<p>Shogun,</p>
<p>Usually I refrain from voicing my opinion on these issues but I guess I’m overly sensitive this week as one of our troop’s former scouts was recently killed in Iraq. While his death is tough enough to accept, the multitude of “What a waste” type of comments from fellow mourners really upset me. While I don’t believe for a second his heroic sacrifice was a ‘waste’, I could definately tell I was part of a declining minority of opinion. </p>
<p>Shogun, you’re right, as usual. Selfless duty to country has not only been lost during the last 4 decades, it’s been publicly ridiculed by more and more of our citizens. The new motto seems to be: Sacrifice is for chumps! That’s why the young people agreeing to serve their country are so special.</p>
<p>I concur that the U.S. lacks the necessary number of military personnel to sustain the current scope and level of military operations. However, I don’t see much chance of the draft returning after being discontinued over 30 years ago. I suspect that parents who vehemently object to military recruiters addressing their children at school will be pretty nasty in their opposition to a military draft. Just a guess.</p>
<p>However, it may not be an issue for very long. I don’t see our country continuing to commit to the current level of military operations for much longer. If my crystal ball is correct (quite an assumption if you ask my wife), we will significantly reduce our military presence in Iraq within the next two years and refrain from making significant new commitments of troop-intensive operations elsewhere. I believe that most Americans have been convinced (the cynical might say brainwashed) that “war is not the answer”. Certainly not the personnel-intensive form of war that involves the loss of a significant number of American lives. </p>
<p>Why? Because the human, political and financial ‘costs’ of our current military commitments have been successfully (and endlessly) trumpeted by those individuals, groups and media outlets in opposition to war in general and the Iraq war in particular (certainly within their rights to do so). Meanwhile the people who believe that there have been, and continue to be, significant American and international short and long term ‘benefits’ of our military actions have been relatively ineffective in the presentation and promotion of their views. </p>
<p>For most people using the internet, television and newspaper as their primary sources of information, the Ben Franklin Decision-Making Technique of listing (and then comparing the quantity of) positives and negatives leads them to the conclusion that our war efforts in Iraq should be stopped. The daily barrage of deathcounts, bombings, and other war atrocities is rarely countered with an explanation of the short or long term benefits that could possibly justify these terrible costs of war.</p>
<p>While I may think their decision-making technique is flawed, it is what it is.</p>