Author: Redactor
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Army Disbands
On November 3, 1783, the American Continental Army — its mission fulfilled — was disbanded.
On November 3, 1969, U.S. President Richard M. Nixon made a television and radio appearance, asking the “silent majority” to join him in solidarity on the Vietnam War effort.
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Thomas Kyd
Oh eyes, no eyes, but fountains fraught with tears;
Thomas Kyd, The Spanish Tragedy (1592)
Oh life, no life, but lively form of death;
Oh world, no world, but mass of public wrongs,
Confused and filled with murder and misdeeds.”
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The War Lottery
Paul Jacob reviews the biggest story of the week — no, not impeachment — THE DRAFT!
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Attendant Loss of Life
Is there an easy way to avoid the insanity of what author and decorated Marine vet Elliot Ackerman calls America’s “two-decade military quagmire”?
Yesterday, I took issue with Ackerman’s idea of a “reverse-engineered draft,” whereby each year about 65,000 young men and women — but only those with parents in the highest federal tax bracket* — would be forced into the military for two years of “service.”
“A draft places militarism on a leash,” he argues. But in reality, select young people lose their freedom and politicians don’t relinquish any powers.
Still, Ackerman maintains that
- “with a draft the barrier to entering new wars would be significantly higher”
- placing these “kids” in jeopardy via military conscription would activate their wealthy and influential parents to lobby Congress and the White House
- “could create greater accountability”
ultimately resulting in a saner military posture around the globe, hopefully allowing us to “avoid . . . a major theater war, the continuance of our ‘terror wars,’ the attendant loss of life.”
Threatening to draft their kids would raise the eyebrows of parents. That’s why when Congress last voted on legislation mandating a draft, even the bill’s author voted NO.
But would having a small drafted force somehow actually save lives?
Let’s look at combat deaths when the United States used a military draft, post-World War II, and compare that to the time-period since 1973, when the draft ended and the All-Volunteer Force began. Those numbers are not close:
- Between 1946 and 1973, with the draft in place, nearly 100,000 American soldiers were killed overseas.
- Over the more than four decades since the draft ended, fatalities remain under 10,000.
That’s a heap-big correlation between the military draft and “attendant loss of life.”
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* As I noted yesterday, targeting the draft to apply only to top income earners clearly violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution.
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The French Revolution
On November 1, 1790, Edmund Burke published his Reflections on the Revolution in France, predicting that the French Revolution would end in disaster. Though many have disputed his premises and reasoning, few dispute his prophecy, which proved spot on.
Elliot Ackerman wants peace so badly that he is willing to conscript our sons and daughters into the military in hopes of achieving it.
“From Somalia to Syria, American forces are engaged in combat,” the author and decorated Marine veteran writes in Time. “With recent military posturing against Iran, against North Korea, it is also easy to imagine our country sleepwalking into another major theater war.”
Mr. Ackerman is not arguing the draft would help in current or future combat operations, or appreciably improve the military. In answer to the obvious question, “Why would you degrade the finest fighting machine the world has ever known?” he replies, “[W]e must move the issues of war and peace from the periphery of our national discourse to its center.”
How?
Ackerman proposes a “reverse-engineered draft.”
His idea is to call up 65,000 young men and women by lottery for two-year terms of servitude. This would represent roughly 5 percent of the armed forces. “And no one could skip this draft,” he claims . . . though obviously not everyone sent a “Greetings” letter will be physically able to serve.
Lastly, he insists that “the only ones eligible” would be “those whose families fall into the top income tax bracket.”
In short, conscript the rich kids!
Of which Ackerman was one.*
Maybe his stance of theatrical class self-sacrifice distracted him from his proposal’s blatant violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
All this to stir up more angst from allegedly influential high-income earners by turning their children into political hostages.
Doesn’t make Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
* In the 1990s, I served with Peter Ackerman, Elliot’s father, on the board of directors of U.S. Term Limits.
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Ireland, Canada, United Kingdom, United States and other nations celebrate Halloween on October 31.
The word Halloween or Hallowe’en dates to about 1745 and is of Christian origin, meaning “hallowed evening” or “holy evening.” It comes from a Scottish term for All Hallows’ Eve (the evening before All Hallows’ Day). In Scots, the word “eve” is “even,” and this is contracted to “e’en” or “een.” Over time, (All) Hallow(s) E(v)en shortened into Halloween.
It is one of those darker-themed celebrations, often conjuring up images of death and horror. As if in keeping with this theme, Josef Stalin’s body was removed from Lenin’s Tomb on October 31, 1961.
N.B. The carving of pumpkins into mock-horrific faces is an old tradition. This Jack-o’-Lantern photo is taken from Dose of Funny.
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Simon Newcomb
Scientific method consists in applying to those subjects which lie without the range of our immediate experience those same common-sense methods of reasoning which successful men of the world apply in judging of matters which concern their own interests.
Simon Newcomb, Principles of Political Economy, 1886, chapter III, “Of Scientific Method”
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The Hobgoblin
Here in Virginia, it looks like we will have a soggy Halloween. But in Chicago the cold and snow may barrel in big time.
“A buckled jet stream weather pattern known as the Pineapple Express has sent warm weather from closer to the equator north to Alaska, setting records there,” we learn from The Chicago Tribune, “even as it’s forced below-normal temperatures south from closer to the Arctic and into the Chicago area.”
The Tribune notes that they are working on a new record in the Windy City. Not a new lowest temperature, but, well, “a record for coldest high temperature.” Go back over a century and a half, before all this ‘global warming,’ and “records were set in 1873 for the coldest Oct. 31 high temperature, 31 degrees, and the lowest low temperature, 23 degrees.”
What is refreshing in all this is not the chill winds, nor the snow. It’s to read multiple articles about the weather and see not one mention of greenhouse gases and man-made ‘climate-change.’
Mark Twain famously once quipped that “everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” Nowadays, too many people are trying to do something about not just ‘the weather’ but about ‘the climate.’
Which, we should understand, is deceptively simple when we put the definitive article in front of the word: THE climate. When I was a kid, most climate talk referred to weather patterns in regions. Not the whole planet as one big region.
What if the interaction of different regions were the real story?
So, my Halloween treat has already been digested: the hobgoblin of catastrophic climate change has been set aside, the cold weather too strong a contrast to feed that diabolical narrative.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
from a photo by Ian Collins
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