David McRaney  |  Journalist

Reinstating draft would make war real

It has taken three years for everyone to realize the war in Iraq sucks. But the polls tell us most of us are finally on the same page.

Bear with me, here are a few quick statistics:

In a recent CNN/USA Today poll, 64 percent of Americans said they disapprove of the way Bush is handling the war.

When the Associated Press asked if they thought civil war would break out over there, 77 percent of Americans said yes.

In a similar poll by ABC, 57 percent of your fellow citizens said, in retrospect, the war wasn't even worth fighting.

Similar results are coming in from soldiers.

In a study conducted by Le Moyne College's Center for Peace and Global Studies, 72 percent of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and nearly one in four say the troops should leave immediately. Twenty-three percent said they should stay "as long as they are needed."

Ok, enough numbers. The bottom line is no one wants this war, but here it is. If we leave now, the warring factions will rush into the vacuum and destroy the region.

Did we go there to find weapons of mass destruction or remove Saddam? Did we go there to liberate or snuff out terrorism? Are we giving them freedom and democracy or protecting oil interests?

Whatever it was, the mission was apparently impossible before we put boots on the sand. To paraphrase Bill Maher, it was a hornet's nest, and all we did was hit it with a stick.

So, yeah, I wish the draft had been in place when all the flags, magnetic ribbons and patriotic bumper stickers started to appear ahead of me at red lights. Perhaps we wouldn't have been so gung-ho about sending soldiers to die for nothing if we knew it could have been any one of our brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.

You see, after 9/11 some sort of unspoken rule about not discussing politics in polite conversation evaporated. In the years since, I have seen people willing to bark at one another over liberal versus conservative, democrat versus republican and war versus peace wherever people gather. It's frustrating for people like me who believe it's all smoke and mirrors. As Alex Jones said, it's just two sides of the same coin - two managing firms competing for control over your daily life.

Still, I love debate and public discourse. But, without a draft, that's all this has been for most of us - a philosophical debate.

Throughout this whole ordeal we have all been more than willing to hurl insults and stamp our feet in public because we have nothing to lose. It's all been abstract, like debating on who should win best picture or if we should have bombed Japan. Sure, we all know human lives are at stake, but it's not real.

I found out last week a guy I used to wait tables with is in Iraq. He's a great guy - humble, noble and a pacifist. He's a computer geek, the kind who will drink a beer with you while streamlining your computer just because he likes it. He joined the army because they needed computer guys like him and were willing to pay for his college. I fear I'll never be able to relate to him again.

Now, all my posturing has been painted black. I never liked the war or Bush or all that garbage, but with an emotional core, my beliefs feel like a lump of lead in my gut.

If there had been a draft when this started, more people would have voted, and less people would have six magnetic ribbons on their pickup trucks. When your daughter has an abortion, the word itself makes you sick. When you work in a soup kitchen, you don't just step over homeless people. If a draft lottery came on television every so often, and your whole life could change in an instant, the war in Iraq would be on your mind every day.

Supporting the war is not the same as supporting the troops, and I suspect black and white would merge into much gray if Bush asked you for the life of your child. But hey, it's not over yet. It might even last for years. What is going to happen if recruiters continue to see their number of clients dwindle?

Here are a few numbers to sum up.

We've lost 883 soldiers since the first free elections in Iraq. We've lost 1,842 since capturing Saddam. Some estimates place the number of Iraqi civilians killed in this conflict at over 34,000.

What is the point of all of this if, as 3 out of 4 of us believe, the whole country is going to implode?

Three years and 2,309 dead American soldiers later, we all want it to end. Imagine if we had all feared it would begin.

Originally published in The Student Printz on March 14, 2006