October 08, 2004
Veto Power
Bush criticized Kerry for giving other countries a veto on when the U.S. goes to war. But Bush turns around and gives 18 and 19 year olds a veto on our ability to wage war.
Leave aside-- just for a second-- whether American residents ought to have more say in whether America goes to war than other nations do. The nature of these supposed vetos is quite different.
I'm actually quite muzzy on whether Kerry has proposed giving other countries a veto on when the U.S. goes to war-- I don't think so. But even if he had, the idea of that veto would be that other countries would have a say in whether members of the U.S. armed forces go off to war, regardless of whether the other countries came or not.
What Ayres terms the Bush veto, though, is just a refusal to conscript young folk into involuntary military servitude. That is, it's not an ability by 18- and 19- year olds to stop other folks from going to war. That would have to be done through the democratic process according to procedures on which we have all more or less agreed.
This may seem silly, but it's important. Surely Bush and Kerry alike agree that there would be something problematic about us "drafting" other nations to go fight our foreign wars-- if we threatened France, Germany, and Spain with invasion or attack unless they put their neck on the line for sub-market pay.
Whatever the failings of the Bush administration may be, a refusal to conscript folks my age is not one of them.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://WWW.crescatsententia.org/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/1702
Congress is the new Usenet
We learned this morning about the potential-addictive website of regulations.gov. For those who love to kill time commenting on other people's work, the site-- which lets folks enter comments on proposed regulations (and the promulgating agency is obligated by law to respond to the comments)-- ought to provide a venue at least as fun as hanging around Kevin Drum's blog.
And for those websites that think comments are important to democracy, surely the temptation to drive their internet flocks to comment online will prove irresistible.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://WWW.crescatsententia.org/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/1701