[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E852-E853]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

PEACE IS OUR PROFESSION

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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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