Bring back the Draft!

BRINGING BACK THE DRAFT

Memorial Day 2014 just passed and America did its best to remember our fallen soldiers.  Young people went to the beach or stayed glued to video games or Facebook.  In many communities, veterans are few and far between.  So many wars fought on foreign soil about things many couldn't understand.  How is it that the longest war for America has been fought on the back of so few?

Having protested the war in Vietnam with thousands of other Americans I cannot believe that I am going to say what I am going to say.  This country needs to bring back the draft. Everyone in this country needs to be affected by wars present and future, not just the few.  Would the war in Afghanistan have happened? Would it have gone on so long if all families had to worry about their son or daughter being sent into harm’s way?  Would we have paused before we rushed into Iraq to find that there were no WMD's?  Yes 9/11 needed a response! We might all have agreed on that. But would our response been more considered knowing that all of us were being called upon to make personal sacrifices?

A friend of mine, an ex-Marine, a current military operative of some kind( inquiries meet with "If I tell you I 'll have to kill you") repeats when asked anything about what is going on" It's about the oil".    So why weren't we asked to

join in the response to 9/11 by limiting our energy consumption?  Let's not even talk about global warming! (That's another blog)

War has to be everyone's business. It can't be" out of sight and out of mind "and someone else's burden.  The public discourse would change if we all were involved. Many of you who are reading this will be like me. I don't personally know anyone who has served or is serving in this war. I don't know anyone who even knows anyone. And no I am not socially isolated or confined to a psychiatric hospital.  I have a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. 

Isn't it interesting that at the beginning of this war not one member of Congress had a child who was called to serve.  Since that time Senator John McCain's sons have served as well as the children of a few (very few) others. Not enough of them, not enough of us to ensure that decisions to get us into war and keep us there are made with the consent and understanding of all of us.