A lost opportunity immediately following the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and Worlds Trade Center in 2001, was to take advantage of the �New Patriotism� prevalent in the US. A brief window of national pride was open to mobilize the country for war on a scale compared to post-Pearl Harbor America in World War 2. Instead, our leaders continued the same faulty policy of limited war, as practiced by the Cold War generation. This strategy laid the war-making burden on the shoulders of a small number of Americans, mainly the military and their families, while the bulk of the nation conducted business as usual. Feeling they had no stake in the war, Americans soon wearied of it no matter the rightness of the cause, as occurred in Korea, Vietnam, and often threatens the conduct of the Iraq conflict. In anticipation of the 2004 elections in the US, Andrei Cherny, a key aid in the impending presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry, understood well the short attention span of many Americans. While searching for a theme for his candidate to run on, Cherny hit upon an idea that would trump George Bush on National Security. He would demand for all citizens to sacrifice in the War on Terror, rather than just a few. Young people would be subject to mandatory national service via a draft. Automakers would be required to raise fuel efficiency standards and an aggressive energy program would take place to end our dependence on Mid East oil. Finally, the most astounding move Kerry would make was to call on Ivy League colleges, such as his own alma mater Yale, to restart ROTC training on their campuses, which many abandoned during the Vietnam War. When Cherny fininished his presentation to Kerry, the Senator and most of his staff rejected the New Patriotism. Dumbfounded at this rebuff of what he was sure top anything the Republicans proposed, the author asked Kerry what he would stand for during the election campaign? In the midst of a global war with Islamic Fascism and so soon after the loss of 3000 civilians on American soil, the soon-to-be Democratic nominee answered:
�Early education and child care�.
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