My father, a lifelong Chicagoan, was drafted into the Army just after graduating college in 1954. I remember his stories about boot camp and army life, including one about teaching a fellow recruit how to lace his boots (a la Full Metal Jacket, no lie) because it was the first real pair of shoes that 19 year-old ever had.

He also talked about when he was at Ft. Gordon, near Augusta, GA, and seeing “Whites Only” signs, and “Colored” drinking fountains. And being told politely by a bus driver that he was sitting in the “colored section” of the bus.

Being from Chicago, this completely blew his mind.

So, he raises his future children, with the future wife and mother he meets while at Ft. Gordon, and among lots of other valuable things, teaches his five children about tolerance and a disdain for racial injustice.

In a way that overall experience taught him to be a better citizen and later wonderful father.

My continued $.02

You’ve been very clear, and made a critical point: we ARE in a networked war, and we are currently using [and maybe wearing out] only one of our weapons in this fight–our military. Media seems to have a lock on our “culture”, so that leaves us with our own personal stories and family histories –which the MSM does not own or control.

You may recall the phenomenal interest shown by the general public in the Ken Burn’s Civil War TV series years ago. Aside from being very good history, Burns managed to capture the individual and family emotional connections that we still deeply resonate with today. Major Sullivan Ballou’s last letter to his wife Sarah is probably the strongest example. It was clearly more than just a historical artifact. People still read it aloud to each other. It captured resolute faith in a cause with devotion to one’s family. Caught in the middle of terrible choices, the author knew what mattered most to secure the future of his loved ones. He clearly saw himself keeping faith “with those who went before us through the blood and sufferings of the Revolution.” If they could stand it, so could he. So could we all.

In our time, a Ballou letter may well be a YouTube video or some digital equivalent. Whatever it takes to make the viewer recognize themselves in it and say: “Yes –that’s why I care…”

I think you’ve answered your own question: To whom do the young owe their allegiance? That is the underlying problem this thread has explored.

While 9/11 may have faded into the “dim and misty past for many”, for just as many it is front and center in their thoughts and motivations. It depends where you are geographically and perhaps demographically as well.

I’m not dismissing your question at all, for many teens and twenty-somethings actually believe that we are or should, be beyond the need for states by now. Utopia and all that. When, not if, we are attacked again, harsh personal experience may lead to a different conclusion. Those who have not learned from history, or naively believe we are past the end of it, are condemned to repeat the lesson.

Perhaps mandatory boot camp would grant many of the benefits of mandatory service, but allowing the newly trained “recruits” to choose to leave the service before being assigned to a permanent duty station would maintain the benefits of a volunteer service.

(just kind of thinking out loud…)