Blog by Sumana Harihareswara, Changeset founder
Articulation
Hi, reader. I wrote this in 2004 and it's now more than five years old. So it may be very out of date; the world, and I, have changed a lot since I wrote it! I'm keeping this up for historical archive purposes, but the me of today may 100% disagree with what I said then. I rarely edit posts after publishing them, but if I do, I usually leave a note in italics to mark the edit and the reason. If this post is particularly offensive or breaches someone's privacy, please contact me.
If a commentator decries the overuse of Reservists in the conflict in Iraq, and notes that the government has instituted stop-loss policies and extended Reservists' tours of duty, then other commentators often respond, what did they expect when they joined the Reserve? they are part of the military and they have to earn their pay.
J. Bradford DeLong articulates why the Reservists actually are getting a raw deal:
But the more important thing is that we have already reinstituted the draft--in a peculiar way. Reservists--who thought that they were standing ready to reinforce the regular army in a serious war while the general draft and total war mobilization got underway--have discovered that that's not their role. Their role is to be drafted at a ferocious rate precisely so that the government can fight its war in Iraq "on the cheap," without disturbing the lives of college students who might demonstrate and attract TV cameras.
