American Views Abroad

Today, in Iraq, where nearly every dawn is lacerated by mounting carnage - local and foreign - American troops are hemorrhaging among the wounded and the dead, pawns in an unspeakable farce, for the United States of America is not at war.

Only 135,000 men and women in American uniform are fighting - volunteers, members of the National Guard, reservists. There is no draft. No threat of a uniform hangs over the citizens of a nation of nearly 300 million who, in polls, support the invasion of a remote country upon whom our government would pin guilt of 9/11...and then attack. An invasion that was ordered by an expertly trained but combat-innocent fighter pilot and a draft-deferred character with 'other priorities' during the Vietnam War.

www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/opinion/25duncan.html?

On the same page David M. Kennedy, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning work 'Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945' writes:

Leaving questions of equity aside, it cannot be wise for a democracy to let such an important function grow so far removed from popular participation and accountability. It makes some supremely important thing too easy - like dealing out death and destruction to others and seeking military solutions on the assumption they will be swifter and more cheaply bought that what could be accomplished by the more vexatious business of diplomacy......War is too important to be left either to the generals or the politicians. It must be the people's business.

www.nytimes.com/2005/07/25/opinion/25kennedy.html