How many Americans want the boots of our soldiers on the ground in Syria and Iraq to fight ISIS? According to a new Quinnipac University Poll, 62 percent.
Then, restart the Draft. Now.
America, send your own sons and grandsons to the Middle East and quit putting the burden on the exhausted 1% of our population — the brave men and women who have been volunteering to fight your wars for the past forty plus years.
The latest iteration of the draft ended in 1973, which means that young men in this country, born after 1955, haven’t had their lives disrupted in order to serve in the military. It means that they did not have to face injury or death in a foreign country.
62% of you think an American war is the answer to stop ISIS’ march in the desert for its imaginery Caliphate? Then fine — your loved ones can face off against these savages. You know, the sons you have tenderly raised and educated and those darling little grandsons in elementary school now. The fight against ISIS promises to be a long one — it’s possible the wee ones in high chairs will get their turn someday too.
War wasn’t so popular in America when we were fighting in Vietnam because there was a draft. Young men weren’t all that happy about having no control over their futures and risking their lives in Indochina on behalf of a Domino Theory. The American people got to watch the war on television too — the nightly news, in fact. People were horrified by the senseless carnage, so support for the war slowly eroded. Even the most popular newscaster of his day, Walter Cronkite, turned against the Vietnam war after awhile.
So guess what happened after that? Not only did we institute an all-volunteer army and the armchair warriors of America got to sit back and send other people’s kids to war, but the Pentagon now controls the coverage. Reporters are “managed.” Imbedded. No random footage coming off the battlefield like it used to. If the Pentagon doesn’t like the reporters’ coverage, well, they don’t get imbedded any more. The Imbeds make sure their Pentagon masters are happy so they can stay in the war zone and rah-rah-rah us Americans along. War is so sanitized, cameras are BANNED from Dover Air Force base where the coffins of our young soldiers, draped in American flags, return from our wars. The Military Industrial Complex doesn’t want the American people to see the cost, or they might not like what they see.
This Quinnipac Poll tells me that the Pentagon has been masterful at masking the human suffering associated with these wars. A brilliant public relations campaign on behalf of the neo-con artists.
Start the draft. Men and women. No exemptions. Those whose numbers get drawn get a trip to the Middle East to fight ISIS. Then tell me 62% will support putting American boots on the ground against ISIS.
Honestly, are the American people this damn dumb? You tell me.