In the years since the Vietnam War, there has always been the looming fear of the draft being re-instated. However, not many people gave it any real serious thought until it became a very real issue, on the eleventh day in September, 2004.

This is not only a dangerous time for all Americans serving overseas, but very soon could become a dangerous time for everyone. To begin, I am the Accordion Cowboy, and this is what I’m Mentioning….

Now, the selective service has been in existence since before most people can remember. To most it is simply something every male has to sign up for at the age of 18, beyond that it’s not all that big a deal. However, in the light of events stemming from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, the invasion of Afghanistan, and most currently the war in Iraq, the probability of the draft being reinstated is almost a certainty.

You may ask, is this truly a justified act by the higher ups in our government? Are we doomed to repeat another Vietnam? In all likelihood, yes we are.

The problem with the draft in its very conception is that it goes against the most prominent principle on which this nation has been founded, freedom. Freedom is defined as the right to choose. As an American citizen you have the right to choose everything about every aspect of your life, from the food you eat to the place you work, to where you get your hair cut. The entire war in Iraq is based upon the idea that we are going to liberate the nation from tyranny, and implement a free democratic system.

So, the question I pose is this: how can we, as a country, possibly be promoting freedom in any sense, when the operating method of the draft is to take those from their homes, and send them to war against their will?

To force someone to fight in a war that they do not believe in is not only degrading to those who are fighting, but it is, in essence, bringing us back to a rather dark period in American history known as slavery. The American troops that become drafted are sent to war against their will. In turn, they are now fighting against the very people they have set out to bring freedom to.

It is obvious that our system of government is not only blind to the fact that they have done little other than re-instate slavery, but ultimately they have betrayed the very people who elected them to their positions of power.

On top of everything else, dodging the draft, which was a favorite pastime of twenty-year-olds back in the times of the Vietnam War, has now been made even more difficult by a treaty signed between the Canadian and United States governments a few months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

As it now stands, moving to Canada from the United States requires approval from both governments. Running to Canada when you’re drafted won’t save you this time because the agreement also states that you can just as easily be sent back.

In the end, the idea of re-instating the draft is not only scary-it’s disgusting. The denial of our basic freedoms is something nobody on this planet should be able to do, be it a person, an organization, or the government of an entire country. Our presence in Iraq is a mistake now as it was in Vietnam; the war is based on lies and deceit just as most politics are. If we pull out of Iraq, the country could finally stabilize itself, and we the people of this country could finally be at peace-Although those in the government would tell you otherwise.

Unfortunately, the world is not that simple. As long as there are human beings in positions of power, human beings with wants, needs, and extremely biased goals, then there will always be corruption, deceit, and lies. More lives will be lost to the chaos of the government, and justice will never be served.

To end, I will quote one of the very few willing to stand up for their beliefs: Jeremy Himzman is a military abandoner who is attempting to gain refugee status while living in Canada. In an interview he gave during a film by Andrew Courtney and Emily Perry, he stated perhaps the most valuable, most relevant, yet in the end most ignored piece of wisdom so far to have come out of this war, “I don’t see why someone should be punished for doing what is right.”