【美国精神】第32期

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Explanation:

  About 1.5 million Americans are on active duty (or working) in the military, which is the organizations and people who fight to protect a country. Who is the leader of all these organizations and people? It is the president of the United States, who is also known as the Commander-in-Chief, or the top leader of the military.

  The U.S. military is sometimes called the U.S. Armed Forces. It has five main parts: the Army, Navy¹, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard. The Army mostly fights on land while the Navy and the Marines fight with boats and the Air Force fights mostly with planes. Finally, the Coast Guard is more involved in protecting America’s coastline, which is the part of land next to the ocean. These five parts work together to protect the United States, but they need strong leaders to be able to work together effectively or well.

  Each of the five parts of the U.S. Armed Forces has many commanders and other leaders, but the president as Commander-in-Chief outranks (or has more power than) any of them. As Commander-in-Chief, the president can tell the Armed Forces where to go and when. The president can even lead the Armed Forces on the battlefield, or where the fighting actually takes place. However, presidents rarely do that because they know that the leaders of the Armed Forces have more military experience and knowledge than they do. In fact, only two presidents have ever used their power as Commander-in-Chief to actually lead soldiers (or the people who fight in a war) onto the battlefield. These were presidents George Washington and James Madison.

  Some people think that the Commander-in-Chief has too much power to make and fight wars. Especially with America’s recent war on terror² (or fear caused by another group of people through violence), many people would like to limit the types of things that the president can do when fighting against terrorists³.

 

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