FIRE WITH FIRE

I was a college student during the Vietnam War protests. I remember thousands of young people collecting on the campus green for candlelight peace vigils, swaying and singing together. I remember the sit ins, disheveled students finally pried apart and dragged from the dean's office by the campus cops. I remember the marches and chants and fiery speeches ironically exhorting us to fight for peace. And I remember the lines of riot police, black body shields locked together, sun glinting off black visors, humanity well hidden behind their formidable armor. The Vietnam War protests changed America. Ordinary citizens sickened by war forced the politicians to listen and changed the course of history.

With so many Americans opposed to the war in Iraq, it bothers me that college campuses have been so silent. The center of rebellion in my community is the 4-corner stop in the center of town where citizens gather every Saturday to wave their placards and chant their slogans at passing motorists, not the major state university barely two miles away. The players are middle-aged parents, brothers and sisters, and old war vets, not college students. There are no marches. The police don't even bother to cruise by. Everyone, while vocal, is peaceful. The only thing that seems to echo the past is the signs: Peace! Bring our troops home! Get out of Iraq! Down with Bush!

Of course, this is a different war than Vietnam. Unlike the nebulous commie threat, September 11, like Pearl Harbor before WWII, created an angry support for smashing our enemies. At first supportive, public opinion waffled as the facts of Bush's deceit came out, then soured as the human toll mounted. But Bush has so far been able to resist playing the single most powerful anti-war card of the Vietnam War -- the draft.

The American public seems to feel that because the soldiers dying and being maimed in Iraq volunteered for service, it's in some way OK because they knew what they were getting into, it was part of their commitment to serve. Well, bull! Most of the troops serving in Iraq signed up for the National Guard to protect American shores, not Iraqi deserts. They never really expected to be called to a fighting war. They thought it more likely they'd be helping fight natural disasters -- floods, hurricanes, maybe a bit of civil unrest. They certainly didn't expect to be cruising Baghdad streets in inadequate body armor, the target of every apprentice terrorist in the Middle East.

In today's newspaper I read that President Bush is considering an increase in Iraq troop levels. Many military strategists believe only massive numbers and brute force can bring order to Iraq. (Makes you wonder why we bothered to oust Saddam in the first place.) Unbelievably, the President still talks about the utter fantasy of "winning" in Iraq. There will be no winning, there will only be more death, more white American crosses, more Iraqi slaughter.

The mounting carnage needs to stop now! I challenge Congress to bring back the draft. Apparently it is not enough that brave men and women who choose to serve must face death in Iraq. Only when every American young man has an equal opportunity to look death in the face through his gunsight, only when every American father must wave good-bye to his future hopes and dreams, only when every American mother might find herself crying quietly while they fold the flag over the coffin of her son or daughter will the American public finally stand together and say ENOUGH! Only when we stand together against the politicians, against the military, against the follies of our President's outrageous ego will we ordinary citizens become mighty enough to end this shameful war.

Posted by Secret Citizen on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 at Wednesday, December 20, 2006 | Permalink