Class warriors

Washington Monthly, May, 2006 by Charles Peters

Tim Cavanaugh, writing in the libertarian magazine Reason, recently set out to debunk the argument that a military draft was needed so that "it wasn't just the poor kids going to war."

He cites figures supplied by the Heritage Foundation that show only 5 percent of the new recruits in 2003 came from neighborhoods with average household incomes of $20,000 or less, and points out that the largest group, 18 percent, came from neighborhoods with average household incomes from $35,000-$40,000 to clinch his case.

Let us leave aside suspicions aroused by the fact that the source of the research is the conservative Heritage Foundation and by the fact that it is the average income of the neighborhood rather than that of the actual recruit that is used. The crucial question remains unasked by Cavanaugh: How many recruits come from households making $200,000 or more?

The answer is, of course, hardly any. And that is the true tragedy. The rich are shirking their duty to serve their country and leaving the dirty work to the poor and the lower-middle class. And to com pound their sin, they not only refuse to serve, but also demand that their taxes be cut.