AWOL: What People Are Saying
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Publishers Weekly:
"In this impassioned, convincing manifesto, Schaffer (Keeping Faith )
and Roth-Douquet, a former Clinton White House and Department of
Defense staffer, call for class integration of the military. Their
arguments are personal: Roth-Douquet is a military wife and Schaffer's
son is a marine, and the authors fall within the demographic they
critique. Alternately narrating, they relate their experiences with the
military and detail the liabilities of the present all-volunteer
"corporate" force: the hindered policy-making ability of a civilian
leadership without significant ties to the military, the weakening of
the armed forces themselves, and "the sense of lost community and the
threat to democracy that results when a society accepts a situation
that is inherently unfair."
"In World War I, the United States imposed a military draft for a reason that
seems strange today: to prevent too many of the nation's most privileged
citizens from rushing toward the sound of the guns. A draft would spread
sacrifice beyond the elite, went the argument, and ensure that the country
didn't lose too many future leaders. Contrast this with the run-up to the Iraq
War in 2003, when the New York Civil Liberties Union challenged a federal law
allowing military recruiters to contact graduating seniors at public high
schools. "Students," the organization's executive director said, "have a right
to not be bothered by aggressive military recruiters." How did we change from a nation where military service was a duty of
citizenship -- akin to paying taxes or serving on a jury -- to one where simply
being asked to consider time in uniform is an infringement of civil rights? In their compelling and inspiring cri de coeur , Kathy Roth-Douquet
and Frank Schaeffer trace this societal shift..." more...
Reviewed by Nathanial Fick, author of One Bullet Away, Sunday, June 18, 2006.
The Washington Times It's old news that
military service has all but disappeared among the upper classes. That's
why no one is surprised to hear that Harvard -- which still bans ROTC --
graduated all of nine ROTC cadets this year (MIT hosts them down the
river).
Not everyone suffers from outrage fatigue, though -- certainly not
Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer. The authors of "AWOL: The
Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from the Military -- and
How It Hurts Our Country" are appalled at their peers' lack of
knowledge, even rudimentary knowledge, of the military.
Mrs. Roth-Douquet, a former Clinton Pentagon official, and Mr.
Schaeffer, a novelist and nonfiction writer, both travel in "elite"
Boston-New York-Washington circles, and both also happen to belong to
military families. This joins with a healthy dose of outrage for a
lively, first-hand look at a problem in plain sight.
more...
Senator John McCain: "Frank Schaeffer and Kathy Roth-Douquet have done our country a great service with the publication of their book, AWOL.
The authors, who watched with anxious hearts a son and a husband leave
for war, discovered in that difficult experience a more genuine and
wiser patriotism than they had known before. And now they call on
their fellow citizens, for whom national service and sacrifice is an
abstraction, to recognize that love of country is a more personal and
consequential attachment than is popularly understood among many of the
most fortunate Americans. I commend their wisdom and patriotism
to all Americans as I honor their loved ones whose military service has
entailed danger and sacrifice and has been a burden on the heart
fearfully but proudly borne by their families."
Tom Brokaw: " AWOL
is a powerful and timely account of those missing in action - the
privileged class of America staying out of uniform and out of harm's
way."
General Tommy Franks:
"Compelling - sure to spark dialogue on issues of patriotism and
service to our country. Written with warmth and genuine respect for
those who serve. I am impressed by the research - this book is based on
fact, not fiction. As America looks for balance in a dangerous and
complex world, AWOL is a great place to start."
Mike O'Hanlon, Brookings Institution:
"For such a provocative and hard-hitting book, AWOL is also rather fair
and balanced — and generally quite persuasive. Best of all,
Roth-Douquet and Schaeffer are constructive and forward-looking, with
an excellent concluding debate between the authors about the pros and
cons of mandatory national service versus other options for bringing
the "upper classes" back into the nation's armed forces."
Other Reviews and Commentary
"Reading AWOL has made me worried. This passionate collaboration between a Marine wife and a Marine father sharpened the sense I’ve been getting of a growing divide between civilian and military values." more... by Ann Marlowe
The Today Show. To see the TODAY SHOW interview with the authors of AWOL click here.
Yogi Berra did it.
So did Dr. Seuss, Humphrey Bogart, and John F. Kennedy. They all served in the
armed forces. Today it’s much less common for the rich or famous to serve, but
that wasn't always the case. During W.W. II, Jimmy Stewart and Clark Bable both
volunteered. In the 50's, Elvis Presley was drafted and spent two years in the
army. And after September 11, Pat Tillman left the NFL to become an army ranger.
In their new book, “AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America’s Upper Classes from
Military Service — and How It Hurts Our Country,” Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank
Schaeffer, would like to see more class integration of the military. more...
A new book by Kathy Roth-Douqet and Frank Schaeffer, "AWOL: The Unexpected
Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service - And How It Hurts Our
Country," deals with the small number of children of elites going into the
military.
They say, for example, that 400 of the 750 members of the
Princeton class of 1956 joined the military, compared to only nine members of
the class of 2004. Speaking on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopoulos,"
Rep. John Murtha pointed out that only 1 percent of the people in the United
States are involved in the war and many of them go back over and over again.
Is that the reason for the lack of protest? Is it because so few
Americans are personally impacted that the outcry isn't louder? more...
Dotty Lynch is CBSNews.com's Political Points columnist.
Joe Galloway, nationally syndicated columnist, lauds AWOL in a column
that appeared nationwide titled, "Nation's elite are AWOL from military
duty." Read column here.
Dan
Rodricks: "...The point is, one part of America is fighting this
war and making all the sacrifices while the rest of us go about our
business, concerned but hardly strained. We support the troops,
but most of us have no interest in seeing our own families engaged
directly. Our kids have better things to do in life, right? This
is one of the most challenging and uncomfortable subjects in American
society - the lack of shared responsibility, across all social and
economic classes, in the nation's defense . That is what
co-authors Frank Schaeffer and Kathy Roth-Douquet, military next-of-kin
both of them, argue in their important book, AWOL: The Unexcused Absence
of America's Upper Classes from Military Service and How It Hurts Our
Country."
"Roth-Douquet
and Schaeffer are eloquent witnesses to the military-elite gap. …AWOL
richly documents the rapid reduction in elite participation in the military
-- universal during World War II and still strong in the period prior to
Vietnam -- and its devolution since then from the student-deferral era that
exempted so many young men from that trip to Saigon, to today's virtually
military-free elite culture. And its authors warn of the consequences for
the dialogue of the deaf so often conducted between civilian and military
leadership classes: "There is a mutually reinforcing relationship between
the 'leave-it-to-us-professionals' attitude of some of our military leaders
and the 'leave-me-alone' or 'not-with-my-child' attitude of many in the
upper classes."
AWOL offers some prescriptions for closing the civilian-military gap. …What this book most endorses is a much-needed debate over a subject that increasingly demands attention: how policymakers with no personal or familial experience with military service can knowledgeably set national security polices, and how a military estranged from civilian leaders and drawn from a narrow segment of the population can really represent the nation. Given our overstretched military, and the sacrifices they are making in Iraq and Afghanistan, this is a debate that can no longer be deferred."
Leatherneck Magazine
AWOL” is unique in its scope, intent and implications. ...The authors make
an unlikely pair to engage this ticklish subject. Neither served in uniform
nor came from what might be termed a disadvantaged background. ...So what
changed their views, and why did they embark on this timely debate?
Schaeffer took a lesson from his leatherneck son concerning patriotism,
Roth-Douquet married a Marine officer and became transformed into a devoted
military wife and a spokesperson for our armed forces and their
dependents....
“AWOL” makes the case that our country has traditionally been served by our best and brightest. Not so many years ago it was common for our leaders, in both the private and public sectors, to have proudly worn the uniform of our country. Back then, it was assumed that most fit-for-duty Americans would eagerly devote a portion of their youth to the service of flag and country.
This book is clearly written and meticulously researched. It details the growing and dangerous disconnection between our military culture and the general public. Most alarming of all is the perceived chasm that continues to widen between our country’s elected leadership and the military forces they send to battle.
Front Page Magazine:
The most prominent implication of Roth-Douquet and
Schaeffer’s is that the abandonment of the military by our
cultural leaders demonstrates a loss of faith in democracy itself.
That is a problem that extends well beyond discussions of
national security, military service demographis and how we recruit.
That America's cultural elite have gone AWOL from military
service is a problem that should be the topic of conversation by major
political parties and media commentators of all stripes. With the
increasing rise in influence of these same cultural elites while the
demands on our military are higher than at any point since the Vietnam
War, this book and the discussion it hopefully engenders arrives none
too soon. By Patrick Pool. Read more...
Washington Law and Politics: "AWOL is a reaffirmation...its clarity and passion offer us proof that this is an issue that needs to be faced." Author Philip Gold, Spring 2006
Ken
Allard "The
authors – Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer – have the goods,
documenting the maddening outlines of “the disconnect” between the
all-volunteer military and the larger society it was meant to serve....
Roth-Douquet, a lawyer, Democratic activist and (contrary to prevailing
expectations) Marine Corps wife, has a soccer mom’s ear for social
nuance..." Ken Allard, MSNBC commentator and author of the upcoming
Warheads
Andrew
Lublin. "The authors make the excellent point that those who
do not sweat and fight for their country tend to take it less seriously,
and equally, take more for granted that someone else should do the heavy
lifting. National service can be either military or civilian : Peace
Corps, AmeriCorps; The Marine Corps - hey, just go out and serve !"
But perhaps in these days of virtually instantaneous Wall-Street wealth,
the concept of Honor-Courage-Commitment is considered old fashioned and
out-of date. Too bad, as American citizens as diverse as George Bush Sr,
George McGovern, John Kennedy, and John McGovern all could not volunteer
fast enough to serve this country; certainly a concept of honesty and
commitment that is sorely lacking in these same media and Wall Street
elites who have rarely broken a good sweat.
This is a book well worth reading." (Lublin is an author of many
books on the military -
www.andrewlubin.com)
Delaware News Journal The book's title sums up the problem. The authors make some telling points. They quote one professor: "Military service isn't for our kind of peoploe." Good point. Why get off the career track for a year of two to do something for your country? Besides, none of your friends are doing it."