Commentary: America, don't tread on yourself

Americans should tread carefully. Do we want a military comprised of citizen-soldiers representing all of us or one potentially comprised of ideological adherents? The first is traditional, the second is dangerous.

For over five decades, the military has been an all-volunteer force. As such, recruiting and retention policies have focused on drawing citizens from every region, ethnicity, religion and social class into the military regardless of political views. These efforts have been largely successful, even with two concurrent wars spanning two of those five decades. For example, of the 10 soldiers serving in my military adviser team in Iraq in 2004-2005, at least five voiced disagreement with the war. Yet politics never polarized the team, and all strived 100% to accomplish the assigned