Today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that too many Americans see military service as “something for other people to do.” His remarks are cutting and provocative…and true. The insinuation is that Americans need to “pony up, bear burdens and support the countries wars.” Or this is what is coming through the AP story that I found:
Gates says too few in US bear the burdens of war
The problem is three-fold. First, Americans, as De Tocqueville warned have become self-absorbed. We care about not much outside of our own personal well-being and affluence. This shows when it comes time to bear the weight of vigilance that democracy demands.
Second, our country’s wars have become an abstraction. Gates wisely pointed this out. The problem, I fear, is deeper. Our lives have become abstractions. War, death, and pain make a mockery of these gentle abstractions an so we avoid them. We even turn war into entertainment on the movie screen and in the video game.
Finally, our country has the distinct problem that its wars are futile. We really use war as an instrument of political and philosophical argument now. When we invade, we want the other country to give up its thinking and think and live like us. This is beyond the power of any army. What is even more sad is that while we have the most powerful army in the history of the world, we have no idea what the mission or vision of our country is. Why are our troops fighting? This is not because we never had one, but because we have forgotten. John Winthrop said that we were a “City on a Hill.” Today, we have become a by-word because we don’t have any idea why we exist. We need vision. We need to return to that biblical vision of our destiny that once defined us. This vision calls on more of us to bear the weight of the defense of our country when needed and it would keep us from turning our armies into tools that are meant to build other nations rather than men who fight for our interests and defense.
This is why a classical Christian education is so crucial. It pulls us down toward the earth and toward our fellow man. Pericles beckons his countrymen to fight for Athens—for their way of life and for each other. Christ calls on us to lay down our lives for our brothers. Thomas Aquinas calls us to fight justly as redeemed men. Men and women with a classical Christian education should be less likely to be lured into an unsustainable life of abstraction and nation building. We have enough data. These practices kill the soul and lead to the slaughter of many good (often the best) men.
