Then, in 1968, the rules changed, and with them the nation's attitude about the costs and benefits of the war. Student deferrals would be permitted only until college graduation. And the nation finally awoke to the horrors of Vietnam--after tens of thousands of politically dispensable Americans had already died, after television brought the war home to American living rooms, after more and more sons of the middle class began to come home in body bags.

EVEN IF universal conscription is not a panacea for preventing unpopular wars, it does over time prevent leaders of democratic nations from prosecuting wars that stray too far from the national interest. Israel, whose citizens all serve terms in the army, got involved in a conflict in Lebanon in 1982 that ultimately proved unpopular among a majority of its citizens. Given the fact that men and women from all sectors of Israeli society were dying in the war, public opinion eventually compelled Israel to withdraw from most of Lebanon--in much less time and with far fewer losses than America in Vietnam.

If the antiwar movement truly believes that the Gulf War is simply another Vietnam--an unjust, or even unwise, conflict whose costs greatly exceed its benefits--then the way to prove it to policymakers is to send rich white boys to die in the Gulf alongside other, less privileged citizens.

If the antiwar movement truly believes that the war does not serve the interests of all Americans--and not just the interests of rich white Americans who would prefer not to visit the Middle East any time soon--then it should agitate to make the armed forces represent a real cross-section of America.

To do otherwise is to be Neil Bush.

America's privileged students should support the idea of universal conscription... ...Instead, they are teaching each other ways to dodge the draft.