Wow, what a great idea.
I left this comment at win-the-war.com: the proprietor opines that —
There should have been a call to duty immediately after 9/11 for all Americans – not just to join the military (after all, we don’t want 40 million citizens to leave their jobs and join the military), but also to make certain simple sacrifices to further the effort, such as wearing a sweater instead of turning up the heat in the winter, driving less and carpooling, etc.
But Americans haven’t felt involved in the effort, and this detachment has increased the unpopularity of the war.
Furthermore, our soldiers are serving multiple tours in Iraq when plenty of men would sign up to relieve them if encouraged.
If you look back at the sacrifices the folks at home made during WWII — a war that was over in less time that has elapsed win 9/11/2001 and today — I agree that people could contribute to the war more vigorously.
But this isn’t a war like the war for Europe or the Pacific. It’s not even a war that needed to happen. There was no fleet that could and did cross an ocean to attack the US. There is no air force or even a standing army.
And I think you can see the lack of enthusiasm on the part of enlistment age men and women as illustrating the war’s lack of foundation. If people really thought this was the War for Western Civilization, they would sign up. But few people outside of some thinktanks and political magazines believe that, and they’re not encouraging sacrifices or any kind of community effort.
You may see the comments from OYE as cheap ad hominem attacks, but imagine the sensation if crowds of young men from College Republican groups or conventions made a show of enlisting en masse. But all we hear is updated versions of Dick Cheney’s “other priorities” excuse.
It comes to one of two things (if there are others, let me know): either enlistment-age Americans don’t believe in the war — in which case, we should bring the troops home sooner that quicker — or they’re afraid of or otherwise opposed to fighting.
Which is it?