War and Politics of Everyday Life
In my previous column, I argued that the absence of a draft is a major reason for the lack of a strong political movement to end the Iraq occupation. Today college students need not fear a draft. Only those middle-class youth who are ardently committed to the war will choose to serve. The war is fought by professional soldiers who need active combat on their resumes and by the economically marginalized. The latter “choose” military service for its advertised — and exaggerated — economic opportunities. A few on the political left seek restoration of the draft, both for the sake of equity and in the hopes of re-igniting a vigorous anti-war effort.
In a society where wealth dominates not only the economy but also politics, however, any “universal” draft would probably contain even more loopholes than the Vietnam- era draft. In addition, there are good reasons to worry about giving George Bush — or even any of the “top-tier” Democrats — hundreds of thousands of young Americans to commit to some future “surge.” Rather than lecture fortunate middle-class youth that they are not doing enough, my generation might remind ourselves of the benefits we received from an inequitable draft. A young inner city Detroit black man may have died because I avoided service. I can’t restore that life, but guilt could take a productive turn. We can ask if there are other steps we might take to spur new activism and save Iraqi and American lives.
We all need to consider whether and how to reinvigorate such older strategies as civil disobedience, campaigns to defeat pro-war Democrats in primaries, letters to the editors of local papers, etc. But in addition to such an approach, we might broaden our sense of political discourse. Politics occurs in our churches, over our back fences, in our dinner-table conversations, in our e-mails. When friends or acquaintances suggest that the occupation of Iraq is needed to prevent terrorists from invading our shores, we can reply that even most establishment opinion now challenges the president’s certainties. CIA estimates suggest that the occupation has both motivated and become a training ground for “urban terrorism,” just the sort most likely to affect our shores.
More recently, the center-right British think tank, Chatham House, has concluded that Iraq has moved beyond a civil war to many civil wars. The surge is not curbing the high levels of violence. “A political solution will require engagement with organizations possessing popular legitimacy and needs to be an Iraqi accommodation” rather than a U.S. imposed solution. In addition, $100 billion a year squandered in Iraq is money we do not have better to secure our ports, our chemical plants, our levees, and to build the forms of transit that might make us less dependent on a turbulent Middle East.
For the Democrats and the media who reiterate mantra-like the notion that the Constitution makes George W Bush Commander in Chief, we should remind them that the Constitution clearly gives Congress the right to defund even declared wars. As Alexander Hamilton points out in The Federalist Papers, and even George Will agrees: “The legislature of the United States will be obliged, [by the constitutional provision that Congress has the power to raise and support armies] once at least in every two years, to deliberate upon the propriety of keeping a military force on foot; to come to a new resolution on the point; and to declare their sense of the matter, by a formal vote in the face of their constituents.”
Politics also occurs in our churches — and not just when religious leaders endorse causes or candidates. Every Sunday, my wife and some friends read the names of that week’s war dead at her local church. Just seeing or hearing these names and ages make the deaths more real to me.
Like my reunion, it reminds me of the painful reality of the death of friends and colleagues, but the names of men and women at the formative stage of their lives also evoke another thought. We pass on to our children a given name and a surname. The human capacity to name is a fascinating and fortuitous aspect of social and biological evolution. For me, names evoke a sense of both continuity and change. Parents invest much creative energy in naming children, whose lives in turn may flow in many different ways. With every dead young soldier, that individual promise has been snuffed out well before its time.
Let’s find more daily acts to bring this war to a close.
John Buell is a political economist who lives in Southwest Harbor. Readers may contact him at jbuell@acadia.net.
© 2007 The Bangor Daily News
We need to keep talking about what is happening. The Bush Administration wants to hide the realities and costs of this war as much as possible.
http://www.peaceisactive.com
So many lives so badly wasted, so many more to follow.
Bring ‘em home.
Great article, Mr. Buell. I hope that it is widely read.
OR admit the Bushists’ horrible mistake and come Home NOW.
Here’s a plan that requires zero sacrifice and that hits “them” the only real place it hurts: their money pile.
Stop buying from the enablers, supporters and profiteers. Exxon, GE, FOX - all of them. Ultimately, all they want is our money, period. Sure, it’ll take a bit of homework - separating the good guys from the bad - but compared to, say, 15 months as an IED magnet… exactly. Piece of cake. Imagine - the Progressive Majority stops buying Exxon gas. That’s over half their obscene profits gone overnight. And not coming back until they demand an end to the illegal occupation and swear off any attempts to steal oil from anyone ever again. And no more buying Congress either, or writing energy policy. Kraft sponsors FOX “news”? Half their profits gone until they stop, there’s plenty of food out there. Wal Mart? Just say no.
All, literally all, of “their” power comes directly from OUR WALLETS. It’s time to grow up and vote the only real way that counts - with your dollars.
Can I get a shout out to IMPEACH CHENEY!!!!
Many of the blogs I read seem to think the congress is interested in acting. It hasn’t and it won’t. We made a huge mistake in the year 2004, and compounded it by electing the do-nothing Democrats in 2006. Now we’re well on our way to an even worse situation in 2008. Here’s a solution: draft Cheney! Only he understands our constitution well enough to rule the country.
Like the draft, another forgotten institution central to public engagement in America’s foreign policy decisions regarding warfare that kills hundreds of thousand innocent human beings in foreign lands is that of DECLARING WAR. Why have we stopped following the constitutional structure for getting a congressional declaration of war? For more, check out my article, “Animal Farm, Undeclared War, and the Social Contract,” posted at my blog: http://hankedson.squarespace.com
“A young inner city Detroit black man may have died because I avoided service. I can’t restore that life, but guilt could take a productive turn. We can ask if there are other steps we might take to spur new activism and save Iraqi and American lives.”
Sounds great. Your middle class guilt vs an inner city black kid life. That ought to stop the war. Are you serious?
The draft is the only way to stop the couch potatos from ignoring the consequences of war.
I am a Vietnam war era veteran who was drafted. The draft (conscription) was wrong then and it’s wrong now. The way to stop the war is to elect Representatives and Senators who reflect (and will act on) our values of peace, community, environmental protection, fairness, and so on.
Without a draft, we have Blackwater.
correct ezeflyer -
An endless supply of cannon fodder in the form of economic refugees and displaced people will provide mercenary soldiers paid for by the taxpayer but answering only to corporations.
The volunteer army and national guard are nearly dead as an effective deterrent to worldwide empire. Any threat real or imagined outside or especially INSIDE this country will be met foreign mercenaries that will not mind brutally oppressing the citizens.
There are more churches in the United States than any other country in the world. There are also more churches in the U.S. than there are mosques in any single Muslim country. I cannot give a figure about religious fundamentalists in the world, but I know there are millions of them, quite a disproportional number of them, in the U.S. That being the case, one of the best places to start anti-war and anti-imperial campaign is by far the church. Attend the church; bring up the question with the pastor or priest, or whoever preaches. Don’t let him to evade, bug him and make him express his take, then challenge him right there if he’s for war. Ask him loudly why he doesn’t preach peace. Such an atmosphere will bring about awareness and exchange of ideas. The least it can do is to bring the war issue in the open.
Overturn Nafta, etc. and encourage ways to find decent jobs for our many unfortunate youths who can’t afford to attend college. That’s what really needs to happen. Many young folks decide the military is their only way out of poverty while others believe they are defending their country against terrorists. But when they return home, they find that all of their training amounts to nothing since most of jobs have been outsourced. There are economic issues that need to be addressed before we see an end to war.
Saila: “Attend the church; bring up the question with the pastor or priest, or whoever preaches. Don’t let him to evade, bug him and make him express his take, then challenge him right there if he’s for war. Ask him loudly why he doesn’t preach peace. Such an atmosphere will bring about awareness and exchange of ideas. The least it can do is to bring the war issue in the open.”
Are you serious. This would be the surest way of getting lynched by the rest of the congregation ,at the end of the service. Before you know it ,you’d be dangling from the tree nearest to the church. Those who ‘ve strung you up ,would go home and sleep the sleep of the just - serene in the knowledge that they’ve just done as God willed.