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Peacetime economy, what’s that? Page II
Another American draft system
This draft however, was conducted in a rather strange manner. We used a lottery system. As your name was drawn, it was possible that you would not be required to enter the service. A small percentage of young men, by their good fortune, missed out on being called for the draft. The average American had mixed feelings about what to think about those who dodged the draft (because they didn’t have the luck of being missed in the lottery chance of your name included for the draft). They were thought to be either un-patriotic or clever in their means of escaping the war. The war became so unpopular that we eventually simply had to proclaim the war as over, and Vietnam is now a Communist country; whatever that means.
Return from Vietnam
Many returning American veterans were treated harshly and disrespectfully as if they were the cause of getting us involved in this no-win war that claimed so many lives. The war itself was so devastating to each soldier that they came home with many psychological problems. There were also more than the usual number of disabled men having lost their limbs or suffered other traumatic injuries and we now see them on the streets as jobless and homeless because they cannot function as a normal healthy person. These were the type of injuries suffered by men during World War I and II, but they died from their injuries due to infections and the lack of modern medical treatment. That’s why we seldom see a disabled American Veteran from World War II.
Can we plan for Peace Economy
One would think that maybe we were now entering into a period of peace. Perhaps our economy could be built in a peaceful world and it would be a peacetime economy. That would only be the thinking of naïve people who are not aware that our government is thinking about continuing a good economy, but by any means possible, with a low probability that it could be a peacetime economy. We can only remain in the top position if we control everything. If we don’t, someone else will and then we will not be the “top dog” any more.
All Americans, well a lot anyway, were aware of our need to be in control, but we were running out of reasons to go to war, since that is the best economy developer these days. We did manage to handle a short war which we called the “Gulf War” and managed to quite severely disable the Country of Iraq, but that didn’t seem to be a sustainable war, so it ended.
9/11 = Pearl Harbor
As discussed among some of our Country’s leaders about a decade earlier, we need another “Pearl Harbor”, or something of that ilk. Well we all know what happened on September 11th of 2001. That was our “Pearl Harbor”. The American people were not hard to convince that something must be done in retaliation. The strong emotion of revenge was introduced as the single motivating force to begin the operations in Afghanistan with no backlash from the American people. It seemed strange, however, to attack Afghanistan when the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack in New York were by Saudi Arabian people. Perhaps the fact that Russia tremendously weakened Afghanistan during their ten year war with Afghanistan, it would seem to be a “push-over” for us to take control.
Leave Afghanistan to Bomb Iraq
Although we were making good use of our military munitions buildup, there was no apparent particular gain to continue our efforts in Afghanistan at that time. The real goal would be to take over Iraq as they had earlier been proclaimed to be one of the “Axis of Evil” by President George W. Bush. This took a major convincing job for the American people. Although it was taken “with a grain of salt”, we at first seemed to justify the war with Iraq because they probably have “weapons of mass destruction”; and we had already eliminated their air force and most of whatever military they had during the Gulf War. When “weapons of mass destruction” finally didn’t hold the likelihood of truth, the later, reserve justification was that we got rid of the mass murderer, Saddam Hussain, the President of Iraq.
Troops may not Complain
By this time, many of our troops had a lot on their mind, but they were unable to speak their mind for fear of Court Martial by speaking against our Administration. They were also “Volunteer Enlisted Troops”. There were no “Draftees” in the service because the Administration was likely sure that the same opposition to the draft would occur as it did during the Vietnam War. Furthermore, a volunteer enlisted person knows that he has volunteered for the service and he should “bite his lip” if he thinks about complaining. The same holds true for the large number of American mercenary troops who are simply doing their job for the high pay they receive.
Taliban is now the Enemy
When we finally decided that we couldn’t do any more to Iraq, we returned to Afghanistan since now we have what seemed to be a more organized Taliban up against us. They were not our enemy to begin with, but the fact that they are doing as much as they can to get us out of their country, we perceive them as being at war with us and we must now continue ‘lest we become the “losers” in this war game.
After all, a decade ago, Russia tried to take over Afghanistan and found out that they could not do it, so they wisely left the country. As a matter of fact, nobody in history has ever taken over Afghanistan and the only way that we could accomplish it would be to eliminate all the people, one way or another. However, then we would have only a torn up country with nobody left to make it useful.
Women are not exempt from casualty
During our early recruiting for service men and women for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have noticed a change in the military population. Perhaps due to the plan of revenge for the attack on the World Trade Center, more women have been induced to join the ranks of the enlisted. As the result of no particular battlefield, nobody has been spared the threat of being a casualty from enemy fire. As it is noticed here in the Veterans hospitals and clinics about the young men and women requiring treatment for their injuries both physical and mental; they are still reluctant to speak much about what they have experienced as they themselves are not sure what course of action they have taken and was it okay.
End of Wartime Economy
There was something wrong in how this war was implemented. A lot of money was earned by a few people in providing for it. A few extra people got jobs making military equipment and armament and for providing food for the troops. But more jobs were not created. As a matter of fact, a tremendous number of jobs were lost. All the extra work generated provided more jobs for workers in other countries, as our manufacturing is seldom done here at home by the American people. As a result, although not a large number of troops have returned, but those who have are finding it very difficult to find and hold a job. Some are simply unable to work due to their disabilities and others find that there is no job at all for them.. This was another wartime economy that surely didn’t pan out the way we expected.
No Peacetime or Wartime economy
Assuming that we have no wars going on at the moment, we are in a peacetime economy, but we are very poor because of the war, not well-to-do as we had become after other wars. Does this mean we should manufacture another war and try to run it as we have in the prior, previous wars? We might, however that would mean we would leave another peacetime economy in order to prosper in another wartime economy; - ad infinitum.
Mertze Dahlin is a Member of the Board of Directors of the American Institute of International Studies.
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