Should the President Be Required To Have Served in the Military GP week5 - Essay Example

Should the President be Required to Have Served in the Military? We live in a world that is constantly battling political, terrorist, and civilian warfare on an international level. Throughout all of these battles, the leader of the free world, the American president has come to be known as the “Commander in Chief” of the greatest military power that the world has ever known. As such, he is expected to, and should be willing to use the American military force on a justifiable international peacekeeping mission each time that our country is called upon to defend the weak within the United States and beyond, or control the international bullies known as terrorists.

As the leader of the free world, our military servicemen look towards the man or woman sitting in the White House for leadership, guidance, and moral support. Our military has seen a long line of active or war veteran presidents stemming from George Washington who fought in the earliest civil war battles that freed our country from the British empire, all the way to George H.W. Bush who, although only a member of the Air National Guard (“Should Presidential Candidates and Elected Officials be Required to Serve in the Military?”, n.d.) , proved to be the last great American president who knew that there was a lot more at stake for the United States after the 9/11 attacks than just a vendetta upon those who took American lives in an act that rivaled the bombing of Pearl Harbor back in World War II.

It is of the utmost importance that the American president have some sort of military service tucked under his belt, whether as a veteran of an international war effort or simply as a stateside based serviceman because our countrys history is steeped deeply in these “war efforts”. By actively serving the interests of the American military even during what is perceived to be “peacetime” America, the next president of this great nation ensures that he has a thorough understanding of the importance of the United States as a peacekeeping nation on the world stage, and also has a thorough grasp of the international foreign relations of the United States.

By actively serving in the military, the next U.S. president will have an advantage over his non-active opponents, that of actually having been in the center of the great “wartime” political debate. He will have a greater knowledge and understanding that being an American is a privilege and should be repaid by service. He will have come to the conclusion that, as a military veteran, he understands the needs of the international community in terms of U.S. military participation in their own political agendas (Mataconis, D., 2012). It has come to the attention of the voters since the time of President Bill Clinton though, that military service might not be as important as it used to be for the president.

Even Pres. Barack Obama believes that military service is not a prerequisite to the presidency because America has not been involved in a major civil war for over a century (“Should Presidential Candidates and Elected Officials be Required to Have Served in the Military?”, n.d.). People like former presidential candidate Rick Santorum continued to belittle the honor of actively serving our country in military service by saying that; “I didn’t see working in government service and being in politics as anything but serving your country, and doing in some ways - in a civilian sense - what a lot of folks did in a military sense.

And I saw it as something that is honorable and good to do” (Winkler, A. 2012). For a generation Americans who grew up in the relative peace and quiet of the American lifestyle, it is obvious that they cannot grasp the importance of military service as a job requirement for the great job in the White House. However, the twin terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the recent Benghazi massacre of the American embassy employees has proven that a president who knows how to handle armed conflict when his country is threatened is not only a necessity, but a job requirement.

in my humble opinion, a president who has no theoretical or practical knowledge of how international war and conflict directly affects America has no place in the White House Oval Office. SourcesMataconis, D. (2012). Does it matter is a presidential candidate never served in the military?. Outside the Beltway. Retrieved from http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/does-it-matter-if- a-presidential-candidate-never-served-in-the-military/RadiantWriting. (n.d.). Should presidential candidates and elected officials be required to serve in the military?. [Web log comment].

Retrieved from http://radiantwriting.hubpages.com/hub/Elected-Officials-Should-Serve-a-Mandatory-4- Year-Term-in-the-United-States-MilitaryWinkler, A. (2012). Presidential candidates lack military service and voters dont care. CP Politics. Retrieved from http://www.christianpost.com/news/presidential-candidates-lack- military-service-and-voters-dont-care-66605/