Hands Off Our Grandkids!
A Neanderthal general fired for disrespecting his Commander-in-Chief is mouthing off again, proposing a universal draft so “everybody has skin in the game.”
Two years ago, Gen. Stanley McChrystal lost his job commanding troops in Afghanistan by complaining about being “screwed into” attending a formal Paris dinner described as “gay” by his aide. “I’d rather,” the General huffed, “have my ass kicked by a roomful of people than go out to this.”
Critics of America’s 21st century Middle East wars, like this grandfather, have long complained about the lack of shared sacrifice that allows them to go on with no public uproar, and the point scarcely needs reinforcement out of the mouths of boobs like McChrystal.
Yet arguments pro and con raise broader questions about what politics today are doing to future American generations, as David Brooks reports on research showing “children of the more affluent and less affluent are raised in starkly different ways and have different opportunities. Decades ago, college-graduate parents and high-school-graduate parents invested similarly in their children. Recently, more affluent parents have invested much more in their children’s futures while less affluent parents have not.”
This month, my teen-age grandchildren will be far from home, devoting time and energy to learning how to help people less privileged than they, motivated by parents who have passed on such values.
“Political candidates,” Brooks concludes, “will have to spend less time trying to exploit class divisions and more time trying to remedy them–less time calling their opponents out of touch elitists, and more time coming up with agendas that comprehensively address the problem. It’s politically tough to do that, but the alternative is national suicide.”
It wasn’t always so.
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Yes, my spouse and I were “clean for Gene”, also. The chance to reinstate a draft was missed when we invaded A & I. Not sure why it wasn’t pushed then, but I’ve heard rumblings about the inevitability of it coming. The schism between wealthy and not will be a hard rock to get around this time if a draft is reinstated.
Since we essentially run the country for the benefit of the wealthy now I think that an all encompassing draft is going to be very hard to pass. There will have to be some ‘out’ for the children of the very wealthy. During my war, Viet Nam, it was attending college through graduate school and getting married and having a child.
No you cant have my sons and daughters for your irresponsible money making wars for the moguls to gain even more money. The gig is up. Patriotism talk is only the cover for mutilation of the young for profit. Morally insupportable. After watching Rummy go rope-a-dope on our children, sending them to war with inadequate armor, hearing him put down the troops wishing he had Conan -like troops in his fantasy. I say send all the senators and congresspeople first, no matter how old they are, into direct combat. Their greed for money and war would be diminished in the first barrage. No more desk jobs for those who warmonger. Thanks Robert. This time the elders who see through the wet tissue paper of ‘patriot and hero talk’ will take a stand, a loud one.
Um, wow. I have so little to say after Clarissa, who clearly speaks from the heart & soul.
I will only add this: Vietnam was a stupid, sh&t mess, and THAT had a draft that affected millions of families. So no, a draft doesn’t solve nuttin’.