable refusal to determine that
soldiers’ injuries are related to military service to avoid long-term
disability payments; and
- the G.I. Bill and other recruitment benefits falling short of what was promised.
Americans who had other, more promising opportunities and did not
volunteer for the military feel no connection at all to these problems.
However, with so many blacks, Latinos and other minorities in military
service, black leadership has to be certain that those who serve in the
military receive the rewards they deserve.
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“Well, I guess we can
always join the army.”
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