Bring back the draft, if only to gain a fairer representation of the population fighting our unending series of wars (with more to come I suspect). While I hold in high regard those who DO volunteer for the armed services, I suspect the “volunteering” is too often their best available option, as opposed to those of, say, a billionaire’s child. (If you don’t believe me, this is what made former Arizona Cardinal Pat Tillman’s quitting the NFL to fight overseas such a man-bites-dog story. People of such wealth simply didn’t DO such things.) Put another way, did those jumping from the upper floors of the World Trade Center on 9/11 “volunteer” to jump? Well, yes, considering the other option was burning alive. So, yes, they made a “choice” there. They “volunteered” to jump to their death. A “choice” akin to many – to a far lesser extent of course – “choosing” to join the military. Finally, I strongly suspect our fixation with war would greatly dissipate if all of a sudden, the sons and daughters of the powered elite found themselves coming to grips with the very real possibility that they might get their ass shot off in some remote, foreign land and, if not die, come home to begin practicing jogging on titanium legs.
BILL
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