It may come as a surprise to Bill Clinton, but some people just can't be bought.
"Recent articles in the press have made an issue out of the U.S. military's concern over the unprecedented loss of so many of its skilled professional soldiers in recent years," reports Lisa Dean of the Free Congress Foundation. "Many are recommending increased pay and benefits in an effort to keep these soldiers," she observes, "but there is good reason to question whether money is actually the motivating factor when someone decides to serve his country through military service."
In a recent commentary on America's Voice, the news-talk cable television network, Dean argues that money is not the driving force for most soldiers. "It takes a special kind of character to be willing to advance onto a battlefield in the face of withering enemy fire," she affirms. "It takes people who are committed to principles like duty and honor, and who are devoted to upholding and practicing them in their daily lives. These same people are not the types who are looking for financial or worldly success -- and that's where the problem lies."
Dean traces the problem back to our commander-in-chief. "Our greatest military leaders -- people like Robert E. Lee and George S. Patton -- knew that to lead soldiers you must earn their respect," she observes. "They don't need to like you, they may even hate you; but, if they respect you and trust you, they will do the impossible for you. They will fight tenaciously for four long years against hopeless odds, or they will march for three days and nights and then fight a pitched battle for leaders they trust and respect, but they won't do it for money."
The problem, of course, is that U.S. servicemen today do not have a leader like Lee or Patton. "Today's military is led by President Bill Clinton, a commander-in-chief who is nothing more than a draft-dodging coward, a man who has no more regard for the men in his charge than [he does for] the principles they live by. He's a man who despises heroes such as George S. Patton . . . and is so far removed from the concepts of honor and duty that he can't comprehend the role they might play in other men's lives."
Dean emphasizes that soldiers who "signed up to defend and serve their country were fully aware that they might have to sacrifice their lives to do so. These servicemen," she adds, "know that the principles that move them every day are mocked and scoffed at by their own commander-in-chief -- who, by mocking those principles, mocks them and the country they are willing to give their lives for. For people like Bill Clinton, who buy loyalty with money and empty promises, it would be next to impossible to comprehend those who still maintain the ideals of patriotism, service, and loyalty to country, to which no pricetag can be attached." And that's why soldiers are leaving the service in droves.
