The Draft

I do not know if we should be in Afghanistan. It seems to me that you cannot bring reform to a people that do not have a country or moreover a real central government. One could argue that all the men and women we have lost and money spent has prevented another terrorist attack. I do not know the answer.

What I do know is that the deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq have been many. Correctly American support their solider when they leave and when they come home. There are no more chants of babykiller even though many civilians are killed in our war activities.

Most of the time we hear people say that they knew what they signed up for. That is true to some extent, we have a volunteer military.

If we had a draft however would it be different. Would the people dieing be more important if they had not wanted to be soldiers. If a soldier dies he is dead no matter how he got there.

I think the best way to have an educated citizenry is to reinstate the draft. Perhaps if everyone's son or grandson could be eligible we would not be so willing to patrol areas of dubious merit.

I do not pretend to know if we should be in the military activities we are engaged in. I think that we all should know. I think we all should be engaged. I think the draft would do that.