Swickard: Our freedoms are secured by our military

Commentary by Michael Swickard, Ph.D. “Whatever enables us to go to war, secures our peace.” Thomas Jefferson to James Monroe in 1790

I appreciate and support this country’s military. But I am surrounded often by people who know little, care little, but are given their freedoms entirely by the very military they sadly know and care about so little. Winston Churchill observed, “We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm.”
This statement was true in the 1940s. Today we amend it to say “…men and women…” But now those who voluntarily protect us do not always have our country’s best wishes. When I was born in 1950, almost every family had a connection to the just concluded Second World War. My father served in combat for much of the war. He stayed in the service, retiring in 1966 after twenty-five years of service.
Almost everyone of my generation understood our country was free only because of the actions of our military to thwart countries that would enslave us. When citizens of the 1960s questioned the actions of the military in Vietnam, it caused a great chasm in many families. What should have been questioned was the political leadership, not the military.
Currently the military gets lip-service, at best, from Congress and the President. My friend Charlie says, “America is not at War. America is at the Mall. The military is at War.” Consider that less than twenty percent of Congress served in the military. Very few in the Executive Branch have any understanding of our military. From the laughable mispronunciation by the President of “Corps” to the military deaths in Benghazi, our nation no longer affirms what enables our freedom to not appreciate the military are the actions of that very military.
More so, the news of the September 11, 2012 attacks suggest that the executive branch had the ability to send in rescue units but did not do so for political reasons tied to the presidential election. I hope someone comes up with some other reason for this failure of leadership. But it seems the President did not value the men serving in our military enough to make a hard and correct decision to rescue them. Read column

Swickard: Our freedoms are secured by our military