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In July 1997, Thomas E. Ricks wrote an article for the Atlantic that detailed the widening gap between the U.S. military and the American public. After following a platoon of Marine recruits through basic training and their post-graduation leave, he found that many of them felt alienated from their families and their friends – indeed, the very society they had sworn to defend. Almost twenty years later, in January 2015, James Fallows penned a similar piece for the Atlantic, describing America as a “chickenhawk nation” – one “that is willing to do anything for its military except take it seriously.”