Author Blames Lack of Draft for Blackwater's Rise
In the 1960s, one of the key rallying points that led to the organization of the modern liberal movement was resistance to the military draft and the Vietnam War.
But Jeremy Scahill, a fellow at the liberal Nation Institute and author of “Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army,” a book highly critical of the defense contractor, took a very ironic stance on the reinstitution of a draft in a recent appearance. He blamed the government’s reluctance to use a military draft for the rise of private defense contractors.
“It [the government’s use of Blackwater and other contractors] also helps to keep a draft off the table,” Scahill said June 5 at Busboys & Poets books shop in Arlington, Va. “I can almost guarantee you if there were a draft in this country, people would stop watching Britney Spears checking into rehab clinic and would probably be out in the streets because many, many more
“So this is a way of doubling, effectively, the size of the
Scahill said he was not a proponent of a draft, and that he would be a modern-day draft-dodger if it were reinstituted.
“If there was a draft, I think it would make the war politically untenable pretty fast,” said Scahill. “[B]lackwater benefits from a lack of a draft.”
“In fact, I’ve had guys say to me, ‘We keep you from having to go to war,’ you know guys who work for those companies. In way, it’s true, but I wouldn’t go to that war even if I was drafted,” Scahill concluded.
On Oct. 19, 2007, Scahill appeared on Bill Moyers’ PBS show to discuss Blackwater and Moyers dedicated 40 minutes of the show to Scahill’s Blackwater bashing.
