In Memoriam

I had a middling draft number, but most of my year were taken. I reported. I expected to be drafted. I would have gone had I been drafted. The examiners rejected me: my blood pressure was too high, they said. I was not drafted.

We now have a volunteer Army. I'm not sure that's an entirely unmixed blessing. It seems to me that there's a good argument that every citizen should serve the Republic in some capacity. Even conscientious objectors could serve, perhaps behind the front lines, perhaps in front line non-combatant support roles.

But that's not how it is.

So you can look at it this way:

“The president carries the biggest burden, obviously,” Cheney said. “He’s the one who has to make the decision to commit young Americans, but we are fortunate to have a group of men and women, the all-volunteer force, who voluntarily put on the uniform and go in harm’s way for the rest of us.”

or you can look at it this way:

They served. They died. They are not coming back alive. Not to wives, husbands, children, parents.

Whether our troops are volunteers or draftees, it seems to me that there is no more serious decision a president can make than to commit young Americans to actions which inevitably will lead to the deaths of many of them.

The President decided to invade Iraq. The Congress supported the President's decision. We the People supported the President and the Congress.

Have the benefits of that decision been worth the lives of 4000+ young Americans, the maiming of ten times that many Americans, and the lives of perhaps ten times that many more Iraqis?

Requiescant in pace.