Don't Start the Revolution Without Me! - Jesse Ventura [119]
I’m okay with a professional military during peacetime, but the moment a vote to go to war occurs, the draft should automatically be reinstated. We need to make war as difficult as we can to declare. You’ve got to bring the war home. I don’t care what anybody says, the country isn’t feeling enough pain. It should not be only the service people and their families, it should be us as a nation. The professional military is, in its own way, an anesthetic, a painkiller.
Headline: JESSE VENTURA HELPS LAUNCH ORGANIZATION ‘OPERATION TRUTH’
Former Gov. Jesse Ventura, who during his time in office diligently avoided commenting on military decisions, joined the fray over the war in Iraq on Tuesday.
“Now that I’m a civilian, I’m here to speak out that I think the current use of the National Guard is wrong,” Ventura said Tuesday.
Ventura is serving as an advisory board member for a new group called Operaton Truth, a nonprofit organization set up “to give voice to troops who served in Iraq.”
Emphasizing that he is an independent, not a Republican or Democrat, Ventura said the National Guard was designed to protect the homeland, not fight overseas.
—Associated Press, August 25, 2004
The reality is, a “backdoor draft” already exists through the military’s use of multiple deployments. More than 85,000 troops have been kept on in Iraq, beyond their agreed-upon term of service. We haven’t managed to really begin rebuilding New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. That’s what the National Guard ought to be doing, instead of being forced to remain in Iraq doing a mission they were never trained for! These are not frontline combat units. Why else is the National Guard being used so extensively, other than to fight the war on the cheap? Why doesn’t Bush transfer the regular soldiers from Germany, and let the Guard man the bases there? None of it makes sense.
If I ever became president, I’d push with every ounce of power I had for Congress to pass something else into law: Every elected federal official must predesignate an individual in their immediate family who has to begin military service—the moment that official casts an affirmative vote toward going to war. This could be a grandchild, a niece or nephew, but someone. It doesn’t mean they necessarily go to the war zone. What it does mean is that they and their family experience some personal discomfort because of this decision. Going to war should bring difficulty, especially to those who are the orchestrators or the authorizers. Right now, it’s far too easy for them to go on TV with their bleeding hearts and give standing ovations to our service personnel. War should not be laissez-faire. If you’re not willing to send someone from your family, how can you be so willing to send someone else’s?
I don’t pretend to know what we should do to get out of this quagmire. A pull-out of our troops by a certain specific date? Probably. I do think the greatest challenge facing our country is renewing our credibility internationally. Other nations now view us as an imperialist power who, if you cross us, will invade you. Until George Bush became president, this was not something that ever concerned them. They could fear us for economic manipulation or sanctions, sometimes for an off-the-books military or CIA operation. But not invasion. I don’t believe ruling by fear is the sign of a great nation. Most of the world now sees us as no more than an arrogant bully.
Through all this, I’m not trying to say that terrorism isn’t a real threat. There are certainly elements of the Arab and Muslim world that need to be dealt with;