Ah, here it is 3:30 p.m. in Pittsburgh on a Wednesday on a beautiful, sunny, balmy (40s) day. I have the radio tuned to the local classical music station, I’ve made my run to Bloomfield “Little Italy” to pick up a few things at the ShurSave supermarket on Liberty Avenue and to stop in at Nico’s for a quick Labatts draft; then on to Armand’s for a cheap six-pack of beer and then catching the 54C for the ride back to Oakland and my apartment. I fried up a fish with onions for a delicious fish sandwich with plenty of hot sauce and now I’m ready to blog the rest of the day.
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If The Draft Is Revived Women Will Be Drafted Too
Bill Moyers had a guest on last night on public television who had written a book about the private contractors (Blackwater being the most infamous) that the United States Government uses as security in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. The number of these private soldiers of course is secret, but the writer on Bill Moyers estimated there are over 400,000 of these private soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. In other words, because of the lack of enough military personnel to perform the task the military needs to perform the US Government has had to privatize its wars.
This is a damming critique of the all volunteer American military. Not its performance on the battlefield, but of the concept that says a nation like ours can effectively honor its world wide military commitments with an all volunteer force. Bringing back the draft probably is not the answer either. One reason is because drafting only men would definitely be sexual discrimination. No politician is going to support a bill drafting women.
At least not yet.
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Filed under: Commentaries | Tagged: Afghanistan, all volunteer, Bill Moyers, Blackwater, book, draft, Iraq, men, military, politican, private contractors, private soldiers, Public Television, secret, security, sexual discrimination, United States Government, wars, women, writer | Leave a Comment »