Jack Levine: Welcome Home (1946)
The best way to avoid the wars such as those the Bush II regime brought us is to re-institute the draft with no exemptions except those for health. I hate the draft but I hate that war is so convenient for all but the underclass a lot more than that.
If there was compulsory military service in The United States, I suspect we would find we had a lot fewer wars than more.
Veterans Day supplanted Armistice Day because the corporate state decided peace was unprofitable and so unpatriotic. The veterans I've known, including my father and mother, knew differently. I honor their memory with this post.
Update: I have to believe in a kind providence because it has provided me with such an enemy. Because rules should be broken when such opportunities arise, here is what Steve Simels said in response to this:
Ah yes -- the draft did SO much to keep us out of war in Vietnam.
Which is a good example of how the dishonest discourse which constitutes the habits of our "reality community" operates that I can't pass up the opportunity to point out that I called "to re-institute the draft with no exemptions except those for health." Or, for those who seem to have not progressed past the large print, first book in the Dick Jane and Sally series,
Anyone who thinks the ruling class would be as enthusiastic for war if it meant that Jr. or Muffy might well come home in a box, they are, to put it mildly, not only not bright but entirely unreflective.
That the draft dodgers such as Dick Cheney and George W. Bush could get so many people killed, maimed, psychologically and spiritually destroyed in an alleged republic is worthy of Jack Levine's level of satire. But in our illiterate, TV and pop-culture addled culture, there's not much hope for that. Perhaps the prospect of getting their asses shot off once in their life might do something for that problem which afflicts so many in the college deferment class of my generation.
I will only add that, considering many of those forced to go to Iraq and Afghanistan were well, well into middle age, I would ideally make the cut off age for compulsory service the age of the oldest such person sent to those wars.
Update: I have to believe in a kind providence because it has provided me with such an enemy. Because rules should be broken when such opportunities arise, here is what Steve Simels said in response to this:
Ah yes -- the draft did SO much to keep us out of war in Vietnam.
Which is a good example of how the dishonest discourse which constitutes the habits of our "reality community" operates that I can't pass up the opportunity to point out that I called "to re-institute the draft with no exemptions except those for health." Or, for those who seem to have not progressed past the large print, first book in the Dick Jane and Sally series,
"with
no exemptions except those for health."
Anyone who thinks the ruling class would be as enthusiastic for war if it meant that Jr. or Muffy might well come home in a box, they are, to put it mildly, not only not bright but entirely unreflective.
That the draft dodgers such as Dick Cheney and George W. Bush could get so many people killed, maimed, psychologically and spiritually destroyed in an alleged republic is worthy of Jack Levine's level of satire. But in our illiterate, TV and pop-culture addled culture, there's not much hope for that. Perhaps the prospect of getting their asses shot off once in their life might do something for that problem which afflicts so many in the college deferment class of my generation.
I will only add that, considering many of those forced to go to Iraq and Afghanistan were well, well into middle age, I would ideally make the cut off age for compulsory service the age of the oldest such person sent to those wars.
The picture reminds me of "The Best Years of Our Lives," which isn't nearly so trenchant as the painting, but still portrays a post-war America that isn't exactly the Norman Rockwell painting fond memory (especially of those like me, born long after that period in history) tells us was so much better than today. If you pay attention you get a better picture of that "Good" War and the "Greatest Generation" that fought it. And you can even see, as that picture hints, the seeds of the "Cold War."
ReplyDeleteThe returning veterans wanted peace; war, however, proved too profitable to walk away from.
Ah yes -- the draft did SO much to keep us out of war in Vietnam.
ReplyDeleteGood lord, you're an idiot, Sparky.
"to re-institute the draft with no exemptions except those for health."
ReplyDeleteRight -- as if our Galtian overlords wouldn't be able to find ways to weasel out of those restrictions.
As I said, Sparky, you're an idiot.
You know, Simels, the people protesting the war were in college. Which meant they were exempt from the draft.
ReplyDeleteIt was the easiest way to avoid it, but there were other ways.
And you do understand the draft today is a "third rail" that even conservatives who hate Social Security and Medicare won't touch? It was brought up under Bush, but never brought farther than discussions on the Internet; because no politician would touch it with a club.
I remember a lot of members of my Senior class in college trying to figure out how they were going to avoid being drafted once their student deferment was up.
ReplyDelete"You know, Simels, the people protesting the war were in college. Which meant they were exempt from the draft."
ReplyDeleteThus proving exactly dick.
Proving who is a dick, actually.
DeleteScrew off, Simels. I never liked you at Eschaton, I like you even less now.
Seminary enrollment swelled during the War. It was an easy graduate school to get into, and to stay in, and could take 3 years to complete; 4, if you slowed down (as I did, decades later) to work in churches while taking classes.
ReplyDelete