They believe, like Cheney, that they have better things to do. To paraphrase Kennedy 'ask not what I can do for my country, ask somebody else'.
I wish the nyslimes would ask about obamas muslim past or hillary lying about where chelsea was on 9-11 but then again it is the nytimes.
Teddy Roosevelt lost a son in WWI. Joe Kennedy lost one in WWII. All of FDR's sons fought. Bush Sr. fought. No longer is that true.
The change so worries George Friedman (founder of Stratfor) that he concludes his book on the current war with:
"The weakness of the U.S., is not our soldiers, nor their numbers, but the vast distance that separates American leaders from those who fight. From government officials to media moguls to finance powerbrokers, few members of the leadership class have children who are at war. To them, the soldiers are alien, people they have never met and don't understand....A ruling class that sends the children of others to fight, but not their own, cannot sustain its power for very long...."