Tuesday, January 09, 2007

"Support our Troops

You've got to love the draft dodgers like Cheney and Bush who so passionately argue that we need to support our troops and that we should sacrifice.

Canadian Cynic points out that young Republicans are the same. When asked at the Young Republicans' national convention whether they'd enlist, the responses were across the board. The best:

"I physically probably couldn't do a whole lot" in Iraq, said Tiffanee Hokel, 18, of Webster City, Iowa, who called the war a moral imperative. She knows people posted in Iraq, but she didn't flinch when asked why she wouldn't go."I think I could do more here," Hokel said, adding that she's focusing on political action that supports the war and the troops."We don't have to be there physically to fight it," she said.

"Support our Troops" and "Surge" while not actually doing anything yourself. "Sacrifice" with tax cuts.

I increasingly see the value of a draft, and one without generous deferments for the wealthy. Right now, the cost of any foreign policy decision falls on a very small minority of people. Their lives are played with because politicians know there simply are few consequences to their actions.

If it was the case that when a politician voted for war, or for a surge or a sacrifice, there was a very significant chance that his or her son or daughter, or the son or daughter of his or her constitutents would be sent into harms way, if every time they voted for war they knew the decision would impact the full range of society, I would bet that our creative foreign policy adventures would dramatically decline.

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