by Zach Bigalke

Created on: July 02, 2007

With the occupation of Iraq lasting over four years, ongoing struggles to subdue Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and no end to the battle in sight, the American military is being grossly overextended on two fronts. With military servicemen enduring repeated and extended tours of duty, and reserve and National Guard troops tasting front-line combat, domestic and international security is weakened significantly. One solution would seem to be the reinstatement of the draft through the Selective Service Administration. But the costs of mobilizing large units of America's youth for combat readiness will do nothing to cure the underlying roots of our struggle. Rather, any mass enlistment will instead fuel greater dissent against a nation already seen throughout much of the world to be an overly aggressive and militaristic presence.

The United States went to war following the al-Qaeda attacks on 11 September 2001 under the pretenses that we were eliminating terrorist forces dedicated to imposing theocracy on free nations. Instead of actively seeking out Osama bin Laden and the other al-Qaeda leaders, we instead chose to unseat one theocratic fundamentalist regime and one autocratic secular regime. The Taliban theocracy was known to be a sponsor of al-Qaeda, hosting terrorist camps in its mountainous regions and protecting bin Laden and his hierarchy. The Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein was a deflated shell of its former imposing self. Having suffered through a decade of sanctions following the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi military capabilities and infrastructure were neutered to the point of ineffectiveness.

Instead of strengthening domestic safeguards against further attacks and employing diplomatic goodwill to alter anti-American sentiments through the Muslim world, the Bush administration has instead chosen to pick fights against perceived lightweights. And, indeed, the initial surges required to unseat these two governments were relatively straightforward affairs. But, lacking any coherent plan to empower the citizens of these nations to self-determination and a better future, they bungled the aftermath. Instead of providing assistance for rebuilding national infrastructures, the American military and government have instead squandered their window of opportunity to initiate beneficial change through ineptitude and corruption.

In light of this, it is imprudent to subject a greater proportion of our population to the injustices of this suicidal stalemate. No amount of guns or GIs will solve centuries of animosity. We are cultivating a new generation of suicide bombers with each day spent as an occupying force in the Middle East. Governments both for and against American civilization are losing what little tenuous support for the United States that might have existed. More soldiers would only serve to drain our resources further, weakening our domestic infrastructure further to the point where another attack will be inevitable.

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