THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

HOW PEOPLE WANT TO USE THE AMERICAN-IRAQI WAR | 2003-02-15

Nobody has the vaguest idea what we are doing in Iraq but everybody hopes that the Iraqi situation will get them what they want. Liberals want the old hippy Peace Movement back.

Conservatives want lots of flags and lots of uniforms and a really gigantic defense budget. When the liberal congressman Charles Rangel proposed that the military draft be reinstituted, every conservative commentator I heard from said Rangel's reasons were wrong but getting the draft back was a wonderful

idea.

Conservatives blindly backed the Vietnam War because it put millions of Americans in uniform and jacked up the Pentagon budget. They really didn't care if it was about anything. It looked Patriotic.