When President Obama spoke at last week's memorial for the victims of the Fort Hood massacre that took place on Nov. 6, he was honoring some of the army's youngest heroes. Five of the 13 soldiers killed in the tragedy were under the age of 24, the youngest only 19 years old. The fact is, casualties in this age group are sadly commonplace—more than half of all U.S. military casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan were soldiers between 18 and 24 years old. But what those soldiers didn't know was that their deaths, the largest number of American casualties since the war in Vietnam, may have spurred a new era of increased political participation among young people, the likes of which hasn't been seen since our parents protested Vietnam 35 years ago.
