Unmobilized for war

AMERICA is not at war. To be sure, there are fierce battles in Afghanistan and Iraq where American soldiers are dying day after day. Yet, while our troops and their families have seen their lives altered in fundamental ways, the average American has been asked to sacrifice almost nothing. We read the papers, watch the news, worry about the disintegrating situation, then, except for the inconvenience at the airports, go about our daily lives in much the same manner as we did in the first summer of the 21st century.

A critical conflict, characterized by the Bush administration as the most important in generations, is being waged by a tiny fraction of our population -- the men and women in our armed forces, plus a small number of civilian agencies, together totaling less than 1 percent of our citizenry.

During World War II, by contrast, our countrymen participated in the nation's struggle in countless ways. Substantial changes in lifestyles were willingly accepted, along with higher taxes and gasoline rationing. Automobile companies worked round the clock to produce the planes, tanks, and trucks needed for soldiers. Textile mills ran double shifts to fill orders for uniforms. Local communities conducted aluminum scrap drives; schoolchildren rolled rubber bands into giant balls to help replenish diminished rubber supplies. Millions volunteered to be part of a vast civilian defense operation. And more than 14 million men and women joined the Army, Navy, and Marines. We and our Allies won a historic victory in a war that had to be fought to save Western civilization -- a war that came to an end 3 1/2 years after Pearl Harbor -- a shorter time frame than our struggle in Iraq.

After 9/11, I enlisted in the Army, having graduated from Harvard College the previous June. In the wake of that terrible day, I felt called upon to protect our nation and way of life. During my four years of duty, including a year of combat in Iraq, I met others who had made the same decision. I agree with Donald Rumsfeld, the former secretary of defense, that you must "go to war with the army you have," but I cannot understand why a greater effort was not made to enlarge that army. Had an effort been made to recruit more volunteers in the days and months after 9/11, I am confident that tens of thousands would have answered the call and that our Army today would not be stretched so thin. That call never came.

In Baghdad, we carried out our nightly patrols in unarmored Humvees. In a desperate attempt to provide greater protection, we commissioned local nationals to weld large pieces of iron to our doors. Our jerry-rigged solution failed. Due to the greater weight on the doors, the hinges broke, and we ended up patrolling without any doors.

When I told workers in a manufacturing plant in New York what had happened, they told me five ways we could have accomplished our goal without destroying the hinges. And yet, their advice and guidance were never solicited. Indeed, if American shipyards were able to cut the time for completing cargo ships from one year to one day during World War II, how is it possible that our factories, had they worked round the clock, could not have produced the armored Humvees we needed?

While I was in Iraq, our armed forces were called upon to engage in all manner of activities for which we had not been trained -- from rebuilding essential infrastructure such as roads, schools, and electrical grids to aiding in the establishment of fledgling governments and judicial systems. We could not understand why more qualified experts from the departments of Energy, Transportation, and State were not given the lead in these essential tasks.

Unlike more than 20,000 of my fellow soldiers, I returned home without serious injury. The heartbreaking revelations at Walter Reed Medical Center have touched a chord in the country that will hopefully produce needed changes in Building 18 and beyond. Still, the larger problem of caring for wounded veterans and helping them navigate the complex bureaucracy of our healthcare system remains.

Bedside Advocates, a pilot program in Boston, may provide a model for action. With support from the Massachusetts Medical Society and funding from private donors and the Legislature, a volunteer force of retired doctors and nurses is being mobilized to provide one-on-one support for patients both in and out of hospitals. Complicated issues will need to be sorted out, but what if such a program could be expanded nationwide so that every wounded veteran could be provided with his or her own bedside advocate? It is easy to imagine that thousands of retired doctors, nurses, EMTs, and social workers would be honored to volunteer.

We are a great nation, capable of almost anything if our hearts and minds are engaged. In wartime, we cannot afford to leave the talents and energies of our wider population on the sidelines. It is akin to a football coach keeping his offensive line on the bench. No matter how gifted his quarterback, no matter how talented his running backs and receivers, his team will have no chance to win.

Joseph Kearns Goodwin, who received a Bronze Star for his service in Iraq, works for General Electric.