| Summary/Abstract |
Are we debating the right issues? Andrew Bacevich’s Breach of Trust raises questions regarding the, all Volunteer Force. Andrew Bacevich’s book, Breach of Trust: How Americans Failed Their Soldiers and Their Country, notes a stanza from the Zac Brown Band offering fried chicken, cold beer, and jeans as symbols of freedom for which soldiers fight (189). Using this piece of pop music, Bacevich concludes it once was everyone’s job to fight for our birthright – freedom. Now, a small all-volunteer force represents a country that pursues power projection through non-stop use of the military or “war,” and has lost the ethical foundation of its service along the way. I have always been repelled by the stanza, for a slightly different reason. People have died; please do not put that in the same sentiment as eating chicken. To me the stanza came to represent the well-meaning, yet rather thoughtless patriotism of many American people and the unthink- ing acceptance of it by the military. Both the act of military service, and putting it into service, demand more thought.
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