Public service

That Americans are dangerously disconnected from their military representatives
is an interesting — quite accurate — comment, all the more interesting when the
comment comes from the secretary of Defense.

That is the message Robert M. Gates delivered to a Duke University audience a
few nights ago. Secretary Gates is the head of the military cadre he complained
was cut off from the politics and culture of the country it serves, according
to a press account of the speech. The few (less than 1 percent of the
population) who have fought our wars are distant from their countrymen since we
abolished the draft in 1970. Military service is “something for other people to
do.” Our all-volunteer military force has served the country in Iraq and
Afghanistan for a decade, longer than any sustained combat in our country’s
history.

Secretary Gates called on college students to consider military service, “the
opportunity to be given extraordinary responsibility.” He needn’t have stopped
there. The military is not the only route to public service. I would argue that
all 18-year-olds or high-school graduates, male and female, be required to
perform public service for a year or two, military service being only one of
the options. It would be a growing-up experience, an opportunity to learn
practical responsibilities and an introduction to the feeling of pride from
public service.

I feel pride in my military service, and learned much from it. Comparable
experiences working on civilian projects that serve the public would provide the
same maturation opportunity and connection to their country for the next
generation.

Others in the Cabinet, and in positions of influence outside government, should
join and expand on Secretary Gates’s call to service.

Visit www.RonaldGoldfarb.com.