Why? Because it's not a "black peoples'" war. Using that logic, everyone should hate the war, because it isn't really for anyone but a small handful of rich Republicans. But according to the Boston Globe, more of us oppose it than anyone else.

As much as everyone hates (or should hate, in my humble opinion) what we're doing in Iraq, black soldiers seem to hate it even more. They're showing their displeasure by either not reenlisting or not joining the military at all. African American presence in the military has dropped 9 percentage points — to 13.9 percent — since 2000.

Technically, 13.9 percent is about the proportion of African-Americans in the general population. But the military's meritocracy has long been a disproportionate option for young African-Americans because of a disproportionate lack of career opportunities and decent public schools to prepare them for college.

The drop in African-American enrollment in the military may be as powerful a collective political statement about Iraq as when Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted during the Vietnam War. Before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, major polls showed that African-American support for the invasion was as low as 19 percent, according to the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, while white support ran between 58 percent and 73 percent in major polls.

Even today African-Americans by far lead the way in calling the war a mistake. According to Gallup, 85 percent of African Americans say it was a mistake, compared to 53 percent of white Americans. According to Pew, a plurality of white Americans, 49 percent, still say it was the right decision to invade Iraq, compared to 21 percent of African-Americans.

"African-Americans are always more sensitive to anything that smacks of neocolonialism, which this war did smack of," said Joint Center political analyst David Bositis.

As an Army brat, I will say that in times of peace, the military does offer a wide range of opportunities that you would never find in most professions — travel, advancement, education, etc. But in times of war? I'm good. It's an interesting fact that fewer blacks are joining the military these days, but the ones who are in the military are still dying in Iraq. And if blacks aren't joining, whites, Latinos, Asians, and others are filling in the gaps. And yes, dying. Whatever the racial breakdown, Americans are still losing their lives fighting a war that has nothing to do with any of us.

[BG]