Waning Military Heritage

The earliest spontaneous mass protest against the Vietnam War took place on August 26, 1965, when 40,000 draft-age, working-class young men got married before midnight to escape the call-up. The marriage deferment was dubbed the “poor man’s deferment” and was a way out for those unable to afford to go to college or those who did not have the money or connections to avoid the draft. Californians stampeded to Nevada.

People rejoiced in beating Uncle Sam, not in their marriage. Vice President Dick Cheney, with his five deferments, is a representative souvenir of the time. The Vietnam War corrupted the institution of marriage in America. The war also inflicted permanent damage on higher education, medicine, parenthood and patriotism. The large number of parents who condoned and facilitated the quickie weddings revealed an early unease with the Vietnam War. Boys marrying prostitutes, hotrods speeding across the desert and chartered planes making daredevil landings foreshadowed the more desperate draft-dodging schemes to come: obscene tattoos and amputated toes; atheists enrolling in divinity schools; the straight pretending to be gay, the sober to be drunks, the sane to be crazy, and couples conceiving draft-deferment babies.

It is encouraging to read today that the military is losing its appeal as a career and that the U.S. armed forces are having difficulty meeting their quotas of new recruits for the first time since the draft ended in 1973. The fact that the Iraq war has triggered an exodus of active and reserve forces because of their fear of getting killed, injured or deployed for a long period in a war zone is a millennium wake-up call to the military that the armed forces are not being used in a manner that inspires citizens to become soldiers.

Movies depicting the horrors of war, such as Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line and We Were Soldiers, are a positive step. Seeing the ashen faces of young people leaving the theatre is refreshing. A more consorted effort has to be made to expose all our children to the horrors of war. Not just movies. We need more efforts such as the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima, an area of the city retained as it was after “Little Boy,” the uranium-235 atomic bomb that killed some 200,000 people. And Holocaust museums.

“I want the foolishness of war to end,” said Japanese artist Katsushige Nakahashi, from Otsu City. “If my generation doesn’t talk about World War II, the next generation never will,” he said as he put the finishing touches to the crumpled skin of photos that forms a replica of a Zero fighter that he burned on the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Reading how Serb, Taliban and Iraqi conscripts went into hiding in Afghanistan, Yugoslavia and Iraq in the face of massive bombing when they received their mobilization notices was a reminder of U.S. draft dodgers and conscientious objectors fleeing to Canada and elsewhere during the Vietnam War.

Some believe even George W. Bush went AWOL from the National Guard and deserted the military during the Vietnam War. It is also an encouraging sign of the waning appeal of guns and war at the dawn of the 21st century. There were 3,500 conscientious objectors registered in the U.S. during World War I, 37,000 during World War II, 4,300 during the Korean War and 200,000 during Vietnam. Marine Reservist Lance-Cpl. Stephen Funk became the first conscientious objector to the Iraq war. He was followed by hundreds of soldiers who went missing during home leave. Time will tell what the real number will be. Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia best articulated why so many were deserting: “You come face to face with your emotions and your feelings and you try to tell yourself that you did it for a good reason, then, you know, it becomes pretty tough to accept it – to willingly be part of the war”.

To make matters worse, many of those soldiers willing to be part of the war effort disobey “suicide mission” orders of their superiors because of inadequate equipment, body armor or security. No different than the high number of patriots and British officers in the Royal Navy and Army that refused to fight against their cousins in America when the 13 colonies produced the Declaration of Independence in 1776 – and all wars since.

A group of Israeli elite commandos in 2003 refused to participate in military operations against Palestinians. Israeli Air Force pilots refuse to bomb civilians inside Palestinian territory because they regard their missions as illegal and immoral. Reserves in the Israel Defense Forces who are prepared to die for Israel refuse to participate in a military occupation that has over the decades made Israel less secure.

Ishai Menuchin, a major and chairman of Yesh Gvul, the Israeli soldiers’ movement for selective refusal, is firm in his justification. “Being a citizen in a democracy carries with it a commitment to democratic values and a responsibility for your actions,” he said, explaining his group’s refusal to serve. “It is morally impossible to be both a devoted democratic citizen and a regular offender against democratic values. Depriving people of the right to equality and freedom, and keeping them under occupation, is by definition an anti-democratic act.”

Former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu spent 18 years in jail for disclosing Israeli nuclear secrets “to prevent a holocaust”. No matter how one feels about what he did, he is to be respected for the principles he believes in and speaks up about.

Listening to U.S. troops who fought to remove Saddam say they have lost faith in the Army is heart-warming. “If Donald Rumsfeld were here, I’d ask him for his resignation,” one disgruntled soldier told ABC’s Good Morning America. “I would ask him why we are still here. I don’t have any clue as to why we are still in Iraq,” another added. “I despise this war, and 99.9 percent of the people I served with feel the same way. We should bring our troops home now,” said U.S. Army Reservist Charity Thomson.

Army Spc. Thomas Wilson of the 278th Regimental Combat Team, comprised mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army National Guard, triggered calls for Rumsfeld’s resignation when he asked Rumsfeld why vehicle armor was in short supply. “Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?” he asked. The defense secretary’s curt no-nonsense answer was widely regarded as having betrayed the trust of the soldiers taking heavy losses because of his poor leadership and planning.

Operation Truth, an advocacy group for soldiers and returning war veterans started by Army Lt. Paul Rieckhoff, is comprised of more than 170 Iraq veterans from across the political spectrum. As an infantry platoon leader, Rieckhoff spent 10 months conducting combat operations in central Baghdad. The truth they are advocating is about poor war planning, overstretched troops and ill-equipped soldiers on the front lines. “We’ve been right about every issue,” said Rieckhoff. “Tell me there is a connection to 9/11? There’s not. Are there weapons of mass destruction? There’s not. Tell me the war will be over soon? It won’t.”

Watching families of soldiers killed in Iraq buck the U.S. military culture which prohibits speaking out against a war, marching with black wreaths at Dover Airbase in Delaware where the bodies from Iraq are returned was a millennium reminder that America, including military families, will no longer blindly accept war as a political solution. Their words and actions are echoed by a group of 26 retired U.S. diplomats and military leaders known as Diplomats and Military Commanders for Change. The group includes former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., Retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, Retired Air Force Gen. Merrill A. McPeak and Retired Adm. Stansfield Turner, the former director of the CIA. They are true patriots who stood up to career politicians and their sclerotic bureaucratic military leadership.

The best news of the 21st century was President George Dubya’s campaign pledge in the 2000 campaign not to “overextend” U.S. forces or send them to police future conflicts, a pledge he made before September 11 and then conveniently forgot. Instead, he cut health care benefits for war veterans and then went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Senate Bill 89 and House Bill 163 introduced during the 2004 legislative session proposed the draft begin again in the spring of 2005. The bills didn’t go far during an election year and may be re-introduced at some later date. Under the proposed legislation, all people between the ages of 18 and 26 would be eligible. Student deferments will not be an option. What is disturbing about the legislation is the secrecy in which it is being broached. The Pentagon has quietly begun a campaign to fill the 10,350 draft board positions and the 11,070 appeal board slots nationwide.