21.4.04
Hagel: Military draft will be "fairer"
Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel (not to be confused with German Philosopher Georg Hegel) wants a draft to supplycannon fodder "citizen soldiers" to help occupy Iraq. Hagel's motivating concern? It's not that there are too few soldiers right now for the job; no, it's that a draft will be more socially just:
If you believe that proponents of a draft are motivated by a concern for social justice, then you'll believe anything - things like, oh, I don't know, Third World countries have balsa-wood drones capable of flying thousands of miles across entire oceans and spraying pesticides on New York City. And the Easter Bunny.
Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel (not to be confused with German Philosopher Georg Hegel) wants a draft to supply
"There's not an American... that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future," Senator Chuck Hagel told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on post-occupation Iraq.When it comes to taxation for things like universal health care or infrastructure improvement, people like Hagel would never suggest that "all of our citizens" - like the wealthy - should suck it up and "bear some responsibility" and "pay some price". But when it comes to supplying people to stand in the way of a bullet - a situation Hagel likes to term "understand[ing] the intensity and depth of challenges we face" - then we see a concern for spreading the burden and social responsibility.
"If that's the case, why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel said, arguing that restoring compulsory military service would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face."
The Nebraska Republican added that a draft, which was ended in the early 1970s, would spread the burden of mililitary service in Iraq more equitably among various social strata.
"Those who are serving today and dying today are the middle class and lower middle class," he observed.
If you believe that proponents of a draft are motivated by a concern for social justice, then you'll believe anything - things like, oh, I don't know, Third World countries have balsa-wood drones capable of flying thousands of miles across entire oceans and spraying pesticides on New York City. And the Easter Bunny.
