Pro-Surge? Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.
I find it interesting how easily people are willing to throw other people’s lives away.
Sure, about 70 percent of people in the U.S oppose sending more troops to Iraq, or starting a new war with Syria and/or Iran. But that means about 90 million Americans fall into the pro-surge category. Sorting out children, old people and the infirm, that means there’s somewhere between 10 and 20 million Americans of military age should be available for military service.
Yet, I note no "surge" in enlistments. How can this be?
During World War II, people lied, cheated and scammed their way into the military — underage, with health issues — because they believed in the mission. Hitler was evil and World War II was probably the closest thing to a "just war" in the 20th Century. So where are those who believe in the Iraq mission? Granted, some number of them are in uniform, fighting and maybe even dying, so God bless them.
But since we know the full military these days is only a little more than a million, where is everyone else? I see a lot of right-wing bloggers busy rousting up posts. I don’t see them putting of the uniform and deploying to Baghdad.
And I think that tells you a lot. My time in politics taught me a couple of things, the most important being to judge people only by what they do, not what they say. Talk is cheap. If I believed in this war, which I’ve opposed since the fall of 2002, you can be damn sure I’d be doing something to support it. I’m too old, fat and banged up to serve in uniform, you can bet I’d find a way to have a role, much as my grandfather did in World War II: he served on a New York City defense council having been rejected for military service because of age.
So where are all you guys?
Belief isn’t allowing someone else or someone else’s son or daughter die for your cause, it’s being willing to die or allowing your son or daughter to die for it.
Nothing is more cynical than supporting a war as long as only other people die or other people’s kids die.