More Troops to Afghanistan? Here's What I'd Do
Tomorrow night our president will lay out his plans for a troop buildup in Afghanistan. In advance of that announcement let me tell you what I’d do in his shoes.
Some of you have heard me say before that if the decision on Afghan troops were up to me I’d start winding down tomorrow. But I realize that because of political and practical considerations Obama cannot do that right now. Thus, if I were in his shoes I’d put the monkey on Congress’ back and make this a sort of national referendum. I’d make the approval of additonal troops contingent on congressional approval of a national draft.
I’d tell the American people that I would not continue to saddle the burdens of a war that could last another decade on our already over-tasked volunteer military and their families – less than 1% of the population. I’d lay it out plainly. Congress and the American people would have to decide whether this war is important enough that its burden and sacrifices should be shouldered by a broad cross-section of all Americans. After all, all our interests are supposed to be at stake here, right?
If the American people through their congressional reps answer ‘yes,’ than we’d immediately institute a draft and the necessary buildup in Afghan. If the public answers ‘no,’ the decision is simple: start bringing the troops home.
It always gripes me – and has ever since I served as a young officer during the Vietnam build-up – that many of those most insistent on going to war are the least apt to serve in uniform. I actively despise war-mongering Chicken-hawk draft-dodgers like Dick Cheney and his ilk
. The prospect of sending the same troops into battle on back to back tours for years to come means nothing to these people. They are the ones who often comment on how few casualties we’ve experienced in Iraq and Afghan compared to the numbers in WWII. Like, what’s the big deal?
Of course, to the chicken-hawks war is but a glorified abstraction – a distant artifact of fantasy, machismo and puffed up nat’l pride. Unfortunately, the era of the all-vol force has also made war somewhat of an abstraction to the average American who is untouched by sacrifices and pain experienced service members and their families.
For too many the idea of sending 40K – hey, 100K – more troops to Afghan is as personally painless as deciding what to have for dinner. Thus, the prospect of a draft would initiate the kind of national debate that is needed to force the American people to consider our nat’l interests from a more direct personal perspective: is winning this war vital enough for me or my children would join the fight if called.
As president I’d remind all those folks of something that too many of us have lost sight nowadays: the old American value of shared sacrifice.
