The American Spectator

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(Page 2 of 20)

br> -- John McGinnis br> Arlington, Texas /p> p> I can't remember who wrote it, but a suggestion was made that would end the military's recruitment problem. It is simple: pay each person who is on the front line of the fight in Iraq $100,000 per year. I, too, think that would end the problem. We would soon be turning away young men and women who wanted to serve; plus they would finally be getting the monetary recognition they deserve. br> -- Yvonne /p>

Agreeing with your right-on point that increasingly Americans are getting wiser about the pratfalls of policing cultures which historically reject our ideas of law and order, your point about conscription misses a critical mark:

America's politically-correct and morally cowardly rejection of the draft was a watershed in our history. It was the ultimate NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard). WE and OUR kids are NOT going to get involved in all that dirty, messy, you know, WAR stuff. Eeewwwwww! No. We'll leave that to the poor dummies from Alabama or Texas (see Howard Dean's inspired insights on this subject!), or maybe some of the Hispanics or Blacks. But not US. We have more important stuff to do like going to go to Vegas or the Mall. Or Disneyland. Or maybe get some new video games or a beer. Or a Makeover or an SUV. Whatever.

But history can be a hard mistress. For, if one's country is not personally worth defending, then one will not have a country for long.

We are, therefore, in much greater trouble than your otherwise excellent piece suggests; a country of progressively less-well-educated while increasingly more juvenile citizens whose highest and greatest thought seems to be oneself with the latest music system.

p>P.S.: You might want to look into what resulted from the "vision" of another American liberal president who helped to bring down a perceivably dictatorial regime and replace it with a more "Western Style" Democracy. From Wilhelm to Adolf took just 15 years. br> -- Gene Wright

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