All wars are popular for the first thirty days.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
It is well that war is so terrible; else we would grow too fond of it.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
It is well that war is so terrible; else we would grow too fond of it.
Robert E. Lee, at the battle of Fredericksburg, 1862
Here’s one for the grunts, jarheads and glory hounds, the fly boys and swabbies, SEALs and Green Berets and Rangers and all the others who serve under the Department of Defense.
The founding fellows had just finished a long war of independence (1783), so it appears their priority at the beginning was forming a more perfect Union. The U.S. Constitution doesn’t get to the war stuff until Article 1 (Legislative branch), section 8.
Taking a clue from the preamble of the Constitution, the whole point of military service is ultimately and finally at its core the preservation of the Union, as expressed in the Constitution.
It’s all about the Constitution. It’s in the President’s oath, and every civil servant’s oath. It’s in the military oath. We ask our military to commit entirely to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Not the borders, not the people, not friends and relatives, nor petroleum supplies, nor baseball, nor Hollywood, nor the burger shack, nor our beefy and elegant automobiles, nor any of the romantic things we cherish as most American and most worth defending.
It’s about defending the ideal, even where yet unattained, of the Constitution.
The parades, the fly-bys, the salutes, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the uniforms, the rank, the obstacle courses, the light weapons, the heavy artillery, the planes, boats, and humvees, the nukes…, the GI Bill, the VA home loan, the commissary and PX, the flags at the cemetery, all of it is for one single, solitary purpose: to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
So I salute you. Thanks. It’s a big idea, and a grand notion, and as a nation, we’re not there yet. But it’s worth it, and I’m glad you stepped up.
Happy Veterans Day.
Link to the Constitution. Read it! Use it or lose it!
Link to a few quotes on war from Encarta
The founding fellows had just finished a long war of independence (1783), so it appears their priority at the beginning was forming a more perfect Union. The U.S. Constitution doesn’t get to the war stuff until Article 1 (Legislative branch), section 8.
Taking a clue from the preamble of the Constitution, the whole point of military service is ultimately and finally at its core the preservation of the Union, as expressed in the Constitution.
It’s all about the Constitution. It’s in the President’s oath, and every civil servant’s oath. It’s in the military oath. We ask our military to commit entirely to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. Not the borders, not the people, not friends and relatives, nor petroleum supplies, nor baseball, nor Hollywood, nor the burger shack, nor our beefy and elegant automobiles, nor any of the romantic things we cherish as most American and most worth defending.It’s about defending the ideal, even where yet unattained, of the Constitution.
The parades, the fly-bys, the salutes, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the uniforms, the rank, the obstacle courses, the light weapons, the heavy artillery, the planes, boats, and humvees, the nukes…, the GI Bill, the VA home loan, the commissary and PX, the flags at the cemetery, all of it is for one single, solitary purpose: to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
So I salute you. Thanks. It’s a big idea, and a grand notion, and as a nation, we’re not there yet. But it’s worth it, and I’m glad you stepped up.
Happy Veterans Day.
Link to the Constitution. Read it! Use it or lose it!
Link to a few quotes on war from Encarta
1 comment:
i never thought of soldiers fighting for the constitution instead of people.
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