The 2004-2005 Draft
Adam Krause
Contributing columnist
Do you remember filling out a Selective Service card, even though it was mandatory until federal law? Well, there are some politicians and military brass that want to take the wind out of our sails by proposing a new draft. And we’re not talking Selective Service, we’re talking mandatory service. Senator Chuck Hagel(R-Nebraska) asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?"(http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040420/ts_alt_afp/us_iraq_military_draft_040420172423)
Although Senator Hagel may seem anxious to send his generations’ children off to die for a war that our administration provoked and underestimated, he does have other interesting observations. He makes the point that our military is mainly comprised of lower and middle class soldiers, and that a draft would balance out the social strata in our military. The only flaw in that argument is that if a draft puts more upper class citizens in the military, they would still not equal the amount of lower and middle class that are already serving in the military. This social equality problem, though very true, would not have been solved.
Instead, perhaps our politicians--being so anxious to decide for the average citizen--should have their children sent off the war first. After all, if men like Bush can make the decision to invade a country under false pretenses, deceiving the American public all the while, then they should be made to watch their own children go off to fight for their noble causes. Now that’s what you call social equality.
And then there’s those Republicans that will support Bush through thick and thin; we all know one or more of them. They preach the glory and honor of Bush’s war. Then how is it that these hypocrites haven’t enlisted yet? Perhaps they’re too busy making picket signs and campaigning for the President who wishes to send them off to die for his ‘liberation’ war. If they’re in support of their great and mighty leader, then I assume that they will be the first ones to enlist once the draft is declared.
Obviously the President and the administration have no qualms whatsoever starting a war and taking our military away from their former pursuits. Many lower and middle class people enlist simply to earn money for college; many upper class folks do not need to go through such an arduous journey for an education, so they avoid the military.
So, while our rich have few in the military and most in college, our lower and middle class soldiers’ hopes of getting a college education through the military are constantly dwindling with the rising death toll in Iraq. George W. Bush sends others’ children to die while his own children booze it up under the guard of the Secret Service; and a draft is somehow supposed to balance out that inequality? Get real; it’ll only increase the loss of lower and middle class people, while preserving the upper classes.
Understandably, being in the military is a hard and honorable job; they fight for our country because they are ordered to, and when and if they ever come home, they should be treated with the utmost respect for following the orders of a disillusioned Commander-in-Chief. The last thing we should do is blame the military for our current state of affairs.
Soon-to-be Ambassador to Iraq John Negroponte doesn’t think that the draft will be discussed "in the very near future, but I'm sure that over the next several weeks this is an issue we're going to have to address."(http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&e=5&u=/ap/20040420/ap_on_go_co/congress_iraq_16)
It’s more likely that Bush will avoid the draft before election time, but once that draft is on the drawing board, it’ll be interesting to see how truly dedicated those pro-war supporters really are.