Comments on 2009? American Troops In Iraq Till 2009?

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Oh, hell ya there would, mary_x,
and that's exactly what needs to happen.  There is no outrage yet on either level, only lip service.  What I mean by that is the false posturing by the 'haves' and the non-posturing apathy of the 'have-nots' (who, by the way, are the ones fighting and providing moral support for those who are fighting).  Start drafting the 'haves' sons and daughters and watch the outrage commence.  When they begin dodging the draft by special dispensations, loopholes, and stateside commissions (sound familiar?), while the 'have-nots' kids are being drafted and killed because they can't get the aforementioned easy ways out (or in, as the case may be), you'll see a grass-roots popular outrage.  Look at the progression of outrage during the Viet Nam conflict.  It'll happen again, given time.  And you're right, they can only recycle those boys and girls so many times before massive attrition sets in, due to deaths, age, disabilities, and retirements.  A draft will then become inevitable.  So will the public outrage.  But better late than never.  Too bad it's not sooner.  It would save a lot of lives.

posted by saul_relative on January 24, 2005 at 3:27 PM | link to this | reply

2009, Saul?  Who are they going to drum up?  They can only keep recycling the current military for so long before it's (shock and surprise) a draft!  If more middle-class kids get drafted, would there be a rethinking of the war then?

posted by Blanche. on January 23, 2005 at 5:24 PM | link to this | reply

unfortunately, billy_cargo,

isn't alcohol forbidden in Iraq?  Or at least some of the more extreme Muslim areas?  Or is that just Saudi Arabia and pre-invasion Afghanistan I'm thinking of?

And drinking with the locals might be a great idea and a better plan to "win the hearts and minds" of the Iraqis, but I don't know if I'd trust a man (or woman) to serve me a drink that resents my presence there (the bar and the entire country).  And that same resentment, probably justified and intensified thousands of times, will remain through 2009...2050.

posted by saul_relative on January 17, 2005 at 2:34 PM | link to this | reply

Saul, they're takin' away our fun bases and putting our military
installations in undesirable places to have a beer and talk with the locals...like Iraq 2009...2020...2050

posted by FreeManWalking on January 17, 2005 at 10:09 AM | link to this | reply