Drafting a solution to the war

by expatbrian

Troops in Iraq. Troops in Afghanistan. Troops in Korea, Japan, Europe, and here at home. Naval vessels patrolling all the major oceans and seas. Air force planes flying surveillance missions all over the world. Coast Guard forces patrolling up and down both coast lines. National Guardsmen serving not only at home but overseas.

Recruiters not meeting quotas. Military service standards being lowered to the point where drug users, criminals and the mentally deficient are readily accepted and given critical assignments not to mention weapons.

Exhausted, psychologically scarred and even wounded soldiers being sent into war zones time and time again. Tours being extended. Men and women forced to spend more and more time away from their families. Startling rates of suicide among those who have given absolutely everything and simply cannot bear to give more.

All of this screams for a reinstatement of the draft. Why, in the face of such an obvious and desperate need are we not relying on the one solution that can ease, if not solve, all of these problems? Why are our leaders, who bellow about supporting our troops, not demanding that we immediately reinstate the draft as we have done so readily before?

Is it because the draft, by definition, might include the sons of wealthy campaign contributors or legislators themselves? Is it because our legislators fear a loss of votes? Is it because our president fears the images of students burning their draft cards on worldwide TV? Is it because he knows that the protests will be so fierce, so vocal and ultimately so violent that that he would rather have our existing forces suffer unimaginable burdens rather than loose more of his imagined credibility?

Is it because he, and everyone in the criminal syndicate he calls his administration, realize that reinstating the draft is the ONE thing that will force the American people to stop listening to his pompous lies and end these wars swiftly? And is it because the Republicans know that, if they are in power when the much needed draft is once again authorized, they will lose any possible chance of winning the election in November?

Is it because we simply cannot afford the cost of a military force large enough to successfully complete his grandiose mission?

Its all of these things. And while this very plausible solution is kept tightly locked away as if it were a contagious leper, our existing forces, undefunded and spread so terribly thin, continue to deteriorate like Jews in a concentration camp.

In the 60's the draft was a part of every young American man's life. We talked about it, worried about it, even laughed about it. We all waited to get our "Greetings" letter from the Selective Service. We were experts on the various deferments that were offered and watched as they were withdrawn one by one. A few burned their draft cards, some even fled the country and fewer still chose jail over military service. But the vast majority of us went when called.

Good or bad, we went because we had to. We, and our parents believed the lies coming out of the White House then. The truth had not yet been revealed. Communism was Satan and it had to be stopped. A half a million troops at a time were needed just in Vietnam and we were still in all of the other places around the world.

It was horrific. It was surreal. It was a slaughter.

When the lie was revealed, when it became clear that not 3 or 4 thousand, but 58,000 Americans had died for a political lie, the nation finally rose up and demanded that our men be brought home. And they were.

This time, the lie has been revealed very early in the game. We already know that there is no victory in sight, no thankful Iraqi nation that will ultimately become a shining democracy. Yet we allow it to continue. We allow our own soldiers to be horribly mistreated during and after their service. And even though our soldiers, the military brass and even the Pentagon cry out for more manpower, even as we send our wounded back to fight again and again, we believe the White House when they tell us that we have enough men to complete the "mission".

I don't have any idea what the "mission" is. But if we are going to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan and all of the other places that we find it necessary to have a military presence, if we really don't have the guts to stand up as a nation and demand an end to this unconscionable nightmare, then at least we must give our troops what they really need - rest, immediate and professional treatment, and adequate, timely replacements. We need the draft. And not one of our leaders has the courage to say it.

cross posted from World Gone Mad