Today the political parasites who wish to attain high office by latching on to some presumed misery in our society tell us that there is a dreadful gulf between the rich and the poor. Actually it is a gulf that very few Americans care much about. The average American is simply too good-natured to care if Warren Buffet has $5 billion or $50 billion. More properly the average American cares about the condition of the very poor among us, and America has tried to do quite a lot about the very poor. As a consequence, poverty in America today is not as pernicious as it was a century ago; and there are, through social services, education and our vibrant economy, infinitely more avenues of escaping poverty.
Now talk like this, I know, will trigger uproar here in the U.S. of A., but it is an uproar instigated either by well-meaning economic illiterates or by demagogues. Let it pass, my intention here is to reinforce Ben's praise of America.
Never is he more eloquent in praising the volunteer troops who keep us free and secure. Today there are myriads of out-at-the-elbow Hitlers intent on blowing up our cities and spreading pandemics. The American military, under civilian control, fights on foreign soil far away to ensure that the aspiring Adolfs fail … and get what they deserve. Despite the defeatist humors in our media, these soldiers and Marines dispatch the enemy with a professionalism of the highest order. They are constantly readjusting their tactics to new conditions. They are deadly, but they are for the most part decent, conforming to the international rules of warfare unlike their enemies who hide in mosques, use women and children for shields and blow up civilians.
There is something else about our military that I do not believe even Ben has mentioned. When they return to civilian life they will become leading members of society. Their record as good citizens is a matter of fact. I recall years ago spending time in a retirement community with a learned intellectual named Huntington Cairns. He, a leftist with tendencies toward pacifism, one day confided that in this community of retirees and octogenarians, the old folks who could always be counted on to look out for the community and for its most fragile members were most likely retired military.
There is no reason to doubt that the members of the military defending us abroad today will return to be leaders in their communities tomorrow in a country as pleasant and just as Ben insists that it is.