When it comes to Republicans (except Ron Paul) their stance on war is as clear-cut as a hot southern summer's day is long: they've never met a war they didn't like. To make matters worse, the warmongering hubris of the Republican nominee for President, John McCain, is never questioned. McCain's bloodthirsty lust for American hegemony over the planet is given a pass (most likely) because of his experiences as a pilot during the Vietnam War. Since when does being tortured for five and half years qualify you to make the decision to send thousands more young people off to fight illegal wars?
McCain will never hesitate to volunteer your sons and daughters to serve overseas protecting our beloved homeland. In fact, he might go one step further. By flirting with the idea of re-instituting a draft McCain is sending a clear message to America that our children are the property of the State. OK, he's never overtly said he supports the re-institution of a draft (to do so would be political suicide, unless you're Charlie Rangel). That's what makes McCain's statements so sinister, though: the conductor of the "Straight Talk Express" is sending a subtle threat to America's youth by toying around with such ideas.
To illustrate my point, consider the present state of our military. We already have in place certain preventative measures that impede military members from leaving the service, even after their present commitment has been fulfilled. These measures, called "stop losses" are a violation of the contract between the soldier and the government. By violating that contract and forcing service members to remain on active duty, the government is sending a clear signal: we (the government) own you. Such practices have become affectionately known as "the back door draft" and for good reason. Furthermore, although the military claims to be meeting its recruiting goals each quarter, I beg you not to be fooled by the statistics. The military is meeting those goals by lowering its standards. That's right, the "the best and the brightest" now includes upstanding citizens such as felons, drug users/dealers and the poorly educated. Somewhere Chesty Puller is rolling over in his grave.
How does McCain's stance play in to all of this, and what does this have to do with the draft? Simple. McCain plans to expand the military by 100,000 troops. How will he achieve his goal? Well, there are a couple of options. First, McCain (as well as Obama and Clinton) supports some form of mandatory national service for all citizens between the ages of 18 and 42. Hmmm, this proposal sounds eerily similar to something America implemented during the great depression, the works program authority. We all know how well those proposals worked out. The service can be in uniform or in some other capacity such as the peace corps, but the cynical side of me thinks the peace corps slots will be reserved for the next generation's George Bush Texas Air National Guard and not the Iowa farm boys fresh out of high school.
The second option would be to continue down our present path: recruiting people from the dregs of society while stop-lossing a larger percentage of military members. Clearly, the second option is much more volatile, and carries with it much more dire consequences. Eventually, the horror (not to mention the legal ramifications) of stop-lossing service members will become public, especially if/when a larger percentage of service members are affected. Once the policy affects enough people and the scam is on the verge of being exposed for what it is, the rules have to change. The government knows that. And there's only so many drug dealers, felons, rapists, and unintelligent people that would be willing to trade their life in the inner-city (where crime rates and the risk of being killed are roughly the same as Baghdad, for instance) for a life consisting of carrying a rifle and sleeping in the sand. How ironic would it be if it is the unintelligent who are the first to realize that a life among the "best and the brightest" isn't all it is cracked up to be?
If the above scenarios play out as I suspect they will, then America will be faced with only one option to satisfy our war machine's insatiable appetite: institute a draft. I fully expect that, should McCain reach the White House, he'll begin entertaining overtures for a military draft before the first playing of "Hail to the Chief!" is complete. And why not? After five and half years of torture in Vietnam, who are we to question his judgment?
1 comment:
There is a new movie out called Stop Loss. ARFKM?
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