In Case You Missed This... 'Draft the Rich' - Time

[WillyT]

Draft the Rich
To avoid a toxic social rift and to bolster our armed forces, the military should conscript upper-class Americans
Elliot Ackerman - Time
Elliot Ackerman served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and is the recipient of the Silver Star, the Bronze Star for Valor, and the Purple Heart. His novel of the Afghan War, Green on Blue, was published in February by Scribner.
March 11, 2015

<snip>

On an August morning in 2011, I sat in a procession of cars at Arlington National Cemetery with my friend, whom we’ll call Joe, a veteran special operator with more combat deployments than I can count on both hands. We’d gathered that day to bury another friend, Marine Gunnery Sergeant Jonathan ‘Giff’ Gifford, who’d been killed the week before in Afghanistan. While Joe and I waited for Giff’s coffin to be loaded onto a caisson taking it to Section 60, the resting place for the war dead from Iraq and Afghanistan, we stared out from behind our sunglasses across the Potomac, toward Washington DC, where morning commuters clogged the Memorial Bridge.

“How much longer do you think we’ll be coming to funerals here?” asked Joe, not expecting an answer. Then he looked at the traffic. “Not a single one of them knows Giff died last week. People need to feel this. I tell you, man, I’m for a draft.”

This caught me by surprise. Joe was the consummate professional, a mentor of mine who’d dedicated his life to soldiering. We’d both started as Marine infantry officers, but Joe had gone onto serve in some of the most elite special operations units. “You can’t be serious,” I said. “Can you imagine how bad we would’ve performed with a platoon full of conscripts?”

Joe pushed his sunglasses up his head, looking back at me as serious as I’d ever seen him. “I’m not sure we need to be as good at this as we are.”

Each war the United States has fought has had its own construct: the national mobilization of the Second World War; the 1.7 million draftees of the Vietnam War; and, over the last 14 years, the post-9/11 Wars have been fought with an all-volunteer force at a cost approaching $6 trillion, primarily financed through deficit spending, with no significant taxes levied on the populace. This construct has come with a price: in its wake we’ve been left with the most significant civil-military divide in our history.

In the past, waging war has been torturous for Americans, and rightfully so. The Civil War, World War I, World War II, and Vietnam were all grueling experiences, endeavors felt both economically and socially, as hundreds of thousands of lives were interrupted, or cut short, in order to fight. Even the “good wars”—like the Civil War and World War II—became difficult to sustain politically at such a cost of blood and treasure.

Today’s wars, fought in the name of a largely disengaged citizenry, place our nation in a position of moral hazard...

<snip>

More: http://time.com/3739513/a-modest-proposal-draft-the-rich/

[Warpy]

1. Do you think Cheney would have stopped with Iraq

if he'd had access to all young males in this country via a draft?

No draft. The rich will never subject their spawn to it, not ever. To suggest otherwise is a silly pipe dream. The rest of us will see our children die in more wars of corporate convenience.

C'mon. You know this.

[WillyT]

2. I'm Not Advocating... Just Posting An Interesting Article... Something To Consider...

I missed the Vietnam Draft, the Lottery, by one year. Graduated HS in 1973.

My old man, a Marine Bomber Pilot in the South Pacific, and a Forward Radar Installation Officer in Korea...

Told me that he would proudly drive me to Canada to find me a place to live.

He said, "I didn't fight in those two wars for YOU to go, I fought so you wouldn't have to."

And then came a Korea, a "Police-State" Action...

And then Vietnam... same fucking thing.

Once his eyes were opened, he said fuck this shit.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

3. I also graduated HS in 73 and also missed the draft by being female.

One of my brothers paid a shrink to say he was insane. My other brother's number was high. My ex-husband became a junkie for a week. The reaction to the draft led to the all volunteer armed forces where the same poor souls face the horrors of American manufactured wars over and over again. Anyone calling for war should be required to serve on the front lines.

[WillyT]

7. Thank You For That...

[Enthusiast]

10. +1. I barely missed the draft.

I passed the physical. My birthday number was 97. That year they took to 95. I graduated in 1970.

[dsc]

4. if the children of billionaires were being put in danger

then he most certainly would have stopped or he would have been made to stop, you can count on it. Billionaires rarely don't get what they want badly and not having their kids killed in Iraq would have been something that they would have wanted quite badly indeed.

[Warpy]

5. But they weren't in danger, were never in danger, will never be in danger.

People need to let go of the silly pipe dream that the children of the rich will ever be risked in a rich man's war.

It is just not going to happen, not ever.

[dsc]

6. during WW2 those of age pretty much did go to war

and even in Korea. I don't think it was all the draft, a large part was that there was an ethic that one didn't not go to war. Two Kennedy children went to war (one died during the war and the other was JFK), Bush the elder went to war, many famous athletes went to war as did actors. Roosevelt's son was in the military and even served in a fairly dangerous capacity. The rich weren't always as parasitic in this regard as they are now.

[Warpy]

8. WWII was a direct threat to the US

as the Japanese bombed Hawaii and invaded parts of the Aleutians. Of course, they defied their daddies and signed up.

Wars of corporate convenience are designed to be fought by the poor. No draft will ever touch the spawn of the rich, not ever.

People need to let go of that particular fairy tale right now.

[WillyT]

9. There Are Stories I've Read... No Links Yet... Where Men Of Age During A War...

Who were innocently walking down the street...

Were spit on by the people left behind.

Women, elderly, children, returning Vets...

[Warpy]

14. That was WWI

and mostly in England, where they were also handed white feathers as symbols of cowardice.

[dsc]

15. I have no idea about Bush

but Kennedy must assuredly did not defy his dad by signing up. Joe Kennedy was very upfront about want his sons to fight in that war.

[Enthusiast]

12. In those days the nation had a sense of fair play.

After that, not so much.

[Enthusiast]

11. +1

[Warpy]

13. They never would have been, nor will they ever be.

Time to let go of the fairy tales and see the world the way it is.