(Draft)
Last fall, I received several forwarded emails, warning me that Congress was considering a bill to reinstate the draft. I responded to these with a link to Snopes, pointing out that the bill was introduced by Charles Rangel to make a statement against the war. Rock the Vote’s ads were effective political theater, but not highly realistic.
In today’s column in the NYTimes, Bob Herbert does not call for reinstating the draft. But such a suggestion is implicit in his statement that "there are limited numbers of people who will freely choose to participate in an enterprise in which they may well be shot, blown up, burned to death or suffer some other excruciating fate." He concludes that "Increasing numbers of Americans are recognizing the inherent unfairness of the all-volunteer force in a time of war."
I don’t think that’s true. I think increasing numbers of Americans are wondering what the heck we’re doing in Iraq and whether there’s any way we can get out without making matters much much worse. I think many people are pointing out that if there were a broad-based draft (e.g. without the academic and other exemptions that made the Vietnam war largely a poor kid’s fight, even though there was a draft), the low-level simmer of dissatisfaction with the war would boil over into active protest. But if there’s a grassroots movement that’s demanding a draft, I’ve missed it.
