How many of you are old enough to remember the anti-war slogan, “Hell no. I won’t go. I won’t kill for Texaco.” People resisting the draft for Vietnam chanted this. They were wrong. They would have been killing for Lockheed-Martin, General Dynamics and Dow Chemical, but no matter. In an ironic twist of fate, the Russian people are most likely to be drafted into a very unpopular war (An interesting parallel is that the war in Vietnam was not technically a war, and the war in Ukraine is officially a “special military operation.”). Vladimir Putin knows very well that Leon Trotsky succeeded in a massive conscription into his Red Army in 1920, finally crushing the White Army and its European supporters. So why not do it again? One major difference is that modern Russia is not made up primarily of illiterate peasants. It will be interesting to watch how his effort will unfold.
Another major difference between the two drafts is that, with a few unfortunate exceptions (Kent State comes to mind), American protesters enjoyed the protections of our Bill of Rights, and their protests were protected speech; while the Russians have a dictator whose constitution says pretty much what he says it does. We have Fox News and MSNBC and everything in between, while Russia has state-owned media that report as they are told, and anyone who dissents is arrested or murdered.
I like our system better. I like protected rights. I do not like Americans who urge the murder of political opponents. I do not like political opportunists who are willing to sacrifice our national institutions in return for personal political power. I do not like plutocrats having out-sized influence on the structure of this country. I find it hard to believe that anyone likes these things, but the news is full of exactly such behavior. The Southern States suffered occupation by forces of the Federal government, and behaved badly for a hundred years after it ended. That time is past. I would like to think that we could lead the nation now in defense of the Constitution we once rejected, and truly keep America great.
Bill Gillmore
Danang, Vietnam, 1965-6, USMC
Columbus
