Via
McClatchy, former Sen. Warren Rudman's acceptance speech for the 2006 George Catlett Marshall Medal - the highest award presented by the
Association of the United States Army (AUSA):
No matter how high or how low your rank, you should never let your respect for the privilege and prestige of an office distract you from what you're there to do - to outweigh your obligation to speak truth to power.
In that spirit, I believe I would be remiss if I didn't use this occasion to close with just a few words about the current state of this fine institution, the United States Army.
When I think about the history of the U.S. Army, places come back to mind ... Omaha, Bastogne, Porkchop Hill, Ia Drang and, of course, Baghdad. From my own experience in Korea, those places are notable for the courage and uncommon valor of the American soldier.
Regardless of one's views about the wisdom of starting the current action in Iraq, I am deeply, deeply worried about its lasting impact on our Army - on all our armed forces, but the Army especially.
By almost any measure, we have asked too small a force to operate at too fast an ops tempo with too little resources over too much territory. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, never have so many, owed so much to so few for so long.
And this is doing damage to our Army - active, guard and reserve - that will take a generation to repair. We are "taking it in the neck."
You can say all you want about the theory of light footprints and high-tech warfare. But as far as I'm concerned, you can save that for the classroom. At the end of the day, if you don't have enough boots on the ground, you have more instability, not less.
And for families all across this country, that means you have more kids coming home without arms and legs - not less. You have more honor guard funerals - not less.
That's just wrong. It's a tragedy. It did not have to be this way. And it's time for us to put the issue right in front of the American people, on the kitchen table, rather than pretend it's not there.
Read the whole thing. Unlike our current "leaders," this man knows that caring about our soldiers means more than putting a sticker on your SUV, and that the American people deserve the truth.