BUSHWACK WILL HAVE BLOOD ON HIS HANDS!
Not our sons and daughters
By Susan Estrich
Creators Syndicate
02.12.03
Whose sons and daughters are going to fight and die in this war?
Not the children of the well-educated talking hawks on television, most of whom, like our current and former commanders in chief, managed to avoid active military service. I'm used to being attacked as an ostrich with my head in the sand -- by people with children whose heads are not on the line against the evil one.
Whose sons and daughters are going to fight and die in this war?
Not the children of well-heeled Bush supporters, who'll be pocketing the tax cut that their president is proposing as all that's left of a domestic agenda that will otherwise be consumed by the huge cost of this war. Our children will be educated, get health care, get jobs -- even if some one else's have no choices left.
This war will be fought by the new military, the volunteer military, the Army of first generation Americans, the one place where you have real integration in America because there's real diversity at the bottom of the economic ladder.
Which is why Democrats, including African American leaders like Charlie Rangel of New York and John Conyers of Detroit -- both leaders of the Congressional Black Caucus -- and well-known California liberal Pete Stark, are pushing legislation that would bring back the draft.
Maybe these Democrats in Congress are just making hay when they talk about restoring the draft; reminding people of who serves in the military, trying to scare middle-class voters into thinking twice before following George Bush to war, making them feel guilty by pointing out that it wouldn't be so easy if they were sending their kids to face Saddam's chemical weapons, instead of someone else's children.
In actuality, there's no real support to bring back the draft. The military brass doesn't want a bunch of reluctant, fearful freshman; they'd much prefer the volunteers who want to be there. Secretary Rumsfeld was forced to apologize recently when he said that those drafted to serve in Vietnam had contributed nothing to that war, but you know that he wasn't the only one in the Pentagon who feels that way.
The draft may not be the optimum way to build the best fighting force, but in a democracy, it serves as a valuable check on our willingness to go to war. What has changed with the emergence of a professional volunteer army in this country is not only the way we fight wars but also the willingness of the vast majority of middle-class voting Americans to fight them. I haven't been able to find a study of how many volunteers have parents who can't or don't vote, because they aren't citizens or have never registered, but my guess is, given the demographics of the military, that the numbers are higher than the general population.
One argument against including women in combat, as well as in the draft, is that Americans aren't ready to see women captured, to see them serve on the front lines, to see them raped or tortured. But if we aren't ready to see our daughters raped for the cause, should we be ready to see someone else's sons exposed to chemical agents? For the first time in history, contingency plans are being made to cremate the bodies of American servicemen (and women) killed in this war, for fear that if chemical and biological weapons are used, it may be too toxic to bring them home. If we aren't willing to expose our children, our girls and boys, to that risk, why someone else's?
Since Vietnam, we have become accustomed to winning easily and cleanly, and quickly. Maybe we'll get lucky this time, as well.
If the trigger is cocked, as it seems to be, opposition will be muffled as soon as the first shots are fired. There is a tradition in this country of supporting the troops once action begins. But how much of a stomach we will have for actual casualties, even of someone else's children, remains to be seen. It is one thing to risk them. It may be another to see them buried, or worse, cremated on foreign soil. At that point, they become America's children. In truth, they are America's best, our future.
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Susan Estrich is the Robert Kingsley Professor of Law and Political Science at the University of Southern California Law Center.
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