Today, in Iraq, more people died in a violent way. Suicide bombers blew up a cafe mere yards from the vaunted "Green Zone." U.S. troops blew up people in a different part of the country. It doesn't matter if today is yesterday or tomorrow. The news is, essentially, the same.

Everyday, this war is not over.

Everyday, people die when they shouldn't have died--that is if they didn't exist in one of the worst places on Earth to live.

Am I ignoring all the other injustices and killing happening in the rest of the world? In a way, yes. Because we started this war. No matter what anyone says, we began this thing almost two and a half years ago with no foresight and even less reason.

We launched a pre-emptive war based on bullshit evidence. We started killing because we "feared" a non-existent threat. Got any of those "ghost-penetrating bullets" on you?

The insurgents in Iraq (I have to use this terminology for clarity, even though I don't believe everyone fighting against the US military and the government of Iraq are people who came into Iraq from somewhere else.) are fighting a real threat: us.

I'm not sure who is deluding themselves more.

Young people in America are starting to figure something out: they don't want to die in this war. Army and Marine recruiting is below their goals. So low, they lowered their goals and still didn't make the cut.

I don't blame the kids. Even if, as I've read, Iraq is the "safest" warzone in the history of U.S. wars. This means, I think, that kids are dying at a lower level, per capita, than in previous wars. Of course, kids are still dying. And that's not a really good recruiting slogan: "Not as bad as Vietnam, we swear!"

Since the administration and congress didn't feel like listening to the millions of people around the world who said they shouldn't start this war (and, yes, I was one of them), then maybe they'll listen when the kids of America say no to military recruiters.

There's all this talk about upping incentives, lowering standards and explaining the nature of "sacrifice" to the youth of America. As if, somehow, we're marketing enlistment into the armed services wrong.

Here's something to think about: the pay at McDonald's may suck, but you probably won't get blown up making burgers.

If the common people of America don't want to fight anymore, does that mean the people who benefited from this war (congress, the administration, the military industrial complex, energy companies and the rich people who get huge tax cuts as we spend hundreds of billions of dollars of tax money from regular people to blow up countries around the world) will step up and sacrifice themselves? I don't think so.

It's very hard to get people in power to actually listen to us. If we're not saying something they want to hear, they don't read the newspapers or watch TV. They stick fingers in their ears and start singing "God Bless America" off-key. They decide they must try to ban flag-burning--for, like, the fiftieth time. They talk about the sanctity of the lives of vegetables hooked up to machines. They applaud the sacrifice of servicemen and women while standing high enough above the rabble not to get sprayed with the blood.

Youth of America, now is your time. Flip off the recruiters prowling the malls and schools of America. Tell them to fuck off when they call you on the phone. If they threaten or try to cajole you, call the media, call the cops, tell them the army paparazzi is after you and you can't shake them.

If the government has failed to listen and adopts policies which are counter to your life, liberty and happiness, you must resist. I'm old enough, I don't have to worry about getting drafted or recruited into battle. And so are all the people shouting with blood in their mouth for you to help "defend" America. But the America that started this war is not us. And we should not have to fight for their fucked up principles.

Matt Worley was worried about reinstatement of the draft when the first Gulf War broke out.