Gardens of Stone....

[catnhatnh]

I finished my first reading today. Two important points were made...That a real draft means limiting deferments so that all societal levels have "skin" in the game and that tours of duty, no matter how long, are a deterrent to actually winning. What a "win" looks like can be argued but the book posits that unless we gain one nobody should ship home.

This is neither a right wing nor inaccurate assessment. Instead of arguing about multiple deployments we could discuss what 5 years in a war zone does to a soldier....

I wonder how different the war might be if the sole goal was to win rather than survive a tour and if the army had more children of privilege with skin in the game.

You have to realize that Vietnam was our first tour limited war. Until then war meant until we won, including Korea..Vietnam was 365 days and then the Freedom Bird...an end of danger-365 days without death became a win.

I was happy that 365 days brought my brother home. He's a nice guy and an asset overall in the country. My family lived through a very bad year and then moved on. Other draftees died and then the war ended.

But I wonder how we may have reacted if everyones children were involved and what we may have done after the first 5 years if no one got to come home....