Iraq War - What's different this time?

[Ming]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Most of the protesters were young people facing conscription thus their sudden opposition to the war.

Amazing how that worked

There is a choice now... if you don't want to be in the military, you don't have to. Back then, that wasn't the case. So it's no surprise that people took a stronger interest in stopping a war that they might have to go and fight/die in.

Today, unless your friends or family are in the military, it's just not as "personal" as it was back then.

[Wiglaf]

Which is why all major wars should involve a mandatory draft of all able bodied individuals. Gets rid of the apathy and, of course, the shortages.

[Aeson]

No, just a draft of policy makers.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Aeson
No, just a draft of policy makers.

If they start the draft again, they should include any government official that votes for the war in the first place. Now that would be interesting.

[Kuciwalker]

I hope you both are being deliberately silly, because the flaws in that idea are obvious and insurmountable.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
I hope you both are being deliberately silly, because the flaws in that idea are obvious and insurmountable.

I dont' think you are seeing the advantages...
First, maybe the morons will think twice before voting for a war for silly or the wrong reasons...

Second, maybe we could get rid of some of the more stupid politicians

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Geronimo
Honestly I think whatever reason there's fewer protests it's a good thing. Protests accomplish little to nothing in this country. In fact I strongly doubt the protests themselves did anything to substantially shorten vietnam. Nixon would have begun the Vietnam pullout in an entirely different manner if mollifying the protesters was his motivation.

Protests had a lot to do with ending American involvement in the war. If the American people had been solidly behind the war, we would have stayed as long as it took. Protests certainly considerably shorted the invasion of Cambodia, and the antiwar movement is why Ford didn't go back into Vietnam and Cambodia, or Agnola and Mozambique. It is why Bush I had to so carefully propagandize in order to make his case for war in Iraq in 1990.

Your mistake is in looking for a direct causal relationship. The antiwar protesters were the tip of the iceberg. By 1970, most people in the U.S. were against the war, including business leaders. This change in sentiment in the U.S. in only five years was largely due to the protests. In addition, these protests spread into the very military itself. On top of all that, the antiwar movement was increasingly falling under the influence of revolutionary Marxism. Given what happened in France in May, 1968, the ruling class in America was increasingly of the opinion that the war in Vietnam was more trouble than it was worth.

All because of protesters.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Ming




If they start the draft again, they should include any government official that votes for the war in the first place. Now that would be interesting.

A similar policy is one of the reasons the Bolsheviks collapsed into dictatorship. Most of the Bolsheviks (who held the majority) in the soviets voted to go off to fight in the war themselves, leaving their opponents in physical control of the Soviets. In order to avoid overturning the revolution while they were gone, the Bolshevik delegates divested the soviets of any real power first.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Oerdin
Most of the protesters were young people facing conscription thus their sudden opposition to the war.

The single largest segment of the Vietnam Antiwar movement was composed of Vietnam Vets. Overall, there were more students, but they were split up into a bunch of different organizations. I did a lot of work with Vietnam Vets Against the War during the first Bush-Hussein war.

[Wiglaf]

Originally posted by Ming


I dont' think you are seeing the advantages...
First, maybe the morons will think twice before voting for a war for silly or the wrong reasons...

Second, maybe we could get rid of some of the more stupid politicians

I don't think you realize we'd have no one to run the government. A mandatory civilian draft would accomplish the same goal anyway.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Wiglaf


I don't think you realize we'd have no one to run the government.

That's probably a selling point for him.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Ming
I dont' think you are seeing the advantages...
First, maybe the morons will think twice before voting for a war for silly or the wrong reasons...

Second, maybe we could get rid of some of the more stupid politicians

I guess I have to conclude you really are that dumb

[Aeson]

You all miss the point. If the draft is only policy makers there will be no draft.

[Kuciwalker]

Which means that it's just a childish way of expressing an even more childish sentiment: "ooooh, we should make war illegal! That will solve everything."

[chequita guevara]

Right now, policy makers don't really have to sacrifice when the make the most important decision of their careers.