micah holmquist's irregular thoughts and links |
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Welcome to the musings and notes of a Cadillac, Michigan based writer named Micah Holmquist, who is bothered by his own sarcasm. Please send him email at micahth@chartermi.net. Holmquist's full archives are listed here.
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Sites Holmquist trys, and often fails, to go no more than a couple of days without visiting (some of which Holmquist regularly swipes links from without attribution) Aljazeera.Net English Blogs that for one reason or another Holmquist would like to read on at least something of a regular basis (always in development) Thivai Abhor |
Monday, October 21, 2002
Mark Shields makes a good point in his October 15 column: If you need further proof of the complete separation of the people in power in Washington from the people at peril in the Persian Gulf, just consider this:Shields does note that a few members of Congress do have children who are officers but also says, "In 2002, the American Establishment—political, economic and journalistic—has no personal stake in the men and women who defend the United States." Shields alludes to how a draft has a democratic elements in that it forces people to defend the country. What he doesn't say is that the draft in the U.S. did not take equally from all racial, geographic and economic groups -with you know who getting the short end of the stick- but any form of the draft is likely to make war "more real" for substantial parts of population. Part of me has a a hard time believing that there would be so little opposition to President Bush's war without end against a concept if the military was not made up exclusively of volunteers as it is now. This isn't an argument for the draft -I certainly don't want to go fight Bush's wars and I have respect for the argument that if a military can not get enough volunteers then perhaps the country should change its actions and/or it deserves to fall- and I don't mean to say that only those who have served in the military should comment on what the military does -a quick look at this blog shows I certainly don't believe that-, but I don't see how any moral person could at least not have some reservations about ordering other people to go, kill and perhaps die for a cause if he or she has specifically avoided being in a position where he or she might do the same. (And if you are, like me, a U.S. citizen who turned 18 after the abolition of the draft and have not served in the military, you have avoided military service.) |