My son, Casey, joined the military in 2000, shortly before his 21 st birthday, to help pay for college. He had already completed everything he could take at the local JC and was eager to move on—but he had a fulltime job, and even though we (his dad and I) helped out as much as we could, Casey also had three younger siblings and our family was firmly ensconced in the working-class. Well, 16 months after he enlisted was September 11, 2001—and no matter what really happened that day—I had a horrible sense of foreboding that it would lead to my son’s early death—and no matter how much I prayed, or cajoled him not to go, or worried—my worst fears were realized and Casey was killed just hours after arriving in Iraq on April 04, 2004. There is no forced military conscription in the US today, but many will tell you that since forced conscription ended in 1973 , there has been a “poverty draft.” The poverty draft has only become more successful as the economy is tanking and