Obama and Biden: Commander in Chief? No Military Service Required

There is a general malaise affecting the United States and its starting to manifest itself, in the decreasing weight military service bares on a presidential candidate's qualifications to be Commander in Chief. Whether this indifference is warranted or not, its on a burning flight path, likely to affect the culture in America as military service continues to have a lessening priority among the American public.

One thing in common between both Senator Obama and Biden, is that they never served in the US military. Obama was only ten years old during the waning stretches of the Vietnam war and Biden was enrolled at Syracuse law school when the Vietnam War was in full effect.

Law school, medical school or even college has always been valued by American society as a traditional means of deferring or in some cases avoiding a draft or military service.

Many could take retired General Wesley Clark's comments earlier this year as evidence of the trend where military service is starting to play a lesser role when evaluating the commander in chief.

Specifically, Clark commented on McCain, " He hasn't been there and ordered the bombs to fall. He hasn't seen what it's like when diplomats come in and say, I don't know whether we're going to be able to get this point through or not." (CNN, June 2008)Essentially, Clark's position rested on the fact that although McCain was a prisoner of war, that qualification in itself support his bid to become President. After taking some political fallout from the comment, Clark ceased to be part of the political landscape with Obama himself criticizing the anti-McCain comments soon after Clark's interview.

Now it is not the purpose of this commentary to attack Obama, McCain or Biden in what constitutes patriotic service to his or her country, but the facts still remain that the Obama-Biden ticket is the first one composed of non-military candidates in 68 years.

Could such a change in history negatively affect the hopes of the Democrats, or is Obama's VP selection more representative of the culture pervading America?

It is very possible that the public is jaded regarding Iraq War press and possibly indifferent regarding the successful results of the surge. As a result, it may have been politically opportune for the Democratic ticket to have no military service, as the public has de-prioritized this requirement.

Where then does America embrace self-reflection and examine why military service has dropped in its role in the national political arena?

Perhaps we could start with the schools, and the increasingly non-military recommendations, career counselors and the educators give to the intellectually proficient and gifted. What is the incentive to join national service when your salary is lower and there is the chance you could face physical harm?

Further, we could take it one step further and ask individual families to support military options for their college aged children to prevent the brain drain in today's military and the disproportionate amount of Midwestern and southern white males who are engaging in self-sacrifice to protect our nation's national security.

Finally, we need to ask the most important question of all. What does it take to regain a pervasive sense of patriotism throughout the United States similar to what our grandparents and great grandparents experienced in the 40s and 50s? Are we too diverse to regain this national state of mind? Military service as the key measurement of this goal may not be the answer, but its crystal clear, that its prioritization within America has dropped.

Obama and Biden, should not be criticized for there lack of this service, but examined more so as being representative of the current state of the Union and the direction of the American mindset as it perceives the military and its decreasingly weighty role it used to play in determining "Commander in Chief."

Without a more encompassing pro-military mindset among our educators, families and leaders, we will see the military's relevance drop off until future emergencies necessitate call-ups from our armed forces.

Until then, bank on this prediction: military service, for the most part will continue to be an optional, or even casual experience not to be pushed as a major career decision within our institutions, family infrastructures or the political environment.