Comments | ontd_political: Opinion: the way we treat our troops

la_petite_singe in ontd_political

Opinion: the way we treat our troops

Oct 23, 2010 13:29

You can only hope that the very preliminary peace efforts in Afghanistan bear fruit before long. But for evidence that the United States is letting its claim to greatness, and even common decency, slip through its fingers, all you need to do is look at the way we treat our own troops ( Read more... )

opinion piece, draft, war, iraq, military, health, new york times

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evelynwordsmyth October 23 2010, 20:00:13 UTC

rex_dart October 23 2010, 20:02:36 UTC

And as for the children who die because of it in the meantime, fuck 'em, amirite?

evelynwordsmyth October 23 2010, 20:25:33 UTC

rex_dart October 23 2010, 20:28:15 UTC

Previous drafts didn't exactly end in overwhelming public opposition to pointless wars.

evelynwordsmyth October 23 2010, 20:37:29 UTC

I beg to differ... devil_ad_vocate October 23 2010, 21:01:15 UTC

The draft had A LOT to do with changing attitudes about Vietnam.

Re: I beg to differ... rex_dart October 23 2010, 21:06:04 UTC

And it still took a lot of time and a hell of a lot of draftees dying for the war to actually end. Somehow I don't think that justifies a draft or proves that drafts are very effective means to avoiding war.

Re: I beg to differ... the_axel October 23 2010, 21:14:50 UTC

A mandatory, no excuses, we don't care who your father is, draft has a very different impact on a society than one that forces poor people in and lets the rich stay out.

I think the author is talking about the former, Vietnam was about the latter.

Re: I beg to differ... rex_dart October 23 2010, 21:16:04 UTC

You're banking a lot of lives on a hypothetical overestimation of human decency.

Re: I beg to differ... the_axel October 24 2010, 14:17:40 UTC

I'm not banking anything on anything.
I'm merely interpreting.

Re: I beg to differ... roseofjuly October 24 2010, 02:13:54 UTC

That's not going to happen.

Re: I beg to differ... the_axel October 24 2010, 14:16:39 UTC

I agree. Your country is fucked.

Re: I beg to differ... devil_ad_vocate October 23 2010, 21:21:09 UTC

Until the Tet offensive, Americans couldn't even conceive of losing a war. I was a gung-ho Army officer at the time. It wasn't until I saw wounded soldiers standing out in front of an Army hospital, giving the peace sign to passing motorists, that I realized that the war was lost.

Re: I beg to differ... rex_dart October 23 2010, 21:22:37 UTC

But I don't understand what your point is in relation to a discussion about how having a draft will prevent us from starting pointless wars.

Re: I beg to differ... devil_ad_vocate October 23 2010, 21:29:31 UTC

A draft would not prevent starting any war, but the disconnects between the civilian population and the military would not be as prevalent. My point is better stated by the David Hackworth quote in the comments.

Re: I beg to differ... roseofjuly October 24 2010, 02:13:39 UTC

I think it was more the photographs and reports that started coming over in the middle of the war, especially the iconic pictures of My Lai and that pic of Nguyen Ngoc Laon shooting the Viet Cong general point blank. People were seeing the realities of what war in Vietnam meant instead of thinking of it as an abstract concept - and that's why Bush put that moratorium on wartime pictures and reporters in combat zones for Afghanistan. We're not seeing pictures of crying Afghani children and dead Afghani people, so Americans can sit in their cozy homes and think abstractly about what war means.

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