Draft Note

Just a note with two U.S. Representatives calling for a draft because they believe African American military personnel will die in disproportionate numbers. Actually, they oppose war and hope that highlighting their belief will derail the war. Actually, as the article buries deep in the story, whites and Hispanics are clustered in combat units where the great majority of casualties will be endured. And even in Vietnam, based on simple percentages of the population, it was at most, 20% more than their percentage of the population. If I remember my demographics correctly, if you consider the draft-age population only (and counting white grandmothers to make it seem that young African American men were dying at higher rates does seem rather unfair), African Americans were actually “under-represented” in deaths during Vietnam.

Just writing that galls me. Especially now when the military is voluntary. I can’t imagine poring over demographics of dead soldiers and looking for slights: how many left-handers? How many Michiganians? Gee, did ‘too many’ whites die in Somalia? I can’t imagine anyone getting away with asserting they don’t want Irish soldiers dying for this or Italian soldiers dying for that. Sending our military to fight and die is a serious business and I value them all.

For those claiming that the Iraq war debate is ‘suppressed’ they sure have difficulty arguing against the war. If they are against liberating Iraq, they should say so. And stop hiding behind pacifying and rebuilding Afghanistan, or bin Laden, or Kim Jong Il, or the budget deficit, or the false prospect of their own community dying in disproportionate numbers in war.

Maybe a draft of some sort is needed. But it certainly isn’t needed to staff the military for the most part. This draft proposal is just the latest in the string of things we supposedly must do first before we strike Iraq.

I certainly hope that these two Representatives won’t be relieved that their concerns on race are false. I’m disturbed enough that it is a concern. Remember, our soldiers are all green. I value them for that color.

[NOTE: This is from the former Defense Issues category from my original blog. The link in the original post is dead so I did not indicate it here.]