February 18, 2008

Members, Friends, Veterans, Americans,

Today, February 18, we observe a federal holiday: Presidents’ Day. We are all aware of elections, sometimes quite painfully so. The current US presidential election has been going on for over a year now and there are still no nominees! In the Republic of Korea, where the National President is limited to one five year term, a new president was elected on December 19 and will be inaugurated in eight days. And in the KWVA we have an election for President which will conclude on June 10—and it seems like that campaign has been going on since 2004!

CENLA Chapter 180 with which I have been privileged to be associated as a charter member, January 2000, numbers among its current active members Major General Daniel P Bolger, the Commander of Fort Polk (Louisiana)—the launching pad for the 45th Infantry Division’s road to Korea, 1950—and the Joint Readiness Training Center (JRTC). General Bolger has served several tours of duty in Korea and is the son of a soldier/NCO who served in TASK FORCE FAITH, East of Chosin, 1950. General Bolger (as a Major in 1991) was the author of an Army publication detailing the “Second Korean War.” The published work was Scenes from an Unfinished War: Low-Intensity Conflict in Korea, 1966-1969.

Besides being a warrior-leader, General Bolger has earned a PhD degree. I am sharing his latest editorial about Presidents Day from the Fort Polk newspaper (The Guardian).


National President, KWVA/US
Chairman of the Board


President's Day: Constitutional roots

By Maj. Gen. DANIEL P. BOLGER
Friday, February 15, 2008 9:32 AM CST

Commander, JRTC and Fort Polk

If the great certainties of life are death and taxes, you could make a case that in America, the frenzy of a Presidential election can also be assured every four years. This being one of those designated years, we have been pummeled with speeches, debates, commercials, punditry, and poll after poll. Families in Iowa and New Hampshire actually had candidates coming into their homes - most of us would not envy that. And it's only February, with nine long months to go until election day in November.

While all of this political energy may seem strange, it's exactly what our founders hoped to create way back in 1787 when they crafted our Constitution. Having just thrown off the yoke of King George III of England, none of those early patriots had any desire to recreate a monarchy. The English model they knew had a prime minister chosen by a parliament, but at that time, the king still had authority as well. And the English parliament of that era was hardly representative, its upper house chock full of dukes and bishops, its lower house brimming with wealthy country squires chosen by the local gentry. In 18th century England, a king and a few nobles ran the show.

Men like Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin wanted none of that. They hoped for a government in which all citizens participated. But even allowing their desire for popular rule through a strong Congress, it still made sense to invest one person with executive power to run affairs of state, to exercise authority, to preside. Thus emerged the office of the President.

The President has many powers delegated by the American people in Article 2 of our Constitution. Three big roles stand out. As head of state, the President represents our country to foreign governments, appointing ambassadors and negotiating agreements.

As chief executive, the President runs the government departments that serve our people. Finally, as commander in chief of the military, the President gives orders to our forces, to include the directive to send us into action. As Soldiers, this is why we consider the President the senior person in our chain of command.

All of these roles are subject to the budget power of the Congress, the advice and consent of the Senate for appointments and ratification of treaties, and the legal review of the judiciary, not to mention scheduled elections to face the voters every four years. That's aside from unscheduled impeachment proceedings - our country has seen two such iterations. The President is a powerful figure, but by design, checked and balanced by other parts of government and, ultimately, by the citizens who actually run our country.

Getting those citizens to vote for you consumes a lot of time, money, and talent, as we're seeing right now. Yet all kinds of political posturing and electioneering, no matter how able, merely gets someone into the office. That's when the hard work starts. Few Presidents are remembered for their campaigns. But the great ones - George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and John F. Kennedy - merit recognition because of what they did in office for our country and our world. We celebrate Presidents' Day to honor those contributions.

As Soldiers, we do not get involved in politics. Regardless of which candidate wins in November, we'll carry out the orders of that new President just as we do for our current commander in chief.

We owe that to the citizens who choose the new President, the citizens we defend. Our Army has done that duty faithfully since 1775, long before we had our present Constitution, or a President. This Presidents' Day, and every day, we'll stay at it - to Inauguration Day 2009 and beyond.

[Other major works by Daniel P Bolger: Dragons at War: 2-34 Infantry in the Mojave (1986), Americans at War, 1975-1986: An Era of Violent Peace (1988), Dragons at War: Land Battle in the Desert (1991), Savage Peace: American's at War in the 1990s by Daniel P. Bolger (1995), The Battle for Hunger Hill: The 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment at the Joint Readiness Training Center (1997), Death Ground: Today’s American Infantry in Battle (2003). LTD]