| So...when I wrote that post the other day on reinstating the draft, my argument that national and universal service (with a civil service option, preferably) would cause Americans to pause before sending troops to war was only a portion of my unease with an all-volunteer army. There's also something...disquieting...about having a professional military detached from civilian life. It's not that I think they'd turn on us, as Larry K brought up - at least not as long as conditions are stable in our body politic - but...well...it's just too easy to use the army for missions that aren't necessarily in our nation's best interest.
Let me explain by pulling up this quote by John Bolton on why he joined the National Guard during Vietnam - a war he ostensibly supported: "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy."
Bolton obviously misses the point. If you're not willing to lay down your life in a war you "support," you don't actually "support" the war.
You know the rest of the story: John Bolton, along with a number of other top administration officials (Bush and Cheney, to name two others) with a similar military background, planned and organized the invasion of Iraq based on manufactured intelligence reports to satisfy intellectual theories about American power abroad - much in the same way a clutch of basement-dwelling, coke-and-pizza-swilling D&D-obsessed pubescent geeks would.
And they could get away with it because we have a professional military to do the mission.
Of course, The Polish Wolf has a point:
The draft didn't keep us from trying to occupy Vietnam and Korea, it only limited our options once we were there. In the time we were in those two places, we ended up killing a hell of a lot more innocent people than we've killed in Afghanistan, and suffering many more casualties, despite being there less time, because the military we had then (no offense to any one who served then) was not the quality that can be achieved with a professional, volunteer army.
Yeah, well, I imagine casualties would be higher in Iraq if we were fighting the Chinese army, but his point about the draft not stopping Korea or Vietnam is absolutely true.
Still, there's a disconnect here: our leaders intervene militarily to maintain an American empire its people don't want to sacrifice for, but still assume as their birthright. There are two options: give up the empire and face the wrath of Americans, or pay someone else to fight for them and shield them as best you can from the unpleasantness that follows. The dichotomy was made evident in Korea and Vietnam, and the unrest that followed those wars drove our government to choose the latter option.
A draft might force the burden of American empire directly onto the shoulders of whose burden it is - the American people's - and might cause us to reconsider. Of course, too many folks have a lot of money invested in American empire... |
