Sacrifice for the war? So few bear the burden war?

What bugs me most about the endless war in Iraq started by George W. Bush is how few in our society are bearing any additional risk or burden. “No one is actually at war except the armed forces, the U.S. civilian contractors and the CIA,� Gen. Barry McCaffrey said the other day in testimony before the House Armed Services Committee.

Sacrifice is a dirty word.

You can bet that none of the principal architects and gung-ho enthusiasts in the Bush administration has put himself or his family at risk. The rest of us pay no additional taxes to finance the war; indeed, Mr. Bush argued for an additional tax cut that would benefit the wealthy. The lingering real cost is for our kids and grandkids to worry about.

But thousands of American families have grieved about the death or maiming of their loved ones.  Daily troop casualties continue, and the continuous demand for men and women who already have served three or four tours in Iraq has all but wrecked the Army and Marine Corps. They know a lot about the cost of the war.

You don’t hear much from presidential candidates of either party about how to meet continuing military needs. Mitt Romney, who is campaigning hard for the Republican nomination, explained that his children were doing more good for the nation by helping him get elected. But the principal Democrats have not discussed how to maintain the armed forces after, if ever, we are able to reduce the contingent in Iraq. Seemingly no one thinks most of them will be coming home any time soon.

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God help us if we ever get into another of these imbroglios. We are going to have to find a much fairer way of sharing the manpower burden and cost among the entire population. Sometimes a revival of the draft without most exemptions has been suggested to insure that all segments of society are involved. But today’s military requirements are so much more sophisticated and exacting that two-year draftees could not really learn them. Thus professional military forces will remain a basic requirement.

There remains a strong argument for a program of compulsory national service. Each young man and woman at age 18 would be expected to contribute two years in work of national importance at home and abroad from conservation, health and teaching assistance to firefighting and the like. This would not be military service, but it would capitalize on the idealism of young people to give something back to the nation. Those with a military bent could fulfill their obligation in the armed forces.

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Now that the Russians have planted a flag on the ocean floor under the north pole, perhaps some of the skeptics about global warming will begin to take the effects more seriously. This was more of a stunt than an event of physical or military significance, but it emphasizes the speed with which melting of the Arctic icecap is taking place. To think that Exxon-Mobil is financing a campaign to debunk the findings on global warming attested by the great majority of the planet’s respected scientists annoys me no end.

Canada is the nation most immediately affected, since what have been icebound passages in the north are rapidly opening up. Canada contends that these are internal waters, whereas the United States and many other nations view them as international passages. Someone has to set the rules and be responsible for policing the area, though, and so long as the right of free navigation is respected, I do not see cause for conflict.

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My longtime interest in the Canadian Arctic induced me to look up some statistics.  Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon Territory, recently has gained about 20 percent in population that now is over 24,000. I ascribe this to rising world prices for minerals, of which many are mined nearby.

Concurrently, the White Pass & Yukon Railroad now has extended service from Skagway, Alaska, to Carcross, Yukon, and there is talk of reactivating the line to Whitehorse if interest warrants. The narrow-gauge line, built during the 1897-1898 gold  rush, was abandoned in 1982 after a drop in world metal prices and completion of a paved highway to Skagway caused freight traffic to vanish.  

But cruise boat traffic to Skagway stimulated interest in the line as one of the world’s great scenic rides, and summer passenger service was restarted in 1988 as far as Fraser and Bennett, British Columbia. Trains of old-fashioned parlor cars, some pulled by steam locomotives, met the cruise ships and hauled passengers over White Pass to a location on the other side of the divide. Renewal of the service to Carcross is a significant step to recapture an interesting chapter of history.

During a 1970 trip through the Canadian Arctic for The Washington Post, I had the privilege of riding the White Pass & Yukon in its heyday. I had a seat in a combination coach and baggage car at the end of a 70-car freight train hauling zinc aggregates to the port at Skagway. From a motel in Skagway I prowled around the yards to inspect the old equipment as well as the graves of salty characters from the gold rush.

The trip back went up White Pass in what has to be one of the most spectacular, thrilling and demanding rail climbs in the world. A bulldozer at the top kept the track clear from up to 3 feet of snow that fell.  A hearty lunch at Bennett afforded an opportunity to listen to stories from the train crew.  I’m happy that today’s kids can still share in the experience.

This columnist is taking a few days off. See you again soon.