Nader or Nada?

I feel I am being shoved into a corner. I don't like that, but I haven't any way out of it either: I'm too old and too weak.

I wanted to keep my mouth shut, but I cannot.  So, here goes ...

Senator KerBush

O.K. I've had it.  Of course, I am always accused of having a short fuse.

DEMOCRATS: You've been conned, again.  Are you stupid or something?

Here's my paraphrase of last Sunday's Meet The Press (MTP).

Tim Russert starts out with the Big Question:  'Senator Kerry, did you support the War in Iraq or not?'

Answer:  Hum and ho, buzz, blah blah

Question Pressed: 'But did you support the war or not!'

Answer: 'Well, I didn't agree with the way George Bush got into it.'

=>  In case you haven't paid attention, Senator Kerry has refused to disown his vote for the Iraq War Resolution. As his MTP answers clearly indicate, he agrees with having a war in Iraq. Kerry also wrote an OP-ED piece in last week's WASHINGTON POST which makes very clear he agrees with George W Bush's goals in Iraq.

=> All that Senator Kerry disagrees with is George W Bush's methods, and his handling of the occupation.  That is it.

I said I would not support Senator Kerry, and I do not. He voted for the war.  I pledged not to support anyone who did so at the time.

I said I would exit the Democratic Party, and I did. Now, I'm a No Party Man, Independent, or "Declines to State", in California.

I said I would not support Ralph Nader this time. But, I am re-thinking it.

It seems to me the Imperialists and Fascists are in charge in Washington, and they need to be pushed out. I am sorry I just won't be forced into choosing between Caesar and Brutus, tyrants all. I feel like Spartacus. It's time for the slave revolt, only a successful one this time.

The Draft

Today, Sen Chuck Hagel (R-NE) called for re-institution of the Military Draft. Last year, Rep Charlie Rangel (D-NY) and others started a similar movement.

Would you be surprised? I am opposed to the draft! I and everyone I knew had to live with the draft in the 1960s.  We hated everything about it. There were giant, violent protests in opposition to the draft. The draft put the slowest, stupidest and poorest men in the front lines; they were just cannon fodder. No one who was anyone served 2 seconds unless they wanted to.

Think what you like, I spent no time in the military. I don't like authoritarian organizations, and I haven't supported most wars. I have a lot of trouble even thinking about doing harm to someone else. When someone is injured in my presence, I feel the injury almost as if it were done to me. I have to fight against that empathetic nuisance, when it is required for me to respond to an emergency.

Despite that, I would have volunteered for World War II in some capacity that would have helped the UN cause. Otherwise, I would make a truly lousy soldier. Had I been drafted for Vietnam, I probably would have been a casualty soon after arriving, having done no useful service. I was lucky to have been classified 1-Y and then 4-Y (that's "morally unfit" for the interested), so I got out. I burned my draft card long before its expiration date, and lived several years in fear of arrest. (Sorry, cops, too late now.)

So, I am not qualified to talk about what goes on in the military, as I dislike it. And, it is very hard for me to consider such a thing as entering a military service. You may, if it pleases you, take that as disqualifying any of the views herein.

The solution to our problems, after Vietnam, was to make military service voluntary. I say leave it that way. Here are my reasons:

 

1. First and foremost, it costs a lot of money to run an all-volunteer military. You must really want a military to be willing to pay the freight. The draft reduces the cost of war, because draftees are paid minimum  wage or less. I don't want war to cost less; I want it to be expensive. People are cheap, so the presumption is people will be reluctant to have a war that costs a pretty penny.

 

2. Those who volunteer are presumed to understand they are risking their lives. In return, they are treated well and differently from other citizens. Soldiers and veterans get lots of lifetime benefits unavailable to other citizens.

 

3. Volunteer soldiers - mercenaries - have a reduced moral claim on our conscience. Unlike draftees, they want to be warriors and take the risk of death or injury. So, while we may be sympathetic to them and their families when the worst happens, it really isn't the same case as the draftee who was forcibly sacrificed to the volcano. In short, callously, it is easier to accept war casualties when they are volunteers.

 

4. Mercenaries are assumed to want to fight, and learn how to fight professionally. They are like the Knights and Samurai of old, who cannot and will not be defeated by any except their equal. The value of a professional military has been demonstrated recently in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, where conventional opposing armies and warriors are destroyed very quickly and efficiently. There are probably fewer than 5 countries that can hope to match the US military in the field, including China, Britain, Germany, Russia, France and maybe India. Everyone else would be quickly decimated, and with very few casualties.

 

5. Because we are sanctioning gangs of professional killers, we run the risk of being at their mercy. Therefore, it is in our interest to emphasize the conditioning that the military obey civilian command, to make sure the benefits are sufficient to keep people in line, and to make sure the military is no larger than we really require.  Because a volunteer military suggests a greater risk of coup d'etat, close civilian supervision is required. If supervision is not forthcoming, that is a reason to shrink the military.

The volunteer military is risky to a democracy, because mercenaries may not be loyal. On the other hand, the general draft terrorizes everyone for some years in early adulthood. Military training at an impressionable age makes people more militaristic, so the draft can be more dangerous to democracy than volunteerism in the long run.

I think in a democracy, unlike Sparta, military societies need to be confined and carefully controlled. I think democratic societies should avoid war for a lot of reasons, but be prepared to fight when really necessary. I don't think democracies should be Imperial powers - the undoing of the Athenians and the British.

So, my judgement is, on balance, that a suitably supervised volunteer military is preferable to the universal draft.

April 21, 2004

Last update: 11/02/2007

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