Citizen Smash on the growing rift between the civilian population and the military:

The key difference between the Democrats in the military that I knew, and the current crop of candidates for President is that my friends were all hawks. They had an appreciation for the complex issues of national security, and they supported Clinton’s military interventions in Bosnia, Haiti, and Kosovo – just as many of them support the current war in Iraq.

I don’t support a return of the draft – I believe the All-Volunteer Force is a much more professional and effective military because we have a higher-caliber enlisted corps, and far fewer discipline problems than in the past. Nonetheless, I share the professor’s concern that too many Americans are far too isolated from the military.

I am one to believe that any mandatory immersion or exposure into the rudiments of the military at a young age is a bad idea. As a college student in the Philippines I had to go through four semesters of ROTC (Reserve Officers Training Course, if you didn’t know). Six to eight hours every Sunday for two schoolyears. I hated it. The process was flawed, the abuse was open, the corruption, remarkable.

The might, the professionalism, of our Armed Forces is based on the passionate love of country (patriotism, if it still isn’t a dirty workd for any of you) with one enlists to defend the nation. Sure, accuse me of romanticizing it if you will. I have had my share of criticism from my mother, who believes that majority of those who sign up for any branch of the military — including the got-damn Marines! The Marines, dammit! — are in it for the benefits (to which I reply: bull-fucking-shit).

I know, that if need be in a state of war involving millions of footmen, many of our fellow citizens would enlist. I know that many would willingly do so. Those who do not, in a case of total war like that, would be enlisted into supportive labor. Those who refuse, can be charged with many things. This is not how I want it to go. I think that proper education of the youth with regards to the military is essential. Maybe, even a revamp of the military’s publicity campaigns (Go Army!) could help.

I do know that Wesley Clark as president won’t do to help. I also know that a draft would be disastrous. I do not want a self-hating 18-year old bleeding-heart anti-American capital L Liberal who believes the United States is the biggest terrorist country in the world, in the front lines with a gun he will either be unable to fire, or one he’ll fire on his own men. I do not even want him working at a war factory. I want him out of the system, and if that adds an inch to the increasing gulf between the civilians and the military, I, and the Armed Forces, can live with that loss of nothing.