Conscription

Senator Chuck Hagel (Republican of Nebraska) is trying to convince me that he is insane.

"There's not an American . . . that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future," Senator Chuck Hagel told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq.

"Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, arguing that restoring compulsory military service would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face."

First, Mr. Hagel, I did not ask for this war. This war was unnecessary to the peace of the United States. Do not try to lecture me about sacrifice. I find highly insulting this notion that I must "pay some price" to "understand" your little invasion.

Second, conscription to prove a point is ludicrous. We are discussing war, Mr. Hagel, not some third grade tour of the local Coast Guard station. You want to send us out to kill and be killed for the sake of teaching us about civics?

Third, the idea is strategically absurd. The situation in Iraq requires an elite corps of military-police with the specialization necessary to run the affairs of volatile possessions abroad. To require random young Americans to ship out would be to compromise the cohesion, efficiency, and reliability of our armed forces.

The very fact that nations can be conquered with "only" hundreds of American casualties (especially -- and ironically -- nations being invaded because of alleged weapons of mass destruction) is an indication of the value of a specialist volunteer military. We no longer hurl tens of thousands of teenagers onto the bayonets of our enemies. It would be insane to conduct our wars the same way we did even thirty years ago. Even more insane would be to conscript unwilling and untrained kids for the purpose of an occupation in an alien culture. The concept flies in the face of the prevention and stabilization function that our political leadership has ordained for the military.

| Posted by Wilson at 0:06 Central | TrackBack
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