American Views Abroad

 
The Draft - First came troubling emails about a reintroduction of the draft at the beginning of the year. By summer newspapers were reporting about how this 'rumor' was getting out-of-hand. President Bush even went so far as to affirm committment to an all volunteer army during the first debate. For all the difficulties an overseas citizen may encounter when trying to vote, which has been a regular item on this site, one thing that functions perfectly when abroad is registering for the Selective Service. Young men are informed when applying for a passport that they have to register within five days of their 18 birthday and a special page is set up for those residing outside the US. Thus this theme is as relevant for us abroad as for those at home. James Carroll in a column on Tuesday in the Boston Globe notes that 'anguished talk of the draft is in the air again.' His line of thought runs that neither Bush nor the Pentagon want a draft, but he continues....'Horrors unfold in Iraq...largely because they remain abstract, and therefore not so horrible, to the American population. What would it take for Americans to feel the full weight of that reality? ...Even in anticipation, the draft is disturbing because of its proven character as a moral crucible in which distant policies of an impersonal government become intensely personal. The question moves from, What do you think of Bush's war? to, Would you kill people because Bush told you to?' Though he opposes a restoration of the draft, he concludes it would be the one thing that would actually stop Washington's wars.

Voter Suppression - Harold Meyerson's column Voters Excluded in Iraq - and at Home appeared in The Washington Post on Wednesday. He begins by discussing the enormous task of trying to register Iraqi citizens for the supposed upcoming elections in January. He wonders if opposition forces there are gearing up to fight when voter registration there starts. Then he proceeds to bring this theme very close to home on how Republican election officials are working to reduce the number of black and Latino voters in battleground states. He concludes by stating that the largest efforts at voter suppression will occur on Election Day itself 'when thousands of registrants in the minority communities of battleground states are sure to have their right to vote challenged at the polls.' He also discloses that the Democratic Party unveiled a task force of thousands of volunteer lawyers the party plans to deploy at the polls and in the courts on November 2.
- posted by Gloria @ 12:18 PM