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WASHINGTON - The question of whether we need a universal military draft will be important as long as this country is placing thousands of young men and women in harm's way in Iraq. As long as Americans are being shipped off to war, then everyone should be vulnerable, not just those who, because of economic circumstances, are attracted by lucrative enlistment bonuses and educational incentives.
Even before the first bomb was dropped, before the first American casualty, I have opposed the war in Iraq. I continue to believe that decision-makers would never have supported the invasion if more of them had family members in line for deployment.
Those who do the fighting have no choice; when the flag goes up, they salute and follow orders. So far, more than 2,800 have died and 21,000 wounded. They are our unrecognized American heroes.
The great majority of people bearing arms for this country in Iraq are from the poorer communities in our inner cities and rural areas, places where enlistment bonuses up to $40,000 and thousands in educational benefits are very attractive. For people who have college as an option, those incentives--at the risk to one's life--don't mean a thing.
In New York City, the disproportionate burden of service on the poor is dramatic. In 2004, 70 percent of the volunteers in the city were Black or Hispanic, recruited from lower income communities such as the South Bronx, East New York, and Long Island City.
The Bush Administration, the Pentagon, and some Republicans in Congress are considering deploying up to 20,000 more troops to Iraq, above the 141,000 already on the ground. Among the planners are Army General John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, who has admitted the difficulty of finding additional combat troops for the war without expanding the size of the active duty military.
If Abizaid is right, increasing troop strength will mean dipping further into the reserves and national guard units which are already carrying an unfair burden of multiple deployments. The over-stretched active duty Army is filling the ranks in Iraq with stop loss orders, and extended deployments, and even recalls of the Individual Ready Reserves, active duty veterans who have time remaining on the military obligations.
These facts lead me to ask anyone who supports the war how can they not support the military draft when the growing burden on our uniformed troops is obvious, and the unfairness and absence of shared sacrifice in the population cannot be challenged.
If this war is the threat to our national security that the Bush Administration insists it is, then the President should issue a call for all Americans to sacrifice for the nation's defense. If there must be a sacrifice, then the burden must be shared fairly.
That is why I intend to reintroduce legislation to reinstate the military draft, making men and women up to age 42 eligible for service, with no exemptions beyond health or reasons of conscience. I believe it is immoral for those who insist on continuing the conflict in Iraq, and placing war on the table in Iran and North Korea to do so only at the risk of other people's children.
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