Brian Got His Gun

Why the U.S. needs to bring back the draft.

by Brian Hickey

If there's anything I conscientiously object to, it's my own death. That's not to say I'm worried about hell flames lapping my feet, fork tines poking my eyeballs and Satan's minions serenading me with Tori Amos songs for all of eternity. On the heaven/hell ledger, I figure I'll pass through those Cloud City gates — barely, hopefully. I'm just in no hurry to find out. This explains why I never signed up for a Parris Island crew cut, fatigues and a rifle which I'd learn to love like a brother and a best friend with whom I'd defend my country.

My combat aversion came to mind the other day while reading a press release from U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, a Korean War vet and Democrat who represents Harlem. Under the headline, "Reinstate the Draft: It's a Matter of Fairness," Rangel maintains, "As long as Americans are being shipped off to war, then everybody should be vulnerable. ... I continue to believe that decision-makers would never have supported the invasion if more of them had family members in line for deployment."

Granted, I'd have changed the "more" to "any single one," but I digress. Rangel also declares, as he quixotically has in the past, that in early 2007, he will introduce legislation to reinstate the military draft, "making men and women up to age 42 eligible for service, with no exceptions beyond health or reasons of conscience."

Relax y'all, there's no need to MapQuest Vancouver or Saskatoon. Even Rangel knows his legislation has nada chance of passing.

In fact, after the pro-withdrawal party leadership waited just a minute to shoot his idea down, he'd be lucky to get a second vote. So, what's the problem? Charles Rangel has a good idea. Strike that. Charles Rangel has a great idea. America should bring back the draft. Today. Because if that happened, our nation's Deciders would get working on a bring-'em-all-home timetable as early as tomorrow. And that's what most of you want, right?

Rangel, who proposed similar legislation in 2003, couches his proposal as a way to level a killing field inordinately occupied by the poor and minorities. But considering icasualties.org statistics show 73.87 percent of America's war dead are white (and not all necessarily poor), he's going about it all wrong. If he's serious, Rangel should make one simple plea: "Reinstate the Draft: It's a Matter of Ending the War."

Already, draft foes have made a noisy case that children of the rich and powerful would still find their way to the Texas Air National Guard instead of combat, that the volunteer Army works just fine and that Rangel, if he's doing this for effect, is playing a very dangerous game. But here's what's actually dangerous: What if our nation's military truly is strained to the breaking point and, for some inexplicable reason, peace on earth is never achieved? If our defenses never again strengthen beyond the state they're in today, you'd best brush up on your Mandarin for even the grandest of empires crumble.

One of the biggest advantages of coming up in America's Most Coddled Generation is that none of us have been forced to put our lives on the line for our country. In my case, this is probably a good thing, considering every time I wonder what kind of soldier I'd make, I see a Private Joker/John Winger hybrid. (And one needn't look too far to identify a sea of Klingers just waiting to don a flowered dress and fake eyelashes.)

But the biggest disadvantage of America having such a coddled generation is that, collectively, we're all talk, a group of grown men and women who'd rather strap ourselves into virtual realities than fight for a better reality. To us, self-preservation trumps physically protecting the nation.

This isn't to be all love-it-or-leave-it, but most people under 42 that I know take for granted that their peers in past generations respected their obligation to become best friends with a rifle. We have no sense of context, either, considering we've had no Normandy or 'Nam. Except for those who enlisted for active duty, or a National Guard that might as well be active duty, we're spoiled rotten thanks to the sacrifices of others.

Blame it on rich-kid exemptions all you want, but the real reason for opposing the draft can be summed up in one word: Fear.

None of us wants to die, especially in the name of a war that we don't support, for a commander in chief we suspect can't spell commander, let alone chief. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It's just how we were raised.

But what if this really is the only way to make warmongers stop mongering? That when it's not just somebody else's kid, a legitimate anti-war movement will draw the strength of millions and force the hand of a president who only now realizes he has to listen to people who are neither dicks nor named Dick.

All it would take is agreeing to theoretically put ourselves in harm's way via a draft that would never really come to fruition. Which, for a generation that's collectively had it easy, is a fitting call to action.

(hickey@citypaper.net)