[lbo-talk] The Return of the Draft

[Stannard67 at aol.com]

In a message dated 6/2/2004 1:20:33 PM Mountain Daylight Time, 
dhenwood at panix.com writes:
All these draft-is-coming-back arguments ignore at least two 
important points: 1) the conscript army of the Vietnam era was a 
disaster as a fighting force (see the piece quoted below), and 2) the 
risk of political backlash would be enormous, the best recruiting 
assistance the antiwar movement could ever ask for.
Right.  Somebody tell me where Levich answers the argument that conscripted 
troops would probably revolt, use and sell drugs, commit worse atrocities than 
the thugs at Abu Ghraib, be easily defeated, and spur unprecedented anti-war 
protests.  In the face of historical facts, Levich's article does seem paranoid 
and hyperbolic.

It seems far more likely to me that the ruling class is throwing out 
occasional references to the draft in order to get more support for the current 
militarization drive, and in general to move the war conversation, bit by bit, 
further to the right.

The people to fear and fight back in this conversation are not the 
militaristic neocons, but the "communitarian" centrists and liberals who see military 
service as a civic duty.  But they'll never convince the Pentagon that draft 
would be anything short of a military disaster.

And don't forget the troop revolts that occurred immediately after world war 
2...

stannard
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