The Long War: A decade of war has intensified the militarization of American society

Veteran military correspondent David Wood reports in Politics Daily that in 10 years of continuous fighting since 9/11 the United States has created a class of professional warriors separate from and in many ways alienated from their fellow citizens.

This is an Army that, under the pressure of combat, has turned inward, leaving civilian America behind, reduced to the role of a well-wishing but impatient spectator. A decade of fighting has hardened soldiers in ways that civilians can't share. America respects its warriors, but from a distance.

The consequences are many: the rise of a new warrior class; a sharp decline in the number of Americans in public life with the sobering experience of war; a fading respect for civil authority; the declining ideal of public service as a civic responsibility; a perilous shrinking of the common ground of shared values that have shaped the way Americans think about war.

The rest of the story: In the 10th Year of War, a Harder Army, a More Distant America by David Wood (Politics Daily 2010-09-11).