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 Edited by Thomas L. Knapp. To subscribe or unsubscribe to this and
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----- Featured Action of the Week -----
 

Second Week of June, 2001:
Double Action
~~~
I get a lot of email from Action of the Week subscribers: everything from
suggestions to compliments to criticism. I enjoy reading the mail very
much, because it tells me what I'm doing right and when I could be doing
things better. Keep sending it!
 

One recurring issue that arises is military service. The message is usually
polite, but it usually comes down to a perception that I am disrespectful
to the military. Since this week's action deals with military issues, I
want to briefly offer my perspective on that perception.
 

The particular message that I'm thinking of concerned this year's Memorial
Day action. The author was a proud veteran of the Air Force, and he took
exception to using a day dedicated to our fallen defenders as a platform
from which to oppose the drug war. That's not an unusual feeling, nor is it
beyond the pale of reason. Anyone who has stood beneath the Marine Corps
Memorial and looked out over the rows of graves at Arlington National
Cemetery, or watched the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier, or visited any one of hundreds of memorials to those who lost
their life in war should be able to understand the pride of the soldier and
the kinship he feels with those who did not survive what they believed to
be honorable service.
 

I'm a veteran myself -- a decade as an infantryman in the Marine Corps,
including the Gulf War -- and I understand this. But I also understand that
war is a powerful symbol, and one that is misused by politicians to wrap
bad policies in the flag of patriotism and to credit themselves with the
virtues of those who have had to carry out their policies with lead and
steel.
 

When I characterized Peter McWilliams as a fallen hero, a casualty of the
drug war, I meant no disrespect to those who have served in a uniform or on
foreign soil. On the contrary. I placed McWilliams in that light in the
full knowledge of what it meant. We are, our leaders tell us, at war.
 

Never mind that most of those "leaders" spent the Vietnam era on Ivy League
campuses while their less well-connected peers died by the thousands. Never
mind that most of the architects of the drug war have never heard a shot
fired in anger or watched a friend draw his last breath while they stood
helplessly by and wondered if they were next. The politicians wanted a war,
and it's a war that they got. Wars have sides, and the sides have soldiers.
Peter McWilliams, though he never wore a uniform, charged the enemy
position and paid for his courage with his life. And that, my friends,
merits some respect. I hope that those of you who are serving, or have
served, in the armed forces will accept the genuine respect to you in which
I offer that comparison.
 

And now, on to other, related subjects.
 

When I joined the Marine Corps at 17, I did so in the full knowledge -- or
as close as one can come to that knowledge -- of what I was getting into.
One of my brothers was just finishing up his first decade in the Marines,
and the other had given an honorable term of service to the Army.
 

Many Americans, throughout our history since the War Between the States,
have not been so lucky. Despite the Constitutional ban on involuntary
servitude, the United States has drafted millions to serve in two world
wars, in Korea, and in Vietnam. Other nations have similar records, often
requiring military service even in peacetime.
 

That's not right, and it's time we did something about it. Here in the
United States, the American Friends Service Committee has actively opposed
the draft for a century, and the Libertarian Party has a new project,
EndSelectiveService.Org, aimed at dismantling the mechanisms for
conscription. Free-Market.Net partner AntiWar.Com also features a lot of
material on the interventionist policies that
conscription enables.
 

The draft is objectionable on both moral and practical grounds. It's
obviously an imposition against the right to life and self-ownership, but a
less well-known fact is that volunteer armies have always proven more
effective on the battlefield. The bottom line, of course, is that no
government which cannot command the voluntary support of its citizens
deserves that support: the need for conscription is a confession that the
government imposing it has gone dreadfully wrong -- that the enemy isn't
"over there," but right here.
 

This week, I'm asking you to do two things. The first one may vary,
depending on the nation you live in. In the United States, have a look at
EndSelectiveService.Org to find out what you can do -- whether it be
endorsing legislation, contacting your representatives, or setting up a
protest against draft registration. In other countries, explore your
government's draft policy and take appropriate action of the same type.
 

The second action is one that I should have included in this year's
Memorial Day column. No matter where you live, people you know has
dedicated their lives to the defense of your home and hearth. They've lived
in the mud, and they've walked a guard post in the cold, and even when
their civilian superiors have put them in places where they shouldn't have
been put, it's been your life and your freedom that have constituted the
real reason for their decision to serve, and the real reason for their
pride in that service.
 

They may have served long ago, or they may be far away from home at this
very moment. They may have served in war, or in peace; the difference
between the two is a thin line often crossed, and those who have not faced
war are no less heroes: they risked the possibility. Sixty-seven years ago
this week, thousands of them fell on the beaches of Normandy in the D-Day
invasion which freed Europe from Hitler's grasp.
 

This week, call a veteran -- relative, friend, co-worker -- and say "thank
you."
 
 

EndSelectiveService.Org:
http://www.endselectiveservice.org/
 

American Friends Service Committee:
http://www.afsc.org/
 

AntiWar.Com:
http://www.antiwar.com/
 

Action of the Week Column Archive:
http://www.free-market.net/features/list-archives/activism/maillist.html
 

----- Alternate Actions -----
 

The Freedom Action of the Week Club: Commit yourself to doing one
action per week. If the action above doesn't appeal to you, consider
one of the alternate actions at:
   http://www.free-market.net/features/action/
 

If you know about another action or organize one of your own, e-mail
Tom at tlknapp@free-market.net so we can tell the rest of the group
next week.
 

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