Like Water in a Canoe

January 17th, 2008

Last night I went to a local bar to have a hamburger for supper prior to going to a meeting.  I sat at the bar and pulled out a CO application to work on.  As is often the case at a bar, I began to listen to the conversation of the two men next to me.  They were talking about the Iraq war.  I was content to just listen as I worked on the application until one of them said the very common, “If we had a draft this war would be stopped.” 

Well, I couldn’t let that slide so I said, “That’s not true.  Having a draft didn’t stop us from getting into the Vietnam War, the Korean War or even World War II.”

“But it stopped the Vietnam War.”

“No, that’s not true either.  The draft was ended three years before the Vietnam War.  Ending the draft didn’t stop the antiwar sentiment.  It was the antiwar sentiment that finally stopped that war.”

“But a draft would make it fairer.”

“No.  A draft takes the same people that the military recruits from now.  Low income, primarily Middle America.  I know this because this is what I do for a living.”

The bartender, now interested, says, “What’s that?”  and I explained about the GI Rights Hotline. 

“You are doing wonderful work,” he replied and the men sitting at the bar joined in.

I glowed a little as I bit into my hamburger.  I remembered a conversation at several other bars across the country over the last ten years and reflected on the change.  Mostly, when I am sitting at a bar eating, I try to avoid mentioning what I do for a living.  Not that I am ashamed but because sometimes you just want time not arguing.  For years, when it has come up when I have sat at a bar eating I was generally railed with how I was naïve or unpatriotic or in some other way a bad person.  This time I was the hero.

Several years ago, Joel Andreas, Sociology Professor at Johns Hopkins and author of the really great graphic book Addicted to War  (which you can buy from the Center in English or Spanish) spoke at the Center’s annual Advisory Council Day.  He talked about how the U.S. population could be divided more or less into fourths.  One fourth thought war was always wrong or at least modern war was always wrong.  One fourth thought that war was a useful tool of foreign policy.  But the remaining half swung from one end to the other.  Generally, it opposed a war during the build up, immediately swung into “Support the troops” mode after the start, and then gradually shifted back to opposing war as it dragged on.

Clearly the drift back is well on its way.  It, thank God, doesn’t take the American people quite so long to make the shift.  Maybe someday they won’t shift over to the “supporting” the troops by approving the war, but will understand that you can truly support the troops by opposing a war—especially an ill thought-out, poorly planned, illegal war.