Recently my wife and I were invited to a dinner party for friends we had met at schools our son attended with their sons. By now our son has graduated from college and is out in the world working, but some of these parents still have high school-aged children.
I was talking to a small group at my end of the table when the subject of politics and the two wars we are fighting arose. I mentioned that I thought it far from inconceivable there could eventually be a draft again. Conversation stopped. All eyes were upon me to explain.
I said that with the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the U.S. flexing its muscles in our weekly exchanges with Iran, with the situation with North Korea, and with Yemen, the U.S. is over-committed with the small fighting force we have now. It seemed to me that there was no other way to insure a large fighting machine except by committing ourselves to a draft again.
The parents sitting around me were not happy with the prospect of a draft being reinstated, especially with their children at risk. The all-voluntary army we have now seemed to be a better situation with these middle-class families, who wanted to spare their children the horrors of war.
I mentioned the ‘fairness’ of a draft which reaches into all neighborhoods and draws on young men and women to fight our wars. One distraught father responded that a draft would be so unpopular it would never fly. A woman who has three sons in their late teens said that usually a Democratic president is the one who puts a draft back in place, and that she was going to make sure that her sons were not going to go to war. She reassured those at the table that she would send her sons to Canada if need be.
I was quick to respond that Canada would not be an option anymore, that the Canadians were not going to accept draft-evading American young men and women if there was another draft. I then mentioned Wrestling with Your Conscience (available from the Jewish Peace Fellowship office); I told them that it is an invaluable manual which outlines the laws and what to expect in case there is another draft. Also this booklet outlines and explains the process of applying for Conscientious Objection status.
I also mentioned that a new version of Roots of Jewish Nonviolence will soon be available from the JPF. But the most interesting part of the evening was the conversation which followed when someone brought up the idea of how antiquated the concept of war is.
This comment stirred others to ask questions such as: What are we doing in Iraq anyway? What can we accomplish in Afghanistan that the Russians couldn’t do in the 20 years that they were stuck in that quagmire?
When Murray Polner and I decided to re-edit the Wrestling with Your Conscience booklet and to release a new edition (with some of the old essays still included) of Root of Jewish Nonviolence, did I really believe there will be another draft? I’m not sure. But rather than protesting a draft we should be protesting the American involvement in these wars.
Please help get the word out that both Wrestling with Your Conscious and Roots of Jewish Nonviolence are available and they can be ordered from the JPF office.