December 2, 2005
Soldiering On
By Edwin
J. Feulner
Sometimes, even empty symbolism can be harmful. Unfortunately,
quite a few voters in San Francisco don’t seem to realize
that.
If they did,
they might not have approved Proposition I, a non-binding resolution
that claims the city opposes allowing U.S. military recruiters
in their public schools. Legally, the measure changes nothing,
but it sends our service members a troubling message: You’re
not welcome here.
What a profound
misstep now, with our country at war and the military as critical
as it’s ever been.
San Francisco’s
voters may have been influenced by a myth that’s been circulating
in recent years -- namely, that military recruiters prey on the
poor and vulnerable and send them out to die.
Rep. Charlie
Rangel, D-N.Y., fueled this myth with a 2002 op-ed in The
New York Times. “A disproportionate number of the poor
and members of minority groups make up the enlisted ranks of the
military, while most priv¬ileged Americans are underrepresented
or absent,” Rangel claimed. He recommended reinstating the
military draft to rectify the imbalance.
There’s
just one problem: Rangel’s claimed imbalance doesn’t
exist.
Tim Kane,
a retired Air Force officer and an economist at The Heritage Foundation,
studied where military recruits came from in 1998-’99 and
where they came from in 2003. He found that, especially since
9/11, wealthier
Americans have made up their fair share of U.S. military recruits.
“There are slightly higher proportions of recruits from
the middle class and slightly lower proportions from low-income
brackets,” Kane writes. “However, the proportion of
high-income recruits rose to a disproportionately high level after
the war on terrorism began, as did the proportion of highly educated
enlistees.”
In other
words, when our homeland was attacked, Americans of all backgrounds
rallied to the flag.
One of those
men is Steve Kiel. A law student, he works at The
Heritage Foundation and is in the U.S. Army Reserve.
He’s
been serving in Iraq this year and says he’s received tremendous
backing from people at home. “Throughout the year, I’ve
been nearly overwhelmed with packages of things for the soldiers
in my platoon, for the Iraqi soldiers and for the locals,”
Kiel wrote recently in an article on National Review Online.
“My platoon and I received more than 160 care packages from
an ongoing donation drive organized by a single cousin of mine.”
Sadly, some
people have suffered terribly to serve our country. I recently
met two such men.
Staff Sergeant
Jason Pepper lost his eyesight in an explosion last year outside
of Karbala, Iraq. For his actions on the battlefield, he was awarded
the Bronze Star with a V device for valor.
Staff Sergeant
Dale Beatty, a North Carolina Army Guardsman, was wounded last
November by anti-tank mines, losing both legs beneath his knees.
After President Bush pinned on Sgt. Beatty’s Purple Heart,
his young son was asked what his father was getting for Christmas.
“Two new legs!” the boy announced.
Both men
are recovering in the Washington, D.C. area and are staying at
Fisher Houses. The Fisher House Foundation has helped more than
70,000 families since 1990. It runs 33 houses at military and
Veteran’s Administration medical facilities throughout the
country, supporting America’s military, veterans and their
families during medical crises. Instead of attempting to ban the
military, the Fisher House people are finding ways to help.
These brave
volunteers help prove something else that Kane observed in his
paper. He found that Rangel’s proposed solution -- a draft
-- wouldn’t help and might even hurt the military. “It
is highly likely that reinstating the draft would erode military
effectiveness, increase American fatalities, destroy personal
freedom, and even produce a less socio-economically privileged
military in the process,” Kane writes.
There are
almost a million brave men and women in our military. They are
all volunteers, protecting their fellow Americans and asking for
very little in return. The least we can do, especially during
the holidays, is support them.
San Francisco,
are you listening?
Edwin
J. Feulner, Ph.D., is President of The
Heritage Foundation.
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1995 - 2005 The Heritage Foundation
Visit the Heritage Foundation at http://www.heritage.org
