Browsing the news I came across the photo of an officer who had been recently killed in Iraq. I can’t take my eyes of this photo, as it seems to represent so much about our country; dignity, honor, and progress:
It also reminded me of something I talked about today in one my classes, a famous regiment of black soldiers from Massachusetts who fought in the American Civil War. Click on the photo below to read about them:
Presumably, then, they watched Glory…
I saw the article in the Times about women soldiers killed in Iraq. The young lady whose picture you have posted was a West Point graduate, a bright, talented, patriotic American. One wonders, if we had a draft, rather than an all volunteer military, would the people have countenanced the reckless adventurism of the Iraq invasion? When everybody’s kids were subject to the draft during the Vietnam War, the people took to the streets and finally ended that debacle, although not until 58,000 of our troops had died… for nothing. How many must die in Iraq, for nothing?
Definitely an inspiring photo.
Greg, I’ve seen that argument before, and I believe it was the thinking behind Charles Rangel’s proposal of a draft (http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/01/07/rangel.draft/). However, I suspect that the presence of a draft would not have made much of a difference in whether we went to war or not:
– The Iraq war has been one of the most fiercely protested events in recent history, and the government paid no attention. I think one reason that public opinion more or less ended Vietnam was that neither Nixon nor Ford had any strong ideological bond to the war – they’d inherited disasters, and they knew it. Bush, by contrast, operates along the logic of a self-appointed messiah, and still appears to believe that (1) he has a moral obligation to continue the war, and (2) the war is an overall success with a few minor disasters, when the rest of the world knows it’s the other way round.
– That, and Bush, like the Vietnam presidents, doesn’t want to look like he’s losing, either, so he’s going to wait it out for another two years until the war becomes someone else’s call. And on that note…
– Bush has nothing to lose by refusing to end the war, since he’s a second-term president, and probably does not and never did give a damn about the safety and welfare of other peoples’ kids.
Quote from Jeff Danziger, one of my favorite political cartoonists, on the attitude of future (and current) Bushies: “…and anyway, who cares? Wars are fought by stupid people in the infantry…or something…”
http://www.danzigercartoons.com/archive/cmp/2002/danziger1523.html