With talks of “pulling out” of Iraq, or the reinstatement of the wartime draft, many fail to recognize the necessity of this war, but also the victory. Many skeptics, anti-American liberals will criticize America first, saying that tyranny throughout the world may be a problem but American intervention is more of a problem. They have set their agendas on “blame America first” and closed their minds quickly thereafter. I urge everyone to look at the facts, and the fact is, this war has been the single most successful war in American history.
First, let’s look at the re-institution of the wartime draft. Proposed by Senator Chuck Hegel a Republican from Nebraska, this bill would require every American age 18-27 to serve two years in civil or armed services. Remember back to last year when Democrat Senators from North Carolina proposed the same exact bill. This is nothing new. Congress has killed this bill before and looks to do the same. The draft bill, which is Senate Bill 89, has the support of only one Senator. In other words 99% of the Senate is against this bill, so it will never pass.
“I don’t know anyone in the executive branch of the government who believes that it would be appropriate or necessary to reinstitute the draft, Said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Why would there be a need for a draft in the first place? The fact is there is no need, so it won’t happen. Soldier reenlistment is higher than expected, and much higher than needed. 28,406 soldiers reenlisted in April alone, not to mention the number of soldiers enlisting for a first tour of duty. The Bush Administration, along with Australia and Great Britain, plan on holding 20,000 Coalition forces after Iraq is turned over to its own people on June 30th.
“It's a very positive retention picture at this point," said Lt. Col. Franklin Childress, an Army public affairs officer. The Army currently has a half-million active-duty soldiers. So simple math tells us that the United States has enough soldiers to hold Iraq twenty-five times over, there is no need for a draft. As far as the war in Iraq, the outlook is very good. With plans to turn the country over to the freed Iraqi people in just two months, the Iraqi’s are finally seeing the benefits of freedom.
SFC Ray Reynolds of the Iowa Army National Guard writes upon his return to Baghdad, “Do not believe that these people do not want us there.” Why wouldn’t the Iraqi people want us there? Why would they be opposed to freedom? Look to what we have done in that country. 4.5 million People now have clean drinking water, 400,000 children have up-to-date immunization and over 1500 schools have been renovated. Even more important, women are allowed to attend schools for the first time in the county’s history. 100% of hospitals are opened now and fully staffed as opposed to 35% before the war.
Most importantly these people are free! What has this war cost us? Sadly the lives of some great American soldiers, who will forever be remembered as heroes! Economically though, this war has cost us very little. Look to World War 2, that war cost is 135% of our Gross Domestic Product; this war has cost us less than 1% of our Gross Domestic Product. This has been, comparably speaking, the most successful war in American History yet it is being called the next Vietnam.
We hear from the media, of soldiers losing their lives, and the “Bush administrations poor policies”, but remember, in World War 2; Hitler was not as immediate a threat as the Japanese, but imagine if we hadn’t taken action to stop the Nazi’s in Europe. This is the case today; imagine if we allow tyrants to oppose their will over people mercilessly while we stood by watching, waiting, and doing nothing. Imagine it were happening in America, and no-one came to our aid. Shakespeare wrote in Measure for Measure, “O, it is excellent to have power like a giant.
Yet it is tyrannous to use that power like a giant.” America has power like a giant, but we never use that power as a giant, instead as an ally. We have historically rebuilt every country our troops have ever fought in, and have yet to permanently occupy a single one of them, from Germany to Kosovo to Iraq. There is a new era in America, an era to stand together as a patriotic sovereignty and protect ourselves against all enemies foreign or domestic. If there draft is reinstated, what will you choose? Will you flee to Canada, dodge the draft and be considered what Thomas Paine called, “the sunshine patriot and the summer solder” or will you stand up and be considered an American Hero. Either way, the American ideal will continue to live on.