The other 1%

From Time magazine, November 21, 2011
Some 2.4 million men and women have fought in Iraq and/or Afghanistan since the wars began. This is almost exactly 1% of the population of the US  who areover 18 years old. Never before have we average Americans been so distanced from the reality of the wars. Not long ago, I was sitting in a meeting when a colleague said that the wars were over. He had no idea that our 1% are still killing and dying in a country  on the other side of the planet.
We need to bring back the draft. We should NOT maintain a standing army and expect to fight any wars with volunteers. The founding fathers were adamantly opposed to maintaining standing armies. It is too easy to go along with the war mongers when the only Americans who pay the price are our Pat Tillmans, or those impelled by poverty to fight. There is great incentive to create poverty, and great incentive to start wars of choice. We need to make sure everyone pays the cost of war, that blood shed on foreign soil comes from the children of politicians and billionaires, as well as children of roofers and housemaids.