Conscription to Cure Forever Wars?

Privileged Americans would think twice about supporting wars abroad if their own kids were sent to fight them.

While the U.S. government and Nato continue to go down the insane path of escalation with Russia instead of negotiating, I’m struck by the fact that there are apparently zero protests being organized in the United States.

This starkly contrasts with the student protests of the Vietnam era. A key difference between then and now is that the students who protested were afraid of being drafted and sent to fight in Southeast Asia.

Young men burning draft notices during Vietnam War.

Now that young Americans (and their equally thoughtless parents) perceive themselves to have no skin in the game, so they don’t worry about the catastrophes caused by the U.S. government’s Forever War policy.

Here in Dallas, I often marvel that privileged men who dodged the draft during the Vietnam era have apparently learned to love the Military-Industrial Complex, and are fierce advocates of the Biden administration’s escalation with Russia.

I suspect that all this thoughtlessness and folly would end in a day if the draft were re-instituted. It reminds me of Samuel Johnson’s observation:

Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.

To paraphrase Dr. Johnson: “Depend upon it sir and madame, when your own sons will be sent to eastern Ukraine in a fortnight, it concentrates your minds wonderfully.”