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thedrifter
11-30-06, 08:00 AM
Wednesday, November 29, 2006

'Invisible Joe' puts life on line

Let me return to a subject I broached a week ago, because I think it's important. It is the disconnect between the general population and the soldiers, sailors, air forces and Marines who protect us.

That disconnect is something new in living memory. It is true that we had a tiny, all-professional military which had little in common with the rest of America back in the 1920s and 1930s, but for all of the 1940s, '50s, '60s and '70s, we had a citizen military fed, for the most part, by what we called Selective Service - the draft.

That system certainly kept the military connected to the general population, for good or ill. Except for some controversial education deferments, particularly in the Vietnam era, the draft dipped into every segment of American society to produce the rank and file for its military.

These days, you cannot pick up a newspaper or news magazine without seeing an article about how our current, highly competent, all-volunteer forces are drawn disproportionately from that part of our population for whom military service has been an economic choice.

The question is, does this make our elected officials more likely to send our troops into "pre-emptive" wars, a concept unthinkable for the first 200 years of our history? Does a large, powerful, well-trained, all-volunteer military give an administration - any administration - a dangerous flexibility? Are our leaders now unanswerable to the people for armed interventions or, some might say, adventures?

Do they instead tell us to go out and shop at the mall, leaving the dying for our country's policies to the professionals?

Is that, in fact, what we want to hear from them?

A recent article in a national publication claimed that in the 1960s, nearly seven in 10 members of Congress had worn the uniform of our country. Unfortunately, the article did not then drop the other shoe and tell us what those figures are in 2006.

So I did a little research myself. Pulling out the Almanac of American Politics, I checked out the U.S. Senate. Since there are only 100 members of the upper chamber, as opposed to 435 in the House, I chose the more manageable number for my experiment. This is the current Senate, not the one that will be seated in the new year. As you'll recall, this Senate has a 55-45 Republican edge.

What we find is that instead of seven out of 10 senators having been in the service, the number is closer to three out of 10. The proportion between Republican and Democrat veterans just about equals the 55-45 party split.

Among the Republicans, there are two World War II veterans, several who served in Vietnam, including John McCain of Arizona and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska; one - John Warner of Virginia - who served in both the Navy and Marines; and another, Lindsay Graham of South Carolina, who served in the Air Force during Desert Storm.

Among the Democrats, there are three WWII veterans, including Sen. Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, who served in the Army. Among the Vietnam veterans is Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, who was in the Navy. West Pointer Jack Reed of Rhode Island had an extensive military career. He was on active duty from 1967 to 1979.

In all, 32 of our senators served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, National Guard or Reserves. One was in the Coast Guard. For the record, in the tri-state, only Sen. Richard Lugar, Republican of Indiana, records any military service.

Does any of this really matter? Perhaps not. Certainly, partisanship seems to be just as important to veterans as to others. On the important vote to authorize force in Iraq, all Republican veterans voted "yes," while half the Democrat veterans voted "no."

Still, for many people it is difficult to shake the feeling that not just our elected officials, but the rest of us as well, are approaching another Christmas season feeling no personal contact with the men and women who are the endangered spear point of our national interests.

No matter how often we proclaim our support, it is hard to escape the conclusion that "G. I. Joe" has become "Invisible Joe" as we head for the mall.

Nick Clooney writes for The Post every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mails sent to Nick at nickclooney@cincypost.com will be forwarded to him via regular mail. Or write him at The Cincinnati Post, 125 E. Court St., Cincinnati, Ohio 45202.

Ellie