SKIN IN THE GAME: CAUGHT IN A DRAFT

The other morning I hear a conservative radio talkshow host say that America needs more "skin in the game"--the game being our war on terrorism and Islamist extremeists.The skin he was referring to is the military draft. According to the host, our war against terrorism hasn't been successful because Americans do not have enough of an  emotional investment in the struggle. By having a draft, he concludes, Americans will be more directly involved, and therefore, as a nation, we would be more focused and engaged in the war on terror.

It is interesting that this self-proclaimed conservative, a man who says he distrusts big government and demands less intrusion in our lives by politicians, would call for a renewel of the military draft. To call his thinking skewered and inconsistent would be a gross understatement.

There is a reason the draft was abolished in the 1970's. It is in direct opposition to the values and principles upon which this country was founded. When the United States was established over 200 years ago, it was the first nation in the history of the human race to be based on the concepts of individual liberty and the sanctity of the individual. In previous culturess going back thousands of years, the individual had  little or no personal freedom, and was under the absolute authority of the king or queen, the general or the despot. Ours was the first nation to declare the government to be subservient to the individual citizen--not the other way around.

The military draft is a total perversion of this concept. What the draft says, in essence, is that the government has prior claim to at least 2 years of your life; that, in fact, it has total ownership of 2 years of your life, and you have virtually no say in where you are sent or what it is  you are ordered to do. You can refuse to register and comply, and for that you would be imprisoned. Does that sound like the principles upon which this country was founded? Does that sound like you have complete and total ownership of your life?

There is also a bonus to not having military conscription.  With a draft, if our leaders seek to go to war--regardless of how unpopular that war may be with the citizens--they would only have to fire up the draft in order to have enough bodies to execute the war.

When there is no draft, these same leaders would first have to appeal to the citizens--especially those of military age--and convince them that the war is a legitimate cause. If Americans are soundly against the war, enlistments and re-enlistments would plummet, forcing the government to reconsider its policy. Had there been no draft in the 1960's, it is doubtful 57 thousand Americans would have perished in that fruitless and hated debacle.

In January of 1966 I was  caught in the draft. Fortunately I was assigned to serve in Germany, and not Viet Nam. The reason I was drafted brings up another distasteful aspect of mandatory government service. In 1965 my father suffered a severe heart attack that forced his retirement from his managerial position at United States Steel. With his income drastically reduced by a disability pension, he sadly informed me that he would no longer be able to pay for my college education. I was a student at a nearby community college. I fully understood. I quit school and went to work full time at the same steel mill my father had retired from. My plan was to work for a year or two, save up enough money and continue my college education. But when I quit school I lost my 2S student deferrment, and 6 months after that I received my draft notice. One month later I was at Fort Polk, Louisiana for basic training.

So what is my point? My story introduces one more negative aspect to the draft. Young men from affluent families were able to avoid conscription because their parents paid for the college education that allowed these young men to be draft deferred. By contrast, working class dudes like myself whose families could not afford to finance  4 years of college ended up as draft bait. Studies during the Viet Nam war showed that working class and lower income males comprised the overwhelming majority of draftees. It was the soldiers drawn from the ranks of blue collars that shed the most red blood, proving that the so-called universal military draft was anything but universal.

Support for a draft and mandatory national service is the antithesis of a country steeped in individual liberty and a love of freedom. If there is any skin in the game, it should not be stripped from the backs of free citizens.