If It Takes a Draft to Make Us Care, So Be It
By: Katie Strickland, Daily Bruin (UCLA)
December 1, 2006 10:57 AM
(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES - We need a draft.
Britain has said it will withdraw thousands of troops from Iraq by the end of 2007, and Poland has promised to bring all 900 of its soldiers home by the same time.
Since giving up is not one of President Bush's options, we're going to have to make up for this lack of manpower.
A draft not only accomplishes that, but it also makes the people here at home a little more involved in the war effort.
While I went sale-hunting at the mall this past Friday, 19-year-old Army Pvt. Reece D. Moreno and 22-year-old Marine Cpl. Nicholas P. Rapavi both lost their young lives in Iraq.
While I whined to my roommate about how unfair the world is because I had to write a term paper on Monday, The Associated Press reported that the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since the beginning of the war had reached 2,880.
It's not that I'm apathetic to the events of the war. I was just following instructions.
What did the president say when the war began? Go shopping! Enjoy your life. And don't you start worrying about anything - or the terrorists win.
Then he quietly sent our young men and women in uniform to brave what would become one of the most violent countries in the world.
Of course the war flits across our minds occasionally - we hear the depressing words from the newscasters, but it's so easy to replace their sullen faces with VH1's latest Paris Hilton special.
And it's really not our fault. Which is why I must agree with Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, who is introducing a bill (for the second time) to instate a draft.
Although I dislike the specifics of Rangel's plan - which allows people to volunteer in hospitals instead of facing actual combat - I do agree that a draft is the best way to get the public more involved in what's at stake overseas.
"There's no question in my mind that this president ... would never have invaded Iraq if indeed we had a draft," Rangel stated on the television show "Face The Nation."
Yes, I believe Bush's confidence might have wavered if it meant Jenna and Barbara would be fending off bullets for the sake of foreign democracy.
The Middle East is just too far away - both in a geographical and personal sense - for the public to be very concerned about it.
But a nationwide draft of able, young men and women would put foreign affairs at the forefront of people's minds. We could finally, as a nation, decide exactly how much an intangible and possibly unachievable victory in Iraq is worth: Your life? Your brother's?
We can't expect to continue simply foisting the costs of the war on the backs of military families and ignoring them.
Discussing Iraq would quickly seem far more important than finals, especially if you were scheduled to ship out the day before they began.
The attention brought to the seriousness of our position overseas would hopefully cause the majority of people to realize that we cannot - and never will - establish a functioning democracy in Iraq without a draft.
It is frightening to think just how many lives, both American and Iraqi, it will take before our nation comes to that conclusion.
In a Slate.com article, Ian Bremmer wrote, "Building democracy in a state with no democratic history is the work of decades - and it can't be done on the cheap."
Bremmer went on to suggest that the best option for America is to support an authoritarian regime in Iraq to maintain stability, which would allow democracy to be publicly debated and worked towards by the Iraqis themselves.
America will probably be forced to do this once we run out of manpower, mainly to prevent Iraq from being overtaken by Iran or terrorist organizations.
But if a draft were instated, it would force us civilians to think about just how many lives could be saved by acting now instead of later.
Many people have accused Rangel of simply wanting to scare people into pressuring the government to pull out of the war. Which is great. Because if I don't feel that "freedom" and "democracy" are important enough to risk my own skin, it would certainly be hypocritical of me to send someone else in my place.
Now if you'll excuse me, I must get back to that term paper.
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