Against Conscription

To the Editors of The Crimson:

Perhaps it shouldn't surprise too many people that in the age of New Liberalism, The Crimson should provide an editorial opinion offering a "fresh and progressive" justification for the draft. But did The Crimson editors really mean to say that "a democratic army would mean a return to an earlier day when people of different classes and backgrounds in this nation occasionally got to know one another?" Are we to stand shoulder to shoulder and plow the fields of military prosperity, just like in the good ol' days? The similarity of this suggestion with other nostalgic images we've been treated to during the past two years is almost frightening.

If the only problem with the editorial was casting the United States military establishment as a laboratory of social change, we might simply turn the page. But there was more. While the editors made a strong and important case for a draft without exemptions for the rich and the connected, they concluded that a draft would "temper our conduct in the world." This was certainly not the message that former President Carter sought to convey when he ratified the Selective Service Act shortly after Russia invaded Afghanistan. The expressed purpose of registration was to demonstrate that we were over the "Vietnam Syndrome" and prepared to defend our national interests. Our current president found the need to extend registration because he has "discovered" that the time saved in the event of an actual draft is much greater than the five to seven days which the Selective Service has advertised since the reactivation of registration. Conveniently, the extension coincides with the government's concern over Poland.

If there must be a draft, then it should be equitable. Neither the rich nor the powerful should be favored. But let the case for the draft first be made. Militarism unleashes a new awareness of military options, and as the debate shifts from registration to the draft to forms of the draft, it becomes more and more difficult to draw a line. But there is no need to take the first step. That should be our message. Marc Roterberg '82