I was surprised to read your Jan. 15 editorial "Equality is Essential, But the Draft is not." I am a white, upper class citizen attending classes here at UB. I'd be just the type of person who Charles Rangel is looking to stop from getting a deferment, and I support the draft. I want to be clear that I do not support any war on Iraq. My support for the draft is not because I'm a war hawk pushing for an attack under the guise of patriotism. I support Rangel's draft proposal because of what Rangel is trying to do with his draft.
Rangel has proposed the draft not as way to supply our armed forces with young able-bodied cannon fodder, but to give people a reason to think long and hard about this war we seem to be rushing into. Most especially he seeks to make the members of Congress think about the people they are sending to war. If a draft is put into place and Congress chooses to go to war they will not send other people's children to war, people they don't know and will never meet; but these white upper class Senators and House Representatives will be sending their own white upper class children to war.
I do not support a war on Iraq. Iraq has cooperated with the U.N. inspectors; the United Nations has said there is no "smoking gun." Also, I don't see how a war on Iraq can be justified when we plan to negotiate with North Korea, a country I would argue poses a larger threat than Iraq at the moment. It seems that the people who are calling for a war are not thinking about the reality of the type of war this will be. They imagine wars like the one on Afghanistan with few troops whom they have no relation to. They are used to casualty numbers in the teens. Afghanistan was virtually in the Stone Age; Iraq is not. It will be a true war, and it will be horrific.
I don't think that people realize that a war on Iraq will affect them. But, it will not just affect those that go to war. It destabilizes a part of the world that is already unstable and violent. We have seen that even here on American soil we are targets. If Rangel is successful in reinstating a draft where everyone - our women, our men, the children of America - have the possibility of going to war, the reality of the situation hits home for us all. We'll all think a bit harder if it's our brothers, our sisters, our friends and our family that are going.
Anything that makes people truly evaluate something as serious as a war on Iraq I support whole-heartedly. Rangel's draft proposal makes this hit home in a way nothing else does, and it will force everyone to take the time to decide if this truly is a war worth fighting.
Photo: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki
