Uncle Sam Will Soon Want Your Kids

A Col. David Hackworth essay from Soldiers for the Truth courtesy of J. Orlin Grabbe:

Although Pentagon puff artists insist they’re making quota, recruiters are already saying it would be easier to find $100 bills on the sidewalk outside a homeless shelter than fill their enlistment quotas, even with the huge bonuses now being paid.

So the draft – which will include both boys and girls this time around – is a no-brainer in ‘05 and ‘06.

Oh sure, the Pentagon suits will fight it. Volunteers tend to go with the flow and seldom blow the whistle on military stupidity, flawed tactics and self-serving leadership. And draftees don’t hesitate to make waves and tell the truth. Not to mention influential citizens with draft-age kids who’ll soon be demanding an answer to the same type of hard question their moms and dads shouted during the Vietnam War: “Hey, hey, LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?”

Rumsfeld, in fact, has already kicked off the anti-draft campaign by denigrating the draftees who fought in Vietnam. The SecDef, who prefers sycophants who don’t ask questions, recently stated that Vietnam-era draftees added “No value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services ... because ... it took an enormous amount of effort in terms of training, and then they were gone.”

Wrong once again. I led draftees for almost four years in Vietnam and for several years during the Korean War. If well-led, there are no finer soldiers. Ask the Nazis, the Japanese and the Reds in Korea and in Vietnam, where “no value” draftees cleaned their clocks in fight after fight.

Click here for the rest.

I'm of two minds about a draft. On the one hand, I buy into the concept that draftees can keep the military honest, and bring popular pressure down on the government to shorten or end useless conflict. On the other hand, I'm very much of the opinion that, as long as the government, and therefore the military, are controlled by wealthy corporate forces, there can be no "just war" fought by the United States. A draft, then, would be forcing America's youth to do the dirty work of the corporations, at taxpayers' expense.

Ultimately, my heart guides me on this. In the event of a draft, if any of the first year freshmen to whom I teach beginning acting at LSU ask me what they should do, I already know my answer: don't go. Don't die for no good reason. Don't kill for no good reason. Live your life; fight for something important. Save lives instead.

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