Not a Soldier

Obama was never a soldier. Can he lead?

Some of America's greatest presidents have been military veterans, but not all military veterans have been great presidents. Ulysses S. Grant [a president who had military service] is rarely listed as one of America's great presidents. Franklin D. Roosevelt, a wartime president who had no military service, usually is.

Obama, if elected, will be the sixth president that did not soldier, like Thomas Jefferson, Franklin Roosevelt, Warren Harding, Woodrow Wilson and Martin Van Buren. Americans are committed to civilians leading the troops: Jefferson fought the Tripolitan War, Martin Van Buren fought the Aroostook and Second Seminole Wars.

World War I and World War II were both led by presidents that never soldiered--Wilson and Roosevelt, respectively.

The longest gap between presidents with military service was 36 years from 1909 to 1945, one of the most turbulent periods in American history. Six US presidents, from William Howard Taft to Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was elected during the Great Depression and served for 13 of those years, successively held office with no military background.

What about vice presidents? Biden was not a soldier, either, just like the vice presidents that served under Wilson and Roosevelt during the World Wars (Thomas R. Marshall, John Nance Garner, Henry A. Wallace)--only Harry S. Truman, Roosevelt's last vice president, was a soldier.

Clearly, the US can be led, in war and peace, by a non-soldier. But what about Jerusalem? There is a strong Jewish tradition about David, the great warrior king that founded Jewish Jerusalem. God denied him the right to build the Jewish Temple. David says to his son,

My son, I had planned to build a house to the name of the Lord my God. But the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 'You have shed much blood and have waged great wars; you shall not build a house to my name, because you have shed so much blood in my sight on the earth. See, a son shall be born to you; he shall be a man of peace. I will give him peace from all his enemies on every side; for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quiet to Israel in his days. He shall build a house for my name. [Chron. 22:7-10]

Jerusalem has a strong tradition of leadership by non-soldiers. Such a man has "shed less blood." A man like Obama.


Read more: American Presidents' Military Service And The 2008 Election by Ed Ross. Ed W. Ross is a Vietnam veteran that worked in the Bush/Cheney administration. I find his website mostly objective and nonpolemical, with a consistent pro-Republican, pro-McCain bias.