The Next Nostalgia Wave

Hey hey hey, we're in the movie
I feel up and I feel groovy
Let's go out and get some of that
Gimme gimme gimme some Russian Roulette
--the late Stiv Bators

Say, all you hardbodied and fit young men and women of today! Have you been paying attention to how the war in Iraq is going? No? You should be. The Defense Department is very concerned that they don't have enough of you to send into the mouth of Moloch already on hand, given we've already stretched our troop strength so thin.

Do you honestly believe it's a coincidence that we have such terrible unemployment--particularly for you twentysomethings--and they "underestimated" the troop strength needed?

Hardly.

The intent is to re-establish the infamous Military-Industrial complex of the pre-Ford era as a permanent and major component of our economy, chumps. And their next step will be to bring back something that even I only dimly remember, something that made young people once much more averse to blindly supporting a war, something that at least might equalize the class differences in those who actually serve.

Did you know the Selective Service is still in operation? You should, because the boys among you had to sign up for it at 18. You didn't think much about it, did you?

Soon you may have to, because with the news few of you will voluntarily sign up for the military. They will have to restore the Draft. And maybe when the sons--and daughters?--of privilege are dying along with the saps in the working class who thought the military was just a way of getting experience for other jobs, you'll start to care.

All I can say is I hope they do. Then you'll learn not to be so blase about a president's lies and his wars. It won't be someone else's problem. And what will you think of the phrase "Support the Troops" then when you're in your very own Vietnam?

You had your own Woodstock. Here's some more nostalgia coming your way.

Labels: politics

  ¶ July 20, 2003