Washington Times Commentary Editor Kelly Sadler interviews Robert Wilkie, former Secretary of Veterans Affairs, about the U.S. Army’s birthday.
Without the U.S. Army — they were founded before America — there would be no U.S.
The Army’s history, I think, is summed up by the late General Colin Powell, where he said that the American soldier is unique in history. First of all, he’s liberated more villages, towns, cities and countries than any soldier since the dawn of civilization. But unlike other soldiers, the only thing he asked for is a place to be buried. And I think that’s what makes our Army unique.
When I was a youngster, President Nixon got rid of the draft. Since then, our Army has been manned by volunteers from all across the country. Actually, since our country began, 42 million have served and over a million have died. So the traditions, the great leaders, of course, some of them becoming President of the United States — you think of Washington, Jackson, Grant, and of course Dwight David Eisenhower — who took their battlefield success and their astounding humanity.
What made those leaders great, was not particularly their ferociousness, but their belief in a cause, and not in a king, in a constitution.
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