Changing Hearts and Minds

Had the article on The Nation's website
been written by anyone but William Greider, I'd have ignored it. But
the most prescient progressive reporter of the last couple of decades I
read. And one paragraph, about why today's mass media have simply
refused to second-guess their shameful acceptance of Georgedick
Bushcheney's war on Iraq, stood out, both for its profundity and for
its aha! factor:

“How
could such forgetfulness prevail, especially among a smart, engaged
group like news people? It is perhaps not as sinister as it sounds.
Most of the men and women now in charge of the news processes were boys
and girls during Vietnam. The youngest reporters were not yet born.
Their generation, I imagine, experienced the war more distantly as a
disturbed era that ended in national humiliation. An air of shame hung
over their growing-up years, a residue of bitterness and guilt all
around. Did Americans wimp out? Did the news media poison their
patriotism? My hunch is that many of today's reporters and editors came
to think so and were determined to be less squeamish, more 'manly'
about warmaking. Editors over 50 can't hide behind this excuse.”

Maybe.
Maybe it's just that today's young people simply aren't afraid of dying
for something so meaningless, as my contemporaries were, and how 58,000
of them did.

Too
many of us are sanguine in the knowledge that the only Americans who
are dying in Iraq today are volunteers. Many doubtless joined up
believing they were defending their country, or saw the military as a
good career. But others surely enlisted because they hadn't a notion of
what they wanted to do after graduating high school. Still others
signed up for the National Guard and reserves thinking they'd be
fighting forest fires or floods in their home states, not shipping out
for an endless tour overseas.

But
the common denominator is they understood there was a possibility that
one day Uncle Sam, like the Godfather, would call on them to perform a
service. That day, which many thought would never come, came.

The
rest of us, not having to worry about being drafted – at least not yet
– can sit back, sympathize, utter words of support for the troops, and
a silent prayer that our rear ends aren't in danger.

A
draft would change that mighty quick and, indeed, a few progressive
legislators such as Congressman Charles Rangel of Michigan have even
proposed conscription with no loopholes as a means of provoking
opposition to the war. I don't think we're ready for a step like that,
and besides, giving a draft to Georgedick Bushcheney would be like
giving Osama a key to the Redstone Arsenal.

But
no matter how the war goes, and whether a Democrat retakes the White
House or not, we're not going to get the kind of antiwar sentiment in
this country William Greider writes about. Not unless our young people
can truly be made to feel that their lives are about to be cut short
for something they can neither believe in nor understand.

Contact Ira Lacher here.

Regarding The Draft

Ira's
essay brings up an important issue: The Draft.
Legislation has been proposed in the House and Senate (twin
bills S89 and HR163) to reinstate the draft as early as June 15, 2005,
to apply to both men and women ages 18 to 26 and college deferments
will NOT be allowed.

$28
million dollars has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System and
the Pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350
draft board positions and the 11,070 appeals boards slots nationwide.
It appears that both John Kerry and the Bush administration support
this action, but you can have an impact by putting pressure on them and
by contacting your members of Congress.  More information is available at Common Dreams.

Linda