It is clear, particularly from JU, that the draft is dead in the water. The recent congressional rejection, in which only two voted for the draft, supports this — an obvious foregone conclusion. Still, I ask why all the word-mongering over terrorism? Could it be that we are in Afghanistan and Iraq? That we are committed to “hunt down and kill the terrorists”?

The answers are obvious, but as long as deficits can be extended to the moon, and as long as congress is motivated to insure that its own sons and daughters are not called to duty, the hapless children of the poor and lower middle class — what’s there to lose but their lives? — will be stirred to patriotism by congress ineluctably increasing the benefits and heaping phony accolades to fight for one’s country. Very few volunteers read the fine print, the dead heroes can’t, those severely wounded had better.

The sad truth is that the single, most important motivation to volunteer — aside from the truly patriotic reaction to 9/11 — is that of economics: most come from dead-end environments of unemployment or offering little more than minimum wage. In a sense, it borrows from the entrepreneurial motif to get ahead by tour of duty, the end of which, if not death, leads to civilian positions as first responders, and quality security guards. Many become soldiers of fortune, such as the thousands now in Iraq that rake in ten times what US troops are paid. And, of course, substantial numbers of these veterans remain active reservists for supplementary income.

We are told time and time again that this country is the wealthiest in history while we sell its soul to oil and foreign lenders. Marx called this “economic determinism” — this truth is all ye need to know.

Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: October 15, 2004.

http://stevendedalus.joeuser.com