Marc Choquette
Perspectives Editor
Registering for the draft, or “selective service” as our government likes to call it, has become another meaningless task to 18-year-old men in this country.
For the previous generation, registering for the draft was anything but mundane and routine. With the drawing of a numbered ball, the futures of many changed forever with little control of their own. And with such a controversial war going on in Vietnam, there is little doubt the draft contributed to the unrest and discontent among youth at that time, propelling change rarely seen before in this country.
What was important about the draft, however, was that it brought the war into the rooms of many more U.S. households. Much of the public had a direct stake in what was happening in Vietnam because their sons were there or they themselves might be going there if things got worse.
This presents the major problem on this fourth anniversary of the Iraq war and the free pass the White House is getting with this war despite such sharp opposition of late. Since Vietnam, the public has been lulled to sleep with regard to the true status and motives of our conflicts abroad such that the only discussion of the conflict is in Congress and on the news.
With popularity in this war as low, if not lower, than it ever was with Vietnam (71 percent in a Jan. 2007 Gallup Poll say the war is going “moderately/very badly”), people all over this country go about daily lives in a style painfully similar of how we did before this war started and painfully dissimilar of how we did at this point during the Vietnam War.
In Nov. 1969, over a half million people took part in an anti-war demonstration in Washington D.C. College campuses were the centers of protest and dissent. All this debate can be seen as a healthy element that is essential to a proper democracy, in that citizens were fully committed to expressing their reservations with government policies.
This sort of massive protest is something very foreign to our sedated generation. With the blossoming of solitary, indoor activities like television and the Internet, Americans rarely venture into their front yards now, much less protest something only really affecting them at 6 p.m. when the news comes on.
“Support the troops” used to mean sacrifice: Signing up, rationing resources such as gasoline or buying war bonds. In the 21st century, supporting the troops means buying a ribbon-shaped magnet for the back of the Hummer, which come to think of it isn’t exactly rationing gasoline very well.
Simply stated, Americans, as a whole, have just not been paying attention.
Neither is Congress. As referenced in football terms, Rolling Stone’s scathing Washington correspondent Matt Taibbi noted as he watched Democrats take power in January 2007: “The Democrats … strode back into town with the air of conquerors and immediately punted on first down when given a chance to do something about Iraq.”
Reinstating the draft could be an interesting option for the increasingly optionless Democrats, since any such reinstatement would be sure to get the public a little less “unsure” about what they feel should be done in Iraq and increase debate on
college campuses and Main Street’s all over this country.
Gallup polls show that the opinions of Americans towards the war haven’t really changed, plausibly because few people really know what we are doing there or what we should be doing there.
If people are really committed about our long-term involvement abroad and are serious about supporting our troops, the draft should theoretically be a solid choice in boosting our needy military forces. If we are not so sure, the draft could be what it takes to end the war.
Our public ignorance is only prolonging a war too many in this world see as criminal.
03-22-2007