An Army of Everyone

June 22, 2006

In January 2006, the U.S. Army raised the active duty enlistment age limit from 35 to 40 and on June 21st, it raised it to 42. The rationale for these changes is that they cannot get enough younger people to volunteer and they must meet their recruitment goals. The Army defended its decision by claiming people up to 42 years old would still have to pass the same physical tests like any other recruit, except that they will have more cardio vascular tests, just to make sure. Besides they said, older soldiers would have more life experience and that would be a plus.

Missed recruiting goals is just a symptom of a broader problem which is we have a White House and Congress willing to send our soldiers to a war based on lies, money and political corruption. They will not be deterred and easily dismiss common sense and the pressing need to run the Iraq War so we can win. They just want to win elections and not a war.

They do not want to hear that the Iraq War requires billions to fund and thousands fight it. They also do not want to hear that soldiers die.

A volunteer Army does not work in war time but it functions well in “peace” where soldiers are occasionally sent to one place or another to “keep the peace”. Real wars like those in Iraq and Afghanistan chew up people physically and emotionally. We must react appropriately to this reality but unfortunately, the White House and Congress do not think so.

Rather than dealing with war and its insatiable needs, the White House and Congress ignore the fundamental need for a draft to make sure we can win and to reduce our casualties. The 2004 “back door draft”  requiring multiple tours of duty worked for a while but it has had an appalling toll on personal lives and the handling of the  Iraq War. Our Washington politicians don't care because they would rather play politics with the lives of our soldiers. They have no guts but want the glory.

The draft would provide an excellent pool of potential soldiers but realities of this would unquestionably make the Iraq War even more unpopular, if that is possible. It would also create a grassroots revolution lead by millions of citizens unwilling to send their sons and daughters to an untenable war. Anti-war protests would explode as they did during the Vietnam War.

Congress and Bush know this and they are terrified that they and their cronies will not be elected or re-elected this fall. Most importantly, they are terrified of Americans.

In the mean time, in lieu of a draft, we clearly need to remove any recruitment age limit for all citizens until the war is over. Even politicians could join and this would allow our them to show their patriotism by honestly serving and defending our nation and its Constitution. This way, Army recruitment goals would be met and no draft would be needed for a few more years. 

It would be “An Army of Everyone”.