We are at war. The president tells us so – again, and again, and again. Why does he have to tell us? Could it be because the war doesn’t touch most of us, doesn’t inconvenience most of us, doesn’t cost us anything tangible?
Sure the costs of the war are staggering (especially to the people who are actually fighting it and their families) but for most of us the costs are kind of “out there.” Yes, our prestige has fallen around the world. Yes, we are less safe than when this mess started. Yes, the deficit has soared — but who knows how many a trillion is anyway?
Last week ABC News visited Kent State University to ask today’s crop of students how they felt about today’s war. While most of them seemed to oppose it, none seemed too worked up about it. How different from the Viet Nam era! Of course the crack MSM analysts speculated on the reasons why this might be. The one thing the oafs never thought to mention was there was a draft during the Viet Nam era. That made the war damn personal for many, many of us.
Continued…
We are now at a point where over half of polled Americans oppose the war. Most aren’t doing a damn thing about that opposition. But what if it was personal? What if there was a draft? What if there was a special tax to fund the costs of the war? What if we all had to work six and a half days a week to produce material? What if we were all required to give four hours a week to the cause – in VA hospitals? What if, at the very least, our dinners were interrupted by the sight of flag-draped coffins or a real accounting of civilian casualties over there?
What would the over 50 per cent do then? What would the other per cent do? The Bush administration has been brilliant in whipping up a feeling of patriotism and a sense of vague anxiety. Perhaps its most brilliant/evil strategy has been reducing the experience of this war to nothing more than a pretend game for the vast majority of Americans.
So what is the cost for most of us? $1.99 for our magnetic ribbon and a large piece of our soul.
Well, the rich elite are very busy ejjoying. protecting and increasing the size of thier bank accounts and portfiolios. The middle class is tied up with trying to keep their share of the good life from melting away, and keep a handhold on the American Dream. The low income working folks are chasing thier tails 24/7 to keep a roof over thier heads and food in the fridge. The very poor, disbled, elderly, etc, are frantically trying to sruvive and find enough medicine and health care to stay alive at all.
Most of these haven’t the time, energy or motivation to pay much attention to current events at all, even if they did know where to find real news. Most have decided politics is so corrupted from the inside out you can’t beleive anything any of them say anyway and con’t see where they have any power to change any of it..so may as well focus avaialble energies on the here and now of survival/security needs and jenkoying life as it exist rights around us.
I remember the community I lived when the draft began hitting home in the Nam years, slamming the reality of war right in our faces. When a family member is suddenly standing before you in uniform, and you know you may never see them again, you wake up damned fast. Maybe thats what it’s going to take again. I hope not. I sincerely hope not.
Yes, of course you are right that there are a lot of reasons – some legitimate – that keep people from speaking up. And humans always deal with the issues that are most immediate and most personal. It just strikes me as surreal that when our country is at war, the only thing asked of us is that we shut up and wave the flag occasionally.
If it is important enough for be there (which it is not) then all citizens should be sacrificing to achieve our goals (whatever they may be.)
This idea — that introducing a draft will ‘bring the war home’ to the heart of empire would strengthen the anti-war movement — has been floating around for a while. I remember a friend advocating it soon after the 2003 invasion.
I think it’s a mistake for the left to support increased militarisation: the military-industrial complex is quite powerful enough without us advocating that it should have a larger captive workforce.
I also think it suggests a profound confusion about the proper relationship between means and ends. The ‘end’ is to stop a war — the ‘means’ have to be compatible with that, as well as being able to serve as ends in themselves. I don’t see that advocating (even for expedient reasons) a policy that strengthens the state’s ability to wage war meets either of these requirements.
In fairness, however, I suspect I have different ideas about soldiering than many on the left. I don’t say ‘thank you for your service’ to soldiers and I certainly do not ‘support the troops.’ On this, I stand with Shelley: “Man has no right to kill his brother. It is no excuse that he does so in uniform: he adds only the infamy of servitude to the crime of murder.”
Well, I am not advocating the draft. I think we should get the hell out ASAP.
As far as our troops, it seems like nobody is really supporting them. I am deeply ambivalent about the common notion of supporting the troops. The country sent them there, so we have an obligation to try to keep them safe and to see that they get the treatment they need. (I certainly also feel that the Iraqis are no less valuable than U.S. citizens.)
But I am queasy about praising the mission of the military. Certainly, among the troops there are individual instances of heroism and compassion. But the mission is wrong, evil, immoral in my opinion.
I reject completely the idea that it is okay to kill civilians to achieve a political goals as long as you don’t target them directly. Being collateral damage leaves one just as dead or injured as being the victim of a terrorist attack. I am appalled by the rhetoric that says “We are fighting them over there so se don’t have to fight them over here.” In other words, we are using Iraqi civilians as a human shields. Yet no one ever questions this statement.
I guess I am just desperate for the American people to wake up and hold the government responsible. For the war and for so many other things. The administration has done all it can to keep us dazed and disconnected.
Or else read in far too much — I took your questions re. ‘what if there were a draft?’ as implying that were this in place, it might be worth it as those who oppose the war would be galvanised into action. Which, looking again more closely, is not what you said. So my apologies.
It sounds like we reject and are appalled by many of the same things.