I Hate War

I think that a mandatory draft should be instituted, with the draftees doing things like public works projects during peacetime. Right now, few of us really feel responsible or personally touched by the wars that we're fighting, or the thousands of corpses that keep piling up on both sides. But if every family had a personal stake in it - if everyone's sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews were the ones who had to throw themselves on the meat grinder when we and our leaders choose to wage war - then I think that the wars would end.

Vietnam was going on for well over a decade, with our soldiers killing and dying by the literal millions, and all the while there were no meaningful protests in America. No one cared, except for a handful that could be easily ignored. A lot of people complained, but there was no real fight behind the complaints. We had sent in our specialists - our volunteers - and thereby washed our hands of any responsibility for it.

But the second that the draft happened - the second that people started getting sent over there who hadn't volunteered, protests started up on a level that had never existed before in the history of our nation. Protests that shook the very foundation of how we view and trust (and mistrust) our government. And within a few years, a war that had dragged on for decades came to an end. Politicians recognized that they wouldn't get elected (or re-elected) unless they took a very different stance on the war.

And now here we are, with our soldiers still in the middle east after well over a decade. We've pulled out of some places, gone into others - but the wars go on and on, with no end in sight. They don't even bother to talk about it in the news anymore, it's become so commonplace. No one cares. People complain, but there's no real fight behind the complaints. And my greatest fear is that this time, no draft will ever happen. Nothing will force us to turn away from this fight against our latest bugbear - this generation's communism - and the corpses that that fight will bring.

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Penny · 46-50, F

so you are suggesting they draft people and keep them from school and work and family and pay them peanuts, a soldier's pay, funded by the taxpayers, to do publics works projects like fix roads and stuff? sounds like slave labor

BlueDiver · 36-40, M

I'm suggesting that we stop sending our specialists to kill and die, and by doing so absolve ourselves of any personal responsibility for our country's wars. And yes, it would be incredibly hard - everyone would have to spend time away from their families, and taxes would be higher.

But you're wrong about them getting paid peanuts and getting treated like slaves. Soldiers are paid peanuts and treated like disposable people *because* only a very small percentage of Americans give a damn about what happens to them. Like I said, we send our specialists out to do our dirty work, and then stop thinking about them. But if *every* member of *every* family had to be a soldier for a while, can you honestly tell me that the way that soldiers are treated (and the casual ease with which we wage war on others) wouldn't drastically change for the better?

Penny · 46-50, F

@BlueDiver: yeah but you'd need to actually send them to war not public works jobs. i just don't quite get what you are getting at . i understand people who feel the sting more personally might not support the war so much, but really, war is not in the hands of the people, it's in the hands of the government which you could laughably say is the hand of the people. a draft is always a bad idea.

BlueDiver · 36-40, M

And yet Vietnam was going on for well over a decade, with our soldiers killing and dying by the literal millions, and all the while there were no meaningful protests in America. No one cared, except for a handful that could be easily ignored. A lot of people complained, but there was no real fight behind the complaints. We had sent in our specialists - our volunteers - and thereby washed our hands of any responsibility for it.

But the second that the draft happened - the second that people started getting sent over there who hadn't volunteered, protests started up on a level that had never existed before in the history of our nation. Protests that shook the very foundation of how we view and trust (and mistrust) our government. And within a few years, a war that had dragged on for decades came to an end. Politicians recognized that they wouldn't get elected (or re-elected) unless they took a very different stance on the war.

And now here we are, with our soldiers still in the middle east after well over a decade. We've pulled out of some places, gone into others - but the wars go on and on, with no end in sight. They don't even bother to talk about it in the news anymore, it's become so commonplace. No one cares. People complain, but there's no real fight behind the complaints.

Penny · 46-50, F

@BlueDiver: I can't truly say why US soldiers are in Afghanistan unless it's to fight off the Taliban. But I "know" one specialist who says he gladly goes to the middle east to kill ISIS fighters. he gave up a good job and a cushy life because that is what feeds him, his desire to crush ISIS. (i don't know this person that well and he could be lying for all i know) but that is what he says.

BlueDiver · 36-40, M

I don't deny that our soldiers are heroes in their courage and their sacrifice. So were most of the Allied soldiers in WWII. So were most of the Nazi soldiers in WWII - all of the ones who had bought into Hitler's propaganda and had no idea of the evil that their government was doing. Hate the war, not the soldiers - I wholeheartedly agree with that. That's a big part of why I'm tired of soldiers being such a fringe group that our nation as a whole mostly uses them up and then washes our hands of them.

Penny · 46-50, F

@BlueDiver: I really don't know much about how our soldiers fare upon return. I wouldn't call them a fringe group though, they get much respect from the peeps i know.

BlueDiver · 36-40, M

Maybe it's because I live in such a liberal area, but the 'peeps' around here (ie: hypocritical yuppies) don't show them the kind of respect that you're talking about.

Penny · 46-50, F

@BlueDiver: that stinks.

BlueDiver · 36-40, M

Yup.