Damn Lucky

When Herbert Hoover said this in 1944, it was intended as commentary about how unfairly we apportion the costs of war, how those with no say in the decision to go to war (the young) end up bearing its heaviest burdens. Though Hoover's statement remains true in spirit, the words themselves are due for a revision. For one, members of both sexes now hold the highest positions in military and political leadership. Women make strategic decisions about deploying troops into combat; they articulate national security policy on the world stage. Moreover, it can no longer be said that youth "must" fight and die in our country's wars, at least not since Vietnam, when a young man could avoid conscription simply by staying in school for long enough, declaring himself a "conscientious objector," or fleeing to Canada, among other possibilities. If nothing else, Iraq and Afghanistan proved it's not that our nation’s youth "must" fight and die, but that they will be permitted to fight and die if they choose.