A Draft
Uh, I'd say this is pretty accurate.
UPDATE: We ought to have a draft. It would eliminate (at least partially) the class factor in the army, it would force Americans to interact with one another. Remember the Civil Rights movement? Born out of the integration of the military...all of sudden blacks and whites worked together and figured out, shit we CAN get a long. Red State/Blue State issues, toss all of us into a draft together and we'll see some esprit de corps.
Plus, it'll make us think long and hard about war and make the costs more real. And the funny thing is, the left would like to think that the war would be less popular if more people were affected by it. I think the opposite - more people would see the compelling need for us being in Iraq. I bet the war is more popular amongst folks in the military than folks not in the military in the same age demographic.
I also think if we had a few more college-bound folks in the military doing the work, we'd see less of the Abu Gharib type of thing and also a greater sense of accountability with respect to such things as prisoner abuse, etc. Shit, we'd have future law school students in the military double checking the policies of prisoner treatment by being the folks carrying out the orders. As of right now, I doubt many Yale, Harvard, and Stanford Law folks are the ones getting out the the military...let's have a draft and force them to. Same goes for USC film students.
1 comment:
I'd take that with a grain of salt.
Given: Politicians lie.
Given: College students are often closted from these issues, living in a sheltered existence behind ivy walls.
I'd say the chances of a draft are what they've always been: 50/50. No politician will ever say they're for a draft until they're in the position that they have to -- ie, they might want to, but they know that their public confidence will go to nothing if they support one openly.
Considering that we're in a war, the armed forces are overextended, new recuiting is at a low and missing projections, and the government recently filled draft board vacancies to keep the system going, I think its safe to say that there could be a draft if things don't get better, and don't stay where they're at, and people start to believe that we need a draft.
But a draft is political suicide right now - people don't want it, and politicans know that.
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