Kids from govt and rich families will always find a way out of any draft.

[bigtree]

edit: . . . if they want to . . .

Kids from poor families will always enlist at a higher rate.

If we pay these soldiers with a living wage then more kids will want to serve, rich or poor.

If pay these soldiers with a wage comparable to their sacrifice we would have more than enough recruits to make a peacetime draft unnecessary.

I'm really suspicious about the whispering campaign in favor of a draft, coupled with the subversive mustering of officers for the draft boards that started in the White House last year. It hit the media and now the whispers have turned into outright advocacy within both parties.

Opposition to the draft coupled with opposition to war defined generations who came of age during the Vietnam war. That war lasted so long that I doubt many folks who were against the draft advocated a draft under any circumstances. I recall that a good deal of the opposition to the draft was against war in general.

Why don't we just scale back our military ambitions? If we turned the State Dept. back into a diplomatic office instead of using it as a shill for war, we could actually avoid most of the tension and conflict that we face now, and actually reduce our forces.

Me Book

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Funny you should post this. i was just wondering if there is a single

child of senate, congress, or the Bush admin serving in Iraq or Afghanistan...a single one out of over 500 people.

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Two,

Congressman Duncan Hunter's son is in Iraq with the Marines.

And I knwo of another one who is also in the service. But see
bellow about the elites serving in the past. This started
in Nam

[BurtWorm]

4. In an editorial in the Times today

it was reported that out of the whole Congress, only Tim Johnson of SD has a child in Iraq. Only five others have children in the military. No one in the Bush cabinet does.

[MSgt213]

5. one.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Wrong... this rich kids don't serve

started in Nam

The elites LED in WW II, they led in Korea, they LED in WW I, they led in the 1898 mess (TR is as elite as you can get)... they led.

They no longer do, and that is a wide spread problem

Service is no longer regarded as a good choice, unless you can make
some money on the side.

It is Affluenza and empires face this... like clockwork, before they fall....

by the way, due ot Bush's policies, we are no longer a superpower... they have not gotten the memo yet

[0007]

6. Always - They'll even go as far as leaving the country and many have.

Where is one to go when poor? I remember when Pat Robertson was pull off a troop ship heading for Korea in 1950, by a helicopter. His father was a U.S. Senator at the time. I'm sure Pat doesn't ever talk about this..

Every now and then I read some Pat Robertson's quotes and wonder how this fucking hypocrite can live with himself.

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7027/quotes.html

[BurtWorm]

7. How is this problem addressed with a volunteer army?

We can all sit back and say, well, they may be working class kids dying for the rich, but at least they volunteered to die for the rich.

[bigtree]

10. Pay them accordingly.

Give them the benefits they were promised. Take care of their families through guaranteed health care, schooling, and child care. I mean really do these things, not just half-ass them. What about a guaranteed annuity for short-duty? Cut back on some weapon system or another? Most kids would want to serve if they thought it was an actual opportunity for a living.

There are many reasons to serve, btw., for rich and poor. More reasonable uses of our forces would further attract a wider spectrum of folks.

There is nothing in the constitution about mandatory conscription in peacetime. There has to be an actual need for the increased force for it to fly. I see no need for a peacetime draft to address the inequities between rich folks who won't serve and poor recruits if we pay these soldiers what they deserve, and work to provide jobs and resources to address our society's inequities.

I like the trend toward mandatory community service as part of the grade school requirement. That could foster more interest and participation by the upper classes. Also we should continue to provide resources for other corps of service, and work to create more of a participatory democracy and society.

[MSgt213]

8. You hit the nail on the head. There are plenty of people who love serving

their country in the military even if they come from middle class and poor families they don't have a problem with it. They see honor and importance in doing this type of work. Most people that don't want to go are relieved that their are these type of people out there. The problem is when they get a family of their own they are not making enough money to warrant the time apart from their families. They weigh the risk of getting killed while their family is already struggling on extremly low pay and decide it's not worth so they don't stay or don't join.

Before diplomacy can work you have to have a leader that is strong in diplomacy surround himself with people who know what they are doing and listens to them instead of the people who are leading him astray.

[izzie]

9. Odd how times have changed things.

In WW1 it was a fact that the rich and powerful sons went and got killed. I do not know where to find these figures but their have been stories written about it. From what you read it was almost like they did not know how bad war was.

[bigtree]

11. I think the memories and awareness of the sacrifices get lost

between generations which have no major conflicts.

[MSgt213]

12. It wasn't that they didn't know what it was. The difference is they saw

the honor. They knew full well they could die, but their fathers and grandfathers had fought because they knew how important it was. Now rich kids just want to be rich.