We're Losing It!

Nearly six years after 9/11, reality finally seems to be slipping away.

Fewer and fewer mainstream media reports contain any hint of truth.

Fewer and fewer bloggers are making any sense, at least to me, and many of those who do make sense have been talking (or at least hinting) about throwing in the towel.

Some others have been saying they don't think they're making any difference and wondering why they bother. I confess to having the same doubts and questions myself, but that has little or nothing to do with my main point, which is:

Individually and collectively, we really do seem to be losing it.

For example ...

In his most recent essay, Scott Ritter, whose work I once admired, slams Cindy Sheehan for attacking John Conyers, whom Ritter calls "one of the strongest antiwar advocates in the U.S. Congress"; attacks impeachment advocates as "rejectionists", claiming they don't understand the Constitution; and proposes mandatory national service as a solution to our national problems.

Without exception or deferment, all able-body Americans, upon reaching the age of 18 (or upon graduation if they are in school when they reach 18), would have to serve their country for two years.

In this model, the first two months of such service would be compulsory military basic training, in which the draftee would be imbued with discipline and the necessity of adhering to a chain of command. At the end of their basic training, the draftees would be given a chance to choose a three-year enlistment in the armed forces or a two-year hitch with nonmilitary service options.

Am I the only one who thinks this is insane?

Has the current administration not abused its military, while using it to attack two defenseless countries on false pretexts?

And is it not obvious that compulsory national service, military or otherwise, would merely give them millions of warm bodies every year to abuse as they wished?

Scott Ritter thinks otherwise, and he says:

Those drafted who successfully served out their tour of duty would feel a sense of ownership of America, and as such they would be much more likely to participate in the various processes which make this nation work and succeed. Such participation is the foundation of what makes the American democratic experiment work. Without it, our system falls prey to the predatory trends inherent in the military-industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about so many years ago.

Have we not already fallen prey?

Do we really need to feed all our teenagers into the meat-grinder?