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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials
AMAT 252.34+0.9%Nov 28 12:59 PM EST
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To: Cary Salsberg who wrote (70499)7/18/2003 10:53:47 AM
From: runes   of 70976
 
<<We need the force of average Americans and their families facing a draft...>>

OK so now you have shifted from punishing a whole population in order to punish the leaders to punishing a whole population to just pressure the leaders.
...And it is a sound theory. But, unfortunately, there is a problem - the leaders get to where they are because they are so effective at influencing the population. In Vietnam we were fed the domino theory and it took years to see through that facade. And even with Iraq, 35% of the population believed that Saddam was involved in 9-11. (So much for the theory that you can't fool us twice!)

And again, if it is tragic to have to send 100 professional soldiers out to die, how would you describe choosing to send out 150 "volunteers" to die instead? Is that justice or is that a crime unto itself?
...I do support what you are trying to do. I agree that war should not be something that the leaders and the general population are insulated from. But I reject the idea that we should make war worse so that we feel it more.

And now the good news - our system to stop gratuitous wars isn't that bad. No, it didn't keep us out of Iraq but it took a national calamity (9-11) coupled with an extreme (and improperly elected) person like Bush to get us in there. And even then he had to bend the truth too far (and now that is coming back to bite him in the ass.) That for a war that might end up being a good thing (despite Bush).
...And for being the most powerful nation on earth, think about all the conflicts that we have stayed out of or managed to avoid diplomatically. Even Bush wouldn't dare to invade North Korea despite his feelings about the pygmy.

Beyond that - if you want to beef up the leaders sensitivity to war, try a more targeted approach. How about mandatory elections 6 months after the conclusion of the war - a sort of vote of confidence? How about requiring the commander in chief to personally deliver the news of each death to the each family? How about making the US financially liable for all damages inflicted on the civilian population?
...These things would increase the political and economic costs of a war without increasing the brutality. Better?
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