An Army Of…Well, Not Of Us

Santa Monica High School has a diverse student body. However, a large group of SAMOHI students are privileged. As with much of the privileged group of American society, the idea of the draft is repulsive. However, this anti-military fervor is symptomatic of a larger issue: privileged Americans have become less and less willing to serve the country that has given them the lives they enjoy. While it would no doubt be unpopular, bringing back the draft is a way to once again force all Americans to have a stake in this nation.

To understand why, it is important to know the history of the draft. The draft was first enacted on a large scale during the Civil War, because the volunteer Army was running short of the manpower it needed to overcome the rebellion. This draft, along with the draft in World War I, was instituted for a reason that surprises many: to protect the nation’s wealthy. In the carnage of the Civil War fields and Western Front trenches, casualty rates of over 80% for individual units were not uncommon. The elite of American society, who volunteered first to serve the country that had served them so well, were decimated. These men had volunteered out of a sense of duty to their country that most lack today. As the grandson of Paul Revere said in 1861, “I should be ashamed of myself if I were to sit down in happy indulgence, and leave such a great matter as this to take its course.” He and his brother would both be dead within a few months.

In spite of this tradition of the wealthy serving, the last fifty years have seen a drastic shift in the burden of protecting America. Far from what it was originally intended to do, the draft today would force those Americans who owe this country the most to serve their country. Of course, not every American wants to serve in the Armed Forces. Many have religious and moral objections to warfare in general. All of this is just beating around the bush. The real issue is not how to serve one’s country, but instead whether or not one is serving his country at all. Unfortunately for America, each year fewer and fewer of us can say that we have served.

Of course, many will say that there is a justifiable reason for the unwillingness to sacrifice: Vietnam. The Vietnam War, the most divisive in the history of our nation, shattered the faith many had in government. For soldiers and families who, as Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) has stated (about both his time in Vietnam and his son’s in Iraq), “trusted the judgment of our national leaders,” and hoped that, “they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm's way,” faith in the government was ruptured. Then, as with Iraq today, many wondered why so many had to die for no reason.

Since the armed forces became voluntary in 1973, there has been a drastic shift in its demographics. More and more of the military is made up of lower income, mostly rural kids. This demographic change, according to authors Frank Schaeffer and Kathy Roth-Douque in their book AWOL, has led to several problems. In a country where the number of veterans in Congress has dropped by a third in less than 30 years, it hurts our policy-making ability and civilian leadership. When the country is run by those who have no knowledge of the consequences of war, war becomes much more agreeable a tactic. Also, the drop in college-educated soldiers (the number of Harvard and Princeton graduates who join the military has dropped 98% since the days of the draft) hurts the Army itself. However, the gravest problem that they have pointed to is an intangible one, the “sense of lost community and the threat to democracy that is the result of what happens when a society simply begins to accept a situation that is inherently unfair.” As less and less of the job is done by those with more, the social equation in America begins to become unbalanced.

America is a country based on the fundamental truth of equality. However, when the burden of protecting that equality falls unfairly on the shoulders of those who have benefited least, America has a problem. With a draft, America could once again have a military that reflected its diversity and unity. More than just equalize who is in harm’s way, a draft could realign America’s moral consciousness. More and more, less and less attention is paid to the news, current events, and what decisions our leaders make. With a country in which everyone had something at stake, maybe we wouldn’t stumble so rashly into a pointless war. And, God forbid that it should happen, but if America came under attack again, why shouldn’t those of us who have so much to thank our country for help protect it?

Ponder that,

The Grip Doctrine.