The No-Dead War: The Price and Promise of America's Changing Attitudes Toward Casualties

Abstract

Abstract : Why did the President feel compelled to qualify the military as volunteer in his discussion of the risks and merits of US intervention in Haiti? Perhaps this word appears innocently. Or even as a mark of national pride. But some observers inside and outside the military discern a more subtle, even sinister connotation. Volunteers, their argument goes, may be more easily committed to combat situations by our nation's civilian leadership than their drafted brethren were a generation ago, since a voluntary career in the military is presumed to entail acknowledged asks. This knew the job was dangerous when you took approach -- whether it in fact or not colors National Command Authority thinking about the employment of our forces -- is sufficiently real in the minds of many senior military officers to elicit their public and spirited criticism.