From Barnes & NobleAccording to Andrew Bacevich (The Limits of Power; The New American Militarism), we now go to war in the worst way. Instead of being a nation of citizen-soldiers in which everyone willing shoulders the responsibilities, financial and otherwise, of going to war; we now send armies of volunteers and self-aggrandizing private contractors marching off to fight endless conflicts while the populace sits unconcerned at home, complaining about taxes and other matters. In Breach of Trust, Bacevich describes how the elimination of the draft in 1973 numbed Americans to the military actions of their leaders. With disarming specificity, he describes how for most of us, our wars have become abstractions far removed from our lives and our commitments.
