Ticket to the Dreams: Green Cards and the Draft

[Kellanved]

This Article was printed in my (extremely conservative) newspaper on monday. I found it quite interesting; here is my translation (not exactly proper English, but the meaning should come across):


The American Embassy in Berlin doesn’t exactly look inviting, concrete barriers close of the access roads, a high fence surrounds the entrance, armed policemen see that no car passes without permission and make bikers dismount. The embassy mirrors the threat, America feels itself exposed to. At the same time the building looks, if not menacing, then at least repelling. Well, one grew accustomed to the look.
A shop in the middle street has been boarded up for a long time and looks like the backdrop for a post-war movie. Only the posters, someone has glued to the shop’s windows, don’t fit the picture. They are new and alluring. Advertised is, in bright Blue, Red and White, the “American Dream”: the American Government runs a Lottery with 50.000 Green Cards every year, anyone could, all should, apply. This way the country lures the ambitious and the decided from all over the world. The Green Card does not mean citizenship, but a permit to stay and the right to work. A young German, whose name is of no importance, did not even need to apply. A couple of years ago, his father, a renowned Scientist, demanded Green Cards for his whole family as part of his terms to switch from Germany to America.
Meanwhile, the father is back and, since George W. Bush’s re-election, counts himself lucky to be no longer in America.
The son stayed with his Green Card to attend a University.
Now reality has caught up with him.
Despite being a German Citizen, he was forced to decide: risk his slot at the university, or register as a potential soldier. An agency called "Selective Service System" has the task to keep all able men between 18 and 26 years in its database. That includes foreign citizens. In the case that the President calls a draft, like during the Vietnam War, Soldiers will be recruited from that lists by a lottery system. Congress decided in October, that the draft is not needed at the moment. But the military’s human reserve is running low. More and more men, who did not participate in exercises for more than a decade, are getting torn out of their everyday life. They are needed for the troop rotation in Iraq. Should there be another major troop deployment, the draft would appear inevitable. “Most non-citizens and dual citizenship holders are forced to obey conscription.”, the internet page with the governmental address www.sss.gov says very clearly. There are a few exceptions. But the young man from Germany wasn’t told about those. He was told that despite being a German citizen, he would have to fight as an American Soldier.
The Green Card is the Entrance to the country of many dreams. In an unstable world however, it can turn into a one-way ticket to the Middle East.





http://www.faz.net/s/Rub5A6DAB001EA2420BAC082C25414D2760/Doc~EFA2E2317ED8049F694BCDF8B4ADBAEBD~ATpl~Ecommon~Scontent.html

[PatriotGames]

1. I don't disagree with the "fight for the US if you live here" rule.

[Kellanved]

2. Sorry, but with what moral basis ?

I don't see how people without the right to vote can be forced to put their life on the line.

Not to mention that the legality of drafting foreign citizens is at least questionable under international law.

[wuushew]

3. I am glad this was posted

This is one reason I believe there will not be a draft. The opportunity to have brown people kill brown no doubt sits well with many and avoids the political poison pill of a draft.