Barack Obama's Cross in the Sand
During a wide-ranging interview with George Stephanopoulos, one of the best of the campaign season, Barack Obama revealed that he gave military service serious consideration.
Mr Obama was asked by George Stephanopoulos of ABC’s “This Week” programme whether he’d ever thought about military service and replied: “You know, I actually did. I had to sign up for Selective Service [a means of conscription in case of war] when I graduated from high school.
“And I was growing up in Hawaii. And I have friends whose parents were in the military. There are a lot of Army, military bases there.
“And I actually always thought of the military as an ennobling and, you know, honourable option. But keep in mind that I graduated in 1979. The Vietnam War had come to an end. We weren’t engaged in an active military conflict at that point. And so, it’s not an option that I ever decided to pursue.”
A few quick thoughts:
(1) Would Obama have been more likely to join the military had the United States been engaged in the Vietnam War? The answer appears to be yes — but why? Is it because he felt that all American should serve in a time of war? That seems plausible. But of course the US has been engaged in a number of military conflicts since then, and Obama’s skills would presumably have proved valuable had he joined the Reserves. It is worthy of note that Obama was attracted to serving only during an active military conflict — what does he think of peacetime military service? Is it less valuable? Or does he have a hunger for participating in combat?
(2) Lest we forget, 1979 was the year President Carter promulgated the Carter Doctrine, and it was the year the Soviets invade Afghanistan. Many Americans were convinced the world had become a more dangerous place. What did Obama think of America’s military posture at the time? Did he refuse to join the military because he believed in a policy of Soviet-American friendship and mutual understanding?
(3) Is there any way to verify Obama’s interest at the time, e.g., did he speak to any military recruiters, or to the parents of friends serving in the military about the possibility of signing up? Surely someone would recall such a conversation. Isn’t it right and appropriate for news reporters to comb the streets of Hawaii in search of Obama’s youthful acquaintances, to get some sense of the depth and seriousness of Obama’s interest in joining the military.
(4) Why haven’t we heard about this before? Or was it discussed at length in of Obama’s two memoirs? Is this a naked and cynical appeal to American Militaryists?
(5) Wait a second. Isn’t everything I’ve said above a bit silly? Yes it is.
For the record, I believe that Barack Obama gave joining the military serious thought. It sounds plausible to me. And I think that young people have lots of contradictory thoughts and that they are subject to lots of complicated cross-pressures. I don’t think Obama should have to answer for this, and I think that we ought to take his statements at face value.
Thank God I read your whole post. A valuable lesson (re-)learned.
— saxon conrad · Sep 8, 09:06 PM · #
Questions 1-4 are way more than a bit silly. Utterly ridiculous is a better phrase.
— galen · Sep 8, 09:18 PM · #
His feet. Somebody needs to check his feet. Flat feet = no military service. If he has flat feet, Obama is obviously lying – because obviously he wouldn’t have made these platitudes about “seriously considering blah blah” if he had flat feet which obviously precludes even contemplating joining the Army.
So the ball’s in Obama’s court. Showing his feet to the press would also be a good occasion to show that he wears socks that don’t have holes in them. And that’s a good thing.
— JJR · Sep 8, 09:27 PM · #
Reihan:
Absolutely concur with your conclusion. Of course he considered it. But his comment still grates on me to a small degree.
I was in college during the Gulf War. I was very ambivalent about the war at the time – anxious about Saddam getting his hands on all that oil, but anxious as well about the prospects of war. And, being Jewish, anxious about the risks to Israel whether war came or not. I remember going to an anti-war vigil with a roommate and hearing one of the speakers shout out: if they impose a draft, are you going to go? – and hearing the crowd shout, “NO!” And my roommate turned to me and said something like, “really? Every one of these guys would go to prison or Canada? Every one would happily make some other poor guy go fight in your place?” It just struck both of us as so much posing around something we felt very viscerally. (My roommate’s basic take on the war: he was disgusted his country was going to war to restore a monarchy.)
So we got back to the dorm and talked about what we were actually going to do if things looked like they were going to drag on. And we decided that if it looked like there was going to be a need for a draft, we’d volunteer for the Navy. We were pretty sure Saddam didn’t have a Navy, and that, in fact, nobody else but the Soviets had much of a Navy, and they were on their way out. And we were Yale men, and neither of us especially athletic. Our brains were worth too much to risk in a front-line combat role. We’d wind up in intelligence or something. Anyhow, that’s how we thought about it: the search for the intersection of honorable and safe.
Of course, as things turned out that night’s plans didn’t matter in the slightest. And I never considered military service again until 9-11. And then, I didn’t actually consider it – rather, I articulated to myself why I was not considering it. I was over 30, had just stretched to buy an apartment that there was no way we could afford on my wife’s income, and we were in the process of trying to adopt a baby. If my country called me, I’d answer, but in the absence of that call I was going to put my wife first.
Do I look back sometimes and say: I missed my opportunity to serve? Often enough, yes. But it’s a self-indulgent emotion that oughtn’t be expressed out loud very often.
It is mystifying to me how George Bush can talk to soldiers and marines and say he wishes he could be one of them. And it is mystifying to me as well (though on a much smaller scale) that Barack Obama thinks it’s a good idea to talk about how he “considered” military service. There has got to be a better way to honor those who made the choice to serve without implying either that those who did make such a choice are a higher class of citizen, or that one deserves some (smaller) measure of honor for having “considered” joining their ranks.
— Noah Millman · Sep 8, 09:40 PM · #
Notwithstanding that you know much more about this stuff than I, I think you’re interested in the wrong part of the speech (and the one on which I’d think McCain partsans would focus); the “throw a rock and hide your hand” exchanges fascinated me.
— Sanjay · Sep 8, 09:51 PM · #
“If he has flat feet, Obama is obviously lying – because obviously he wouldn’t have made these platitudes about “seriously considering blah blah” if he had flat feet which obviously precludes even contemplating joining the Army. “
The medical restrictions on military service have been somewhat variable in their statement and administration. My flat-footed grandfather served in the Army in 1918-20, albeit as a camp guard.
— Art Deco · Sep 8, 10:28 PM · #
“It is mystifying to me how George Bush can talk to soldiers and marines and say he wishes he could be one of them.”
Noah, everybody’s different.
“There has got to be a better way to honor those who made the choice to serve without implying either that those who did make such a choice are a higher class of citizen, or that one deserves some (smaller) measure of honor for having “considered” joining their ranks.”
Noah, they put themselves at risk and put up with the discomforts of military life, which speaks well of them. They have done something admirable that you did not do and that I did not do and some measure of recognition flows to them as a result. Those are just the breaks. Get over it.
— Art Deco · Sep 8, 10:31 PM · #
Reihan, you sly fox. Of course, all of this is a smokescreen to distract people from Obama’s accidental confession of his “Muslim faith.” You’re not fooling me.
— Alan Jacobs · Sep 8, 11:36 PM · #
Hilarious. You shouldn’t give the game away in your post title, though.
— right · Sep 8, 11:44 PM · #
Man, that’s really bad form. In Obama’s defense, if you ask a stupid question you get a stupid answer, but he should have declined the chance to share with us the re-imagined deliberations of his high school self.
Any question of who “seriously considered” what when he was 18 only makes the whole campaign more vaporous. Now we have candidates hawking not only their biographies, but the reconstructed impressions of their inner lives.
Too bad Bill Clinton was never asked if he ever “seriously considered” racing
snowmobilessnowmachines.— Matt Frost · Sep 8, 11:59 PM · #
Alan, if I wasn’t such a verbal klutz, I would find Obama’s comment weird or Freudian or something. But now, I just think “Man, he’s tired. Dude needs a nap.”
— Klug · Sep 9, 12:44 AM · #
Oh, c’mon, Klug. That’s not even a gaffe and nobody not committed to the belief that Obama is a radical Muslim already will care. The rock thing, creepy, maybe revealing. The my faith thing — anyone who reads anything into it is creepy; it’s more innocent than “I thought I’d enlist.”
(Which he didn’t, because he registered for selective service halfway into college — more likely thought he’d commission.)
— Sanjay · Sep 9, 01:15 AM · #
Sanjay, you’re completely misreading my post. I’m sympathizing with Obama.
— Klug · Sep 9, 01:21 AM · #
Um…
You guys appear to be talking about something I lack the means to identify. What speech? What rock?
It sounds interesting…
Whatever it is, you’re saying some weird things.
I’d passed my physical in 1965 when a surprise 1-Y fell into my lap (long story, no cheating) and my feet were pretty darn flat back then. Didn’t really have any arches until I started working with modern dancers in the 80’s.
— felix culpa · Sep 9, 02:01 AM · #
I consulted the Google and this is what I found:
Barack Hussein Obama registered at a post office in Hawaii. The effective registration date was September 4, 1980. His registration number is 61-1125539-1. Daniel Amon Public Affairs Specialist— halle309 · Sep 9, 04:39 AM · #
Sorry, Klug, I saw Alan’s humor but not yours. I get thick.
— Sanjay · Sep 9, 12:51 PM · #
Noah:
“without implying […] that one deserves some (smaller) measure of honor for having “considered” joining their ranks…”
Obama implied no such thing. He appears to have answered the question asked, honestly. Not that his answer is very interesting or revealing: hasn’t every thinking, public-minded 18 year old considered service?
— matt · Sep 9, 05:20 PM · #