Break Out Those Protest Signs, Kids!
November 13, 2008
We’re about to oppose a civilian draft. And I’m not joking. I have no love for being forced into community service labor camps or the military. Conscripting Americans to serve their country against their will is a violation of their individual rights, and if the government hasn’t figured that out by now, they’d best take a good, long look at the events of the last 40 years.
I’ve said before that my generation has not been as actively involved in politics at any meaningful level (other than “political opposition to washing their hair” or a few PoliSci classes that mandated some protest marches and a GitMo re-enactment) because they’ve never been confronted with the possibility of having to actually take part in our foreign or domestic policy. They weren’t drafted, thus only facial opposition to the Iraq war. They don’t pay taxes, thus they don’t give a crap that tax increases will hurt our economy. They get their information through crowd-sourced marketing and Facebook, thus, they put Joe Biden, RIAA shill, into office. Whatever can be done from the couch or comes to them impacts their political outlook. Perhaps may this will, as Ed says, awaken a few peoples’ “inner libertarian.”
The sad part is, most of my generation is so stupid that, if packaged properly (say, “A Shot At Community Organizing With Tila Tequila!” or “The Real World: Military Service”) they’ll probably support this.
Not that I’m cynical or anything.
Posted in Uncategorized
November 13th, 2008 at 9:44 am
The Democrats told us that if we weren’t careful, there’d be a draft. They were right.
November 13th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I’m not cynical either but I agree with you completely.
November 14th, 2008 at 7:06 am
We need to come up with some catchy protest slogans.
“Heck no we won’t go” just doesn’t work…
–Nick
http://www.RightMichigan.com
November 14th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
Hey, maybe its my Jesuit education but doing service is not the worse thing that could happen. Giving service really does change your outlook. Now if you choose to turn down your country I am sure there is a process for it.
We’ve always had civilian service, the Peace Corps and Americorps. Frankly they’re pretty tough programs. They’re pretty selective. Based on what I know it would not be a good idea to cheapen those programs with mandatory recruits.
As for conscription, well… there’s only so many kids in the trailer parks and projects. The ones that haven’t come back in severely damaged either physically or psychologically are on their third and fourth tours.
Now if you all are against conscription, well… as Sarah says get out your white flags and wave them high when you protest. Honestly, I am not sure what defeat would mean, or victory for that matter. If we abandoned Iraq, and it fell into kaos until another dictator rose from the ashes what would that mean for us? We occupied the country and suffered with over $4 per gallon gasoline and now we have $2 per gallon gasoline but our Economy is circling the drain in a small part because of the drain the war has on our financial resources.
What happened to fight, fight, fight? Its not like there weren’t warnings that the armed forces were overextended. Can we agree that it is time to accept that Iraq has to end?
Oh if it comes to pass, I’m sure EM will get a sweet gig in the Judge Advocate General if she chooses to accept the call to arms, but if she sticks to her beliefs that is what conscientious objector status is for.
November 15th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
EM in the Judge Advocates Office? Really? Wow! You seriously think they’d be smart enough to put her there? Not likely, the fairy godmother department would likely find her a nice cushy job watching marines paint ships or something that would truly exercise her superb fashion sense. All those cute boy butts and all that drab olive green and black paint would be torture enough I suspect.
But just dump the nation building now? Just what I would expect. Drop the ball on yet another nation, and fail to live up to the hard tasks that sometimes need to be done. If you think Iraq caused 4 dollar a gallon gas prices, please hie thee back to that Jesuit school for a refresher in economics.
but in any case, don’t forget to lol ur pols pho paws!
November 15th, 2008 at 4:35 pm
Oh Father Leonard taught me well. He taught Math mostly, but he loved drama so I also took his theater course.
In simple terms the Army has a very finite number of divisions, each one commanded by a major general. Now to maintain an occupation you would probably need most of those divisions. Each those divisions working the occupation also require logistical support. All of those major generals are screaming for replacements.
Now if any of those units suffer casualties, and from what we all see and hear we losing roughly a squad (10 give or take a soldier) of people a week. Now at that rate the losses add up to platoons, then companies, and eventually you have lost a battalion that is getting extremely difficult to replace. Bonafide how is it not obvious that we are being bled dry? More importantly, what replacements are available were coming from national guard units since we already consumed the reserve units. Now the guard units are wearing out.
Bonafide, in our current condition, no longer have the financial or human resources to build nations as you put it. Its all on credit, we don’t have the people, and soon the companies that make the trucks and tanks will no longer make those trucks and tanks. We all have to come to terms with those facts. I rather not let Iraq be the point in History marking the decline of the United States to the Third World.
Bonafide also consider that crude oil is finite. Scientists estimated a 50 year supply worldwide but that was before China and India started booming increasing consumption. Honestly would we care about Iraq if oil was no longer the precious commodity it is now?
Bonafide you have to decide conscription to keep fighting, increase taxes to keep fighting, or walk away. We did it for Vietnam (the French are still laughing at us for that one), got over it, we can do it for Iraq.
On the other hand, do you have a better idea of how we can keep fighting given our current financial situation and no human resources? I never knew an army that could fight unfinanced and without troops but maybe there is a way.
November 16th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Brodie,
Don’t disagree with any of your conclusions. I’m not in the portion of the population that doesn’t understand that the decision to oust a really bad dictator, (who we helped for many years hold onto power) doesn’t have ramifications and consequences. I’m all for letting the Iraqi people decide how to govern themselves and deal with all the issues that they have facing them, but, and this is the big but, letting any region in our globally aware planet fall into a power vacuum will open the doors for worse folks to oppress their own and others. If the policies of the last 6 years are on the verge of letting the Iraqi’s succeed, we should stay the course for at least a bit until it’s a done thing, not just cut and run off. This will have some costs and yes, we as a nation will have to pay for those costs, but that’s how we maintain credibility in the world, and gain back some trust and respect from a lot of people who would like nothing more than to see us fail. If we take the word of our new president elect at their face value, he’s prepared to use deficits to deal with most of our costs, and that means he should allow us to succeed, and not just hop out with our tails between our legs.
I don’t like to fail… I have enough competency issues of my own, I don’t want more because of where I live and who I love. I moved here from elsewhere damn it, and I think this country is the best place in the world. I don’t want little 15th century ignorant bumpkins brought up on one religious book to be able to say they chased us out because we didn’t have the courage of our convictions.
just my .02 cents worth.
loling ur pols pho paws!
November 19th, 2008 at 7:54 pm
Bonafide I appreciate everything you say. I am just not sure we can keep up the pace we are going. This may look like Dunkirk revisited but by no means is the war over. Lets concentrate on the Taliban and Al Qieda and then return if we need to as MacArthur did.