Clarification
It looks like I need to clarify my previous post. David read my post and came to the conclusion that I was proposing we reintroduce a mandatory draft into the armed forces.
I'll say it plainly: I am not an advocate for a mandatory draft and I don't support the idea of reinstituting it here in this country.
The point of my post was to highlight the striking parallels between the criticisms of Olmert's handling of the Second Lebanon War and Bush's handling of the Iraq War. The point was also to highlight where these two diverge: where Israel appoints independent commissions who release no-holds-barred truthful analysis of the actions of their leaders, the United States is still playing through the "debate" as to whether our "leaders" lied and misled this country into a senseless war, the consequences of which we will experience for a long time to come.
Yes- I do believe that President Bush and VP Cheney deliberately misled the country- and there's enough proof out there to support the claim, starting with the false assertions that Hussein was complicit in the 9/11 attacks and that Iraq had clear ties to Al-Qaeda. We know that to be false. But yet, the administration continues to peddle that theory. I can go on, but that's not the point of this post. David- I have no desire to label my "opponents" as evil and vile, especially not for the hell of it. (And shall we point to the myriad of Republicans out there who label their "opponents" as unpatriotic, America-haters, anti-family, baby-killers, evil, etc. This is not just a "Democratic" issue.)
The point here is this: Outrage from the Israeli public on the handling of this war fueled the impetus for the commission and the commission verdict was unanimous. They hold their leaders accountable for their actions to a much higher degree than we do in this country.
One major difference between Israelis and Americans is clear (besides for all others): every single Israeli knows someone who is serving, who once served, who was injured, who was killed. They are clearly more sensitive to every single soldier's death. The comments I heard on NPR made it obvious: "119 soldiers are in the ground." Those were his exact words! We blink at 119 and move on.
The bottom line is I think a draft would make people more sensitive and aware of the devestations of war, especially those not being fought on our soil (and if that point is not obvious, just take a look at the country's reaction to 9/11, the Columbine shootings, Va Tech, Oklahoma City, etc. We react much differently when it happens here, but when 20 soldiers are killed by a roadside bomb, we read the article and move on). But that doesn't mean I practically support the concept as policy.
I'll say it plainly: I am not an advocate for a mandatory draft and I don't support the idea of reinstituting it here in this country.
The point of my post was to highlight the striking parallels between the criticisms of Olmert's handling of the Second Lebanon War and Bush's handling of the Iraq War. The point was also to highlight where these two diverge: where Israel appoints independent commissions who release no-holds-barred truthful analysis of the actions of their leaders, the United States is still playing through the "debate" as to whether our "leaders" lied and misled this country into a senseless war, the consequences of which we will experience for a long time to come.
Yes- I do believe that President Bush and VP Cheney deliberately misled the country- and there's enough proof out there to support the claim, starting with the false assertions that Hussein was complicit in the 9/11 attacks and that Iraq had clear ties to Al-Qaeda. We know that to be false. But yet, the administration continues to peddle that theory. I can go on, but that's not the point of this post. David- I have no desire to label my "opponents" as evil and vile, especially not for the hell of it. (And shall we point to the myriad of Republicans out there who label their "opponents" as unpatriotic, America-haters, anti-family, baby-killers, evil, etc. This is not just a "Democratic" issue.)
The point here is this: Outrage from the Israeli public on the handling of this war fueled the impetus for the commission and the commission verdict was unanimous. They hold their leaders accountable for their actions to a much higher degree than we do in this country.
One major difference between Israelis and Americans is clear (besides for all others): every single Israeli knows someone who is serving, who once served, who was injured, who was killed. They are clearly more sensitive to every single soldier's death. The comments I heard on NPR made it obvious: "119 soldiers are in the ground." Those were his exact words! We blink at 119 and move on.
The bottom line is I think a draft would make people more sensitive and aware of the devestations of war, especially those not being fought on our soil (and if that point is not obvious, just take a look at the country's reaction to 9/11, the Columbine shootings, Va Tech, Oklahoma City, etc. We react much differently when it happens here, but when 20 soldiers are killed by a roadside bomb, we read the article and move on). But that doesn't mean I practically support the concept as policy.
posted by elanit | 4:22 PM
2 Comments:
The most obvious reason why there is a difference is not the mandatory draft in Israel, but rather the relative demographics
The USA has ~40x the population of Israel, and ~435x the area. We are therefore more than 10x more spread-out here than they are there. The ill-fated war against Hezbollah last year lasted about 4 weeks, and caused the displacement of nearly 7% of the Israeli civilian populace from their homes, and killed .002% of the Israeli population (114 soldiers and 43 civilians).
By way of comparison, the US war in and occupation of Iraq has lasted about 4 years, has caused the displacement of 0% of the civilian population of the US, and over that four years, has killed roughly .001% of the US population (~3000 soldiers).
Clearly, the level of impact will be greater in the former than the latter, no matter who's in the military.
I could take issue with the use of the phrase "deliberately misled": that implies a level of awareness of falsity which is certainly not proven (and quite likely not provable in any case) - if you were to articulate this as "were wrong in their assertions" you would remove that possible criticism of your argument, and thus strengthen it considerably.
I do not believe that inappropriate characterizations of ill intent from Republicans/Conservatives excuses the same from Democrats/Liberals - I criticize both when I encounter them.
But in any case, of course Israel is more sensitive to every individual than the US is: it's got the same population as New York City! A better comparison would be whether New York (or something comparably sized) would want to throw out its leadership for bungling something which caused the deaths of 100 people.
In Bloom County, Burke Breathed made the argument that one difference between the US and the USSR was that the USSR held leadership accountable, and conducted purges when a single cessna landed in the wrong place (in that case, Red Square). This stood in strong contrast to the US approach, where no matter who it is (Gov. Davis excepted), we tend to prefer the devil we know to the one we don't (at least until election time, and sometimes even after: c.f. Marion Barry, Ray Nagin, both of whom were voted back in after spectacular failures). Anyway, Breathed's tagline was "accountability is un-American!"
Great for a laugh, but there is a sad amount of truth there.
As for the draft, I am pleased to hear that you don't seriously believe that this should be public policy: it would severely damage our ability to use the military to pursue foreign policy as defined by the civilian leadership, and would mean that a whole lot of people who have no business on a battlefield would get killed.
As the founding member of the "Committee to Force Lady Frog to Post More Blog Entries" or CFPMBE, I hereby formally note our protest concerning the 35 days and counting since Lady Frog posted her last entry. Should this pattern continue, CFPMBE will be forced to take drastic action, which may include running the Frog up a flagpole.
George W. Bush
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