[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E852-E853]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PEACE IS OUR PROFESSION

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. IKE SKELTON

                              of missouri

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 4, 1999

  Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, on April 19, 1999, I had the opportunity to 
address the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, 
Colorado. I spoke about the priority of peace as the profession of the 
United States military. My speech to that group is set forth as 
follows:

       Many of you, I am sure, have been to the headquarters of 
     the Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force base in Nebraska. 
     Some of you, I know, will soon be joining that fine 
     organization. The motto of the strategic command, which was 
     for many years that of its predecessor, the strategic air 
     command, is a simple, but profound statement:
       ``Peace is our profession.''
       That statement expresses very well the purpose of the U.S. 
     military. The United States does not maintain military power 
     because it seeks to expand its rule or dominate other 
     nations--the purpose of U.S. military power--and the reason 
     for the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps--is to secure 
     the peace.
       ``Peace is our Profession'' was especially well-chosen as a 
     motto for the strategic air command. I know that every one of 
     your predecessors who climbed into the cockpit of a SAC 
     bomber had to be aware of the awesome fact that loaded on 
     board were weapons of more destructive power than had ever 
     been unleashed in all the wars of history that had gone 
     before. SAC was--and the strategic command remains--the 
     steward of the most terrible military force ever created. 
     Because of that, it was always critically important to keep 
     the purpose of such awful power foremost in mind--to preserve 
     peace by remaining able to make war, for it was none other 
     than George Washington who said, ``There is nothing so likely 
     to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet an enemy.''
       I believe the old SAC motto remains just as relevant and 
     appropriate today as it was during the height of the cold 
     war. But I have to say, in the wake of our experience since 
     the cold war ended, that peace isn't quite what many people 
     thought it would be. Sir Michael Rose, the British general 
     who commanded UN forces in Bosnia before the Dayton 
     agreement, put it well in the title of his recent book, which 
     he calls ``Fighting for Peace.''
       In our ambiguous, complicated, demanding global 
     environment, it is critically important that you, who are 
     entering into the profession of arms, consider very carefully 
     what it means to say ``Peace is our profession.'' It is 
     important first of all because you must understand, in your 
     hearts as in your minds, both the great difficulty and great 
     value of what you are doing, even when many of your fellow 
     citizens may not always appreciate your efforts as well as 
     they should.
       Peace is difficult. It is difficult above all because it is 
     not, as some people seem to think, the natural state of 
     things. Peace does not just happen. Peace is not the 
     comfortable, old rocker on the porch we would like to sink 
     into after a hard day's work. Peace is much more like the 
     progress of Ulysses, who sailed through storm-lashed seas 
     only to find at each new landfall a different challenge--
     whether a treacherous temptation luring him from his path or 
     an ever more devious and powerful foe.
       The short history of the post-cold war era shows us one 
     thing very clearly--that peace can only be maintained when 
     those with the strength to do so accept their responsibility 
     as much as possible to resist aggression, to define the rules 
     of international order, and to enforce those rules when 
     necessary. Peace is something that must be built anew in ever 
     changing circumstances by the labor, the will, and sometimes 
     the blood of each generation.
       We are only beginning to see what challenges will face your 
     generation. I hope and pray that those challenges will be, in 
     some ways, at least, less fearsome than those your 
     predecessors faced. God forbid we should ever again have to 
     send our finest young people into the mechanized killing 
     fields of the great world wars of the past century. The 
     spread of weapons of mass destruction, therefore, makes me 
     shudder--it is all the more important that your labor be 
     applied to keep such awful implements from ever being used.
       The great and unique challenge you face, it seems to me, is 
     in the insidious nature of the enemy before you. In the world 
     wars, in the cold war, in the Persian Gulf War, even in Korea 
     and Vietnam, the enemy was apparent. Today, I think, the 
     enemy is harder to define. Through no less dangerous, it is 
     in some ways more difficult to grapple with because it is so 
     difficult to see clearly. Admiral Joseph Lopez, who recently 
     retired after serving as Commander of Allied Forces in 
     Southern Europe, has said very wisely that ``Instability is 
     the Enemy.''
       That is a good way of defining it, above all because it 
     serves to emphasize the importance of our military 
     engagement, in all kinds of ways, with other nations around 
     the world. But to understand that doesn't make it any easier 
     to cope with. One problem, obviously, is that instability is 
     everywhere. So in trying to cope with it as best we can, we

[[Page E853]]

     are working you and your colleagues much too hard. I have 
     argued long and loudly that we need to stop doing that. For 
     their part, your leaders in the Air Force are working 
     diligently to reorganize the force in a way that will make 
     things better. Even so, I can't promise you that the task of 
     maintaining this troubled peace will be much easier in the 
     future.
       An even more difficult problem arises from the fact some 
     instability is more dangerous than other instability. The 
     question we all struggle with is this: How do we decide when 
     instability is sufficiently dangerous to our long-term 
     interests to justify putting the best of our young men and 
     women--that is, you--at risk?
       Let me tell you that no one in a position of responsibility 
     in this Nation takes that question lightly. We have a lot of 
     frivolous and needlessly partisan debates in Washington. But 
     when it comes to a debate over your lives--over whether to 
     tell you to risk your lives to defend our nation--The 
     Congress engages the issues seriously and solemnly. We, and 
     the President, may not always make the right decision--but 
     God knows, we all try to.
       The difficulty for you is that there are legitimate, deeply 
     held differences of view on whether and when our interests 
     and our principles are sufficiently at stake to justify 
     putting your lives on the line in Kosovo or Kuwait or Korea. 
     When the enemy is as ambiguous as instability, it is, I am 
     afraid, too likely that your leaders will sometimes sound an 
     uncertain trumpet. And that may lead some of you very soon--
     and perhaps every one of you sooner or later--to question 
     whether the demands we are making on you are justifiable. For 
     to affirm, in this historical era, that peace is your 
     profession, will very likely require you to face some very 
     profound questions about your commitment to duty and to 
     country.
       I hope that all of you will elect to stay and serve as long 
     and as well as you are able. Let me recall for you that your 
     predecessors have also had to face difficult personal 
     questions. After the war in Vietnam, I know that many 
     professional service members--at all grades--felt abandoned 
     if not betrayed by their country. Some left the service--but 
     many stayed, and those who stayed managed, in the end, to 
     rebuild the American military into a force that is the best 
     we have ever had. Inevitably you are going to face demands 
     that will challenge your commitment. I hope you will 
     understand that the task you are engaged in--to keep the 
     peace--is as important to your country as the duty asked of 
     any soldier, sailor, marine or airman who has gone before.
       There is one other reason why I think you need to consider 
     carefully what it means to say ``Peace is our Profession.'' 
     You are part of a society in which your fellow citizens are 
     often very assertive of their rights. Veterans are not immune 
     to that sentiment, by the way. But that is entirely 
     appropriate--that is, in part, what America is all about.
       I was taught something, however, that becomes more 
     brilliantly clear to me with every passing year. I was taught 
     that with rights come responsibilities. When your forebears 
     lifted into the air in a bomber armed with weapons that could 
     wreak a holocaust, they were accepting a grave 
     responsibility. When you say, ``Peace is our Profession,'' 
     you are embracing a vocation in which you are going to bear a 
     much larger share of the responsibilities than almost all of 
     your fellow citizens.
       The need for you to act responsibly has already been 
     impressed upon you in many ways in this great institution. 
     You have been held to standards of personal conduct much more 
     stringent than those required of others of your age--or, for 
     that matter, of your elected leaders. Let me tell you that 
     such demands for personal responsibility, for having 
     integrity in your personal lives, will feel as light as a 
     single snowflake the first time you are responsible for 
     protecting the lives of others. Responsibility is demanded in 
     your profession because, at some time, so much will be at 
     stake in the decisions you make.
       I'm not telling you this because I am worried that you will 
     not rise to the occasion. On the contrary, I believe that you 
     are part of a military organization that will make you ready 
     to do your duty well, when you are called upon. I am telling 
     you this because I am concerned, instead, that your sense of 
     responsibility, your sense of duty, your sense of honor will, 
     at times, make you feel somehow cut off from the society you 
     serve.
       I want to tell you that you cannot and must not let that 
     happen. You are a critical part of American society. You are 
     the bulwark of this society. American society cannot carry on 
     as a free, independent, diverse, rich society without you. 
     But neither can you succeed without the support of the 
     American people. You have to work at maintaining that support 
     as vigorously as you work at any other part of your 
     profession.
       Sometimes that will not be so easy. Peace is your 
     profession. The paradox is that the more successful you are 
     at your profession--the more peace you bring to our country--
     the less you are likely to be appreciated for what you do.
       The famous British poet, Rudyard Kipling, wrote a poem 
     entitled ``Tommy'' about the treatment of soldiers in time of 
     peace. It is written from the point of view of a British 
     infantryman, dressed in his red coat, who was refused a pint 
     of beer at a ``Public House,'' and he complains
     ``For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an'
     ``Chuck him out, the brute!''
     But its ``Saviour of 'is country,'' when the
     Guns begin to shoot.''
       In time of war, we band together as a Nation. In time of 
     peace--even in time of a very troubled and difficult peace--
     many of our fellow citizens focus on other things. It is your 
     job to let them do that. It is your job not to let them 
     forget you even as they focus on other things.
       A great many thoughtful, well-informed people are concerned 
     these days about what they perceive as a growing gap between 
     military and civilian society in the United States. I, too, 
     worry about that.
       Let me be clear about this. I don't worry that the military 
     will somehow become a renegade force, or that military 
     leaders will defy civilian leadership. That is not a real 
     concern to me. All of you have been imbued with the 
     importance of civilian control of the military as part of 
     your very souls. You have joined the military to protect our 
     great, free society, not to try, futilely, to control it. I 
     don't believe any group or institution can control it.
       I worry, rather, that if you feel yourselves to be cut off 
     from society, to be abandoned by it, to feel it's failings as 
     somehow alienating--then your alienation will become a self-
     fulfilling reality. You will not do what is needed to ensure 
     continued public understanding of your role and continued 
     public support of your vital mission.
       American society, for good or ill--mostly for the good--is 
     absorbed in other things than ensuring the peace. Americans 
     make you responsible for that great task. You have to tell 
     them about it. You cannot afford to feel that your great 
     responsibility makes you somehow unique or somehow deserving 
     of support. You are deserving of support. But you have to 
     reach out to your fellow citizens to let them know that.
       How should you do that? Partly it is a matter of attitude. 
     Don't let yourself feel cut off. Don't let yourself feel 
     different. Don't let your ingrained sense of duty make you 
     feel unappreciated and unhonored. If you seek public support, 
     you will get it.
       I think you should be taught that it is part of your duty 
     as an officer in the U.S. Air Force to keep in constant touch 
     with the community in which you grew up. When you go home, 
     you should call up the president of the local Lions club or 
     the Rotary club and say ``Congressman Skelton told me I ought 
     to give you a call and let you know where I am and what I'm 
     doing in my military service.'' You will get a great 
     response. Your community wants to support you. Your community 
     wants to know that you are there for them. Your community 
     wants you to continue to be a part of it. Your community 
     wants to understand what it is to say, ``Peace is our 
     Profession.'' It is part of your profession to contribute to 
     their understanding.
       As you progress through your military career, it is my 
     sincere hope that you will not only fulfill your fondest 
     dreams, but that you will, by your service, provide the peace 
     for our country that will allow your fellow American citizens 
     to pursue their dreams.
       Thank you for the opportunity to address you today. God 
     bless.

     

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