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Take the Long Way Home

By William Rivers Pitt, TruthOut.org. Posted May 26, 2005.


It's been a long and tiring haul for those who oppose the war in Iraq. But hope remains resilient.
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I'm very tired.

I am tired of watching the death toll rise on a daily basis in Iraq. Five more American soldiers died on Sunday, and eight more died today. Thirty-three Iraqi civilians were killed by car bombs on Monday, and another 120 were wounded. So far this month, 57 U.S. soldiers have died. 1,644 have been killed since this whole thing started. There is still no accurate accounting of Iraqi dead.

I am tired of trying to figure out a way to jar the American people into understanding how unutterably wretched the situation is over there, so that pressure from the citizenry at large can be brought to bear upon the Administration and this disaster can be brought to an end.

This war does not exist in American living rooms; it is only truly real in the towns that surround Bragg, Ord, Lejeune, and Benning, where the families of the soldiers forced to fight this war live and wait and worry. It is real only at Dover Air Force Base, where the bodies arrive home under a cloak of secrecy, entombed in their 'transfer tubes' and wrapped in the flag.

The war certainly does not exist on my television, and I am tired of that as well. The television news media's consensus-building machine works all day and night on a half-dozen news channels, and according to them, all is fine and dandy. It is amazing how effective these small boxes are at controlling the thoughts, emotions and desires of our population. It is daunting to try to come up with a way to get around their noise.

People ask me if the draft, or advocacy for the draft, would put this war into people's back yards and gather their attention to the matter. Of course it would, I tell them. Vietnam became an issue of pressing national concern because of the draft. It forced people to pay attention, to speak up if they thought the war was wrong, because the next lottery number read over the television might have belonged to their son.

With no draft today, with our volunteer army, most people are not staring down the barrel of having to practice what they preach. Patriotism, nationalism and the kill-em-all ethic is a safe place to stand these days, because no civilian is going to get a letter containing orders to report.

As tempting as it might be for some to try to roll this rock down the hill, the truth of the matter is that the draft is no answer to this problem. First of all, the Bush administration would have to be out of its collective mind to call for one. They have the people right where they want them - snowed, buffaloed and disengaged - and a draft would change that overnight.

A draft would also badly disable our already damaged military. During the Vietnam era, it took six weeks of boot camp to learn how to be a soldier. Today it takes two years, and a sudden flood of raw, unwilling recruits would snarl the works badly. Even if the administration wanted a draft, the armed services would kick and scream until the idea was taken off the table. And speaking of kicking and screaming, anyone advocating for a return of the draft will receive a faceful of angry noise from those mothers and fathers of fallen soldiers who have become the strongest and most eloquent anti-war activists anywhere in the country.


Digg!

William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know and The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.

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Thank You for a Fine Article
Posted by: TheySayImUnamerican on May 27, 2005 8:21 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
That's it. Thanks. I think you said the important bits already, so I'll not ramble.

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Overly Optimistic
Posted by: degustibus on May 28, 2005 1:18 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm tired too.

I think, WRP, you're overly optimistic if you think the tide is changing -- of course hope is resilient--that's what it means to hope. (But hope is also the thing with feathers that perches in the soul, or some such thing) I've seen this ebb and flow of numbers in approval ratings before. Approval ratings don't mean diddly squat if the neocons control all three branches.

(more precious Em):

I've heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

That's the problem isn't it? Nothing is being asked of anyone (no new taxes, no hardships -- except higher gas prices -- offset by tax breaks for SUVs -- so it's all guns and butter, yes?)

A draft would surely change this.

But of course it would be political suicide. So continue to support your troops by placing a flag and a yellow ribbon on your SUV.

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What Could Have Been Different
Posted by: steven.randolph on Jun 3, 2005 12:17 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The fact that the Democrats ran two pro-war candidates in 2004 was not helpful to the cause of world peace.

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mr. Pitt writes another...
Posted by: benu67 on Jun 8, 2005 10:16 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
great and thought-provoking article. many of us are tired also. but we know we can't give up to this administration which is marching steadily towards becoming the world's worst dictatorship. we must believe that we can change this course of madness, not just for us but for the sake of the world as we know it.

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Melissa
Posted by: bansidh@citlink.net on Jun 11, 2005 10:19 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
A new memo out from Britain. This one might do it, 'Ministers were told of need for Gulf war excuse ' is the title. How I hope this is enough to impeach Bush.

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