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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Oct. 1, 2007 / 19 Tishrei 5768

A president at war must lead a country at war

By Kathryn Lopez


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | When the aunt of a military medic serving in Baghdad asked the president whether he had done anything to encourage Americans to volunteer for service, he replied, "No," shortly after having talked at length about the role of the commander in chief. Then he quickly revised his answer: "Well, I guess I have. I supported the advertising budgets of the Army and the Marines. But I have urged people to serve the nation in a variety of ways; urged people to feed the hungry or house the homeless. I thanked people for going to help rebuild homes in New Orleans, praised the Peace Corps."


If a group can collectively cringe, the group around the table in the Roosevelt Room of the White House certainly did. As important as feeding the hungry is, it's not the same as risking your life for your warring country.


I don't think the president meant to equate these things, and I am certain he did not intend to demean military service. He probably hadn't expected the question and might have felt awkward answering it, and the fact that he did not serve in Vietnam has been an issue for him. (It shouldn't be: He did serve in the National Guard.) This may have led him to believe that he couldn't ask men and women to give up their lives as volunteers. But as commander in chief during this war on radical Islam — a role he takes dead seriously — his office requires he make that request.


A little later, the president remarked to those in the Roosevelt Room: "I haven't specifically said, 'I want you to go in the military.' There are plenty of inducements for young men and women to make that decision. I've been generally — I've been kind of on a — I haven't been specific about how I asked people to serve. I've just asked them to serve."


Pete Hegseth, the articulate head of Veterans for Freedom — folks who know true wartime sacrifice — shares my opinion. "I don't understand why he wouldn't call on Americans to serve their country, in uniform, in this extremely important war. President Bush understands the stakes of the fight in Iraq and should call on the best and brightest to serve on the battlefield. That message, to me, seems like a no-brainer."


Buzz Patterson, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and vice chairman of the troop-supporting group Move America Forward, echoes Hegseth: "There is no doubt that President Bush should have sent a 'call to arms' to young Americans to step up and serve. ... He should have appealed to the nation for a mobilized posture long ago. I would certainly hope that our next president will."


The president's response to the question of military service does make an American wonder: Would a vet president help? Could it change an American dynamic? Would it make it easier for a wartime president to inspire military service?


And here you can't help but think of John McCain. Scan the cast of characters running for president. Who is more serious when it comes to understanding the stakes of this war on terror? In fact, in some polls he saw a surge of support in the late summer — undeniably tied to news from Iraq.


McCain's service to our country is a story of character and heroism. I've heard him say many times that military service many decades ago does not make anyone more qualified than another to make present-day foreign-policy decisions. But it certainly puts him in a better position to say: "Serve. Your country needs you."


I disagree with McCain on many issues, but we're at war, and we need Americans to realize it and feel like they're part of it. Veteran McCain could be the right person to lead.

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