Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Why we Fight? The Israeli model.


In the movie, Why we Fight, ex CIA Chambers Johnson says part of the reason is the volunteer military. He said the attitude of the American people is "screw you guys, you volunteered!" I don't agree with that, but there is very little opposition to troops in Iraq because (and here i agree) they are volunteers. Bring back the draft? The Senate opposes that. The military opposes that. Students oppose that. But can you imagine where the country would be if Pres. Bush had to draft people to serve in Iraq? There would be massive demonstrations. Everyone in Israel must serve in the IDF - men and women. And after there active service they have to serve in the reserve. Many Isrealis felt that the reserve soldiers who were called up for the invasion of southern Lebanon were not equipped well, and not used well. There have been demonstrations. Israelis hold their government responsible for how the military is used and treated. Americans are at a disconnect: we honor our troops, support our troops, but they are volunteers and we don't become angry when they are misused. We agree as a nation that our Iraq policy has failed: so our soldiers who continue to be killed, wounded, crippled, are the victims of a failed policy. Why arent we angry about this? Where are the demonstrations? I firmly believe that we as a nation are absolutely disconnected from our military - we honor them as Legionnaires, but do not connect to their suffering. I think we need a draft: everyone serves. Men serve two years, women one year. Then they serve in reserves until they are 40 yrs old. When we fight wars, we fight with a citizen military. We wouldn't be in Iraq now if we had a draft. People would be in the streets demanding something to be done if we had a draft. The reason why we dont is so the people don't have control of the military - the executive branch controls it. What can we tell our soldiers that they are fighting for? Their profession? They are fighting because its their job? We need to look at the Israeli model of staffing a military.

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