Wheels of Justice or Wheels of Hate?

"Wheels of Justice" is an organization made up of individuals who disguise themselves as an advocates of "peace" and love for all. They were recruited to speak to two sophomore classes at North Andover High School by history teacher Barry Humphreys, who didn't clear it with Superintendent Harry Harutunian and did not invite speakers with opposing views.  

But who can oppose peace and love? A quick trip to their website www.justicewheels.org reveals that "Wheels of Justice" is an advocacy group which seeks to "educate" people on the evils of the United States and Israel. They portray America and the Jews as the root cause of the violence and turmoil in the Middle East.  

Furthermore, "Wheels of Justice" claims that Israel committed ethnic cleansing against Palestinians, the Jews are "illegally" occupying and oppressing Palestinians, and that America is responsible for much of this because of our support for Israel. Their website also equates the Jewish "occupation" with the Nazi death camps in WWII.  

"Wheels of Justice" sought to bring maps of the "occupied" Palestinian land to North Andover High to show just how victimized the Palestinians are at the hands of the evil Jews. But, nowhere on their website or in their speeches do they condemn homicide bombings, Palestinian support for terrorist groups such as Hammas, Islamic Jihad, and Hezbolah, or Al Queda's attack on the U.S. on 911. They certainly do not "educate" people that Israel has offered land for peace consistently despite being attacked by Egypt, Jordon, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and the Palestinians since the day after gaining statehood in 1948.  

"Wheels of Justice" seeks to misinform people by blaming terrorism on U.S. policy instead of blaming the terrorists for acts of terrorism.   While The Valley Patriot defends the right of "Wheels of Justice" to speak their views, we feel compelled to oppose their hatred for Israel and the United States given the fact that, even today, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is proposing "land for peace", while Palestinians take to the streets vowing to exterminate the Jews.   We find it unconscionable for the local media to call these hate mongers "peace" advocates.

Their message is nothing short of hatred and propaganda for America's enemies. 

The Military Draft
Wrong in Every Way

You have to wonder what motivates those who recently have been calling for reconsideration of a military draft. To embrace the draft would be to diminish our national security, put our children’s lives in greater danger, increase defense costs, sacrifice any semblance of national unity, and undermine the very principles this country stands for.  

Those who see the military draft as consistent with our national ideals and who see no violation of individual liberty in pushing our young citizens out of a foxhole at the point of a bayonet are helplessly confused. If a draft isn’t a violation of our most basic right, the Right to Life (See facing article), it is hard to imagine what would be.   Embracing the grossest violation of our citizen’s rights is never an acceptable course but to do so when the net effect is to make us more vulnerable to attack while raising defense costs is truly obscene.  

Our military is by far the most professional, intelligent, technologically sophisticated, and well-managed army in the world. It is designed to defend us while incurring the minimum possible risk to the lives of our servicemen and (secondarily) with minimum collateral damage to innocent bystanders (a moral side constraint, that in the long run reduces international conflict). It depends on intelligent, motivated personnel that cannot be assembled using conscription. It employs “brain waves” not “human waves” to defeat our enemies.  

You can’t conscript “the best” at the point of a gun. If you want their wholehearted dedication they must be attracted via persuasion. The coins of the realm are: Patriotism, Defense of Liberty, Challenge, Opportunity, and Cash (often, but not always, in that order). 

Together these must be more compelling than other alternatives in a potential soldier’s life or he/she shouldn’t volunteer and we shouldn’t want to sully our military with their presence. Not surprisingly, our military commanders are nearly unanimous in their rejection of a military draft.  

One of the unfortunate side effects of the draft is that it hides from society the true manpower cost of military alternatives. While a volunteer army’s manpower costs are precisely known and visible (salary + benefits + training/deployment costs), the true costs of a draft army are hidden because the salary costs do not reflect the real economic cost of the labor employed.  

The high cost of manpower is fully evident in our volunteer army and it leads to a smaller, more technologically sophisticated, and skills-based army (more effective and fewer casualties). Institute a draft and we’ll see higher real economic costs, less sophistication, misallocation of scarce resources/skills, more reliance on “strength in numbers”, and more casualties.   The draft should be considered a desperate last resort … one that our love of Liberty and our economic/technological strength should hopefully make both unjustifiable and extremely unlikely.

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