Pulitzer Prize-winning Stanford historian David Kennedy sees America's all-volunteer military as lean, lethal, and far too easy to send into battle. He argues that we have an army whose character tempts the political leadership to treat it as if it were a mercenary force. He sees a "lack of accountability" by elected leaders, which is an outgrowth of the lack of participation by the public in the decision to go to war, and the absence of any need for real sacrifice on the part of the populace once war has begun. (#16224)