It’ll be a cold cold day in hell…

…before I get drafted to fight in the war on terror:

Bush War Adviser Says Draft Worth a Look

Aug 10 06:25 PM US/Eastern
By RICHARD LARDNER

WASHINGTON (AP) – Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush’s new war adviser said Friday.”I think it makes sense to certainly consider it,” Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”

“And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation’s security by one means or another,” Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.

Lt. Gen. Lute is absolutely right about the Army being broken, and he doesn’t even mention the fact that already, the close to 160,000 American troops serving in Iraq are supplemented by 180,000 mercenaries (or “private contractors”), bearing the logos of Blackwater USA and DynCorp.

But I wonder about the timing of this announcement. Surely there must be easier ways to find soldiers, but maybe there isn’t. And I’ve always assumed that bringing up the idea of a draft would be tantamount to political suicide — is this changing?

Most people probably wouldn’t believe that a draft is possible. On the other hand, Lt. Gen. Lute had to have received approval from Bush and Cheney before making these type of comments on a public radio show. Maybe they’re testing the waters.

Would Americans care if the draft were reinstated? I’d like to think they would, but I’m not sure if they would anymore. A part of me is starting to believe that maybe — just maybe — people would accept it, just as they’ve accepted the myriad of other changes and atrocities that have taken place since 9/11. If there were another terrorist attack, you could certainly imagine a general call to arms by the government and possibly emergency legislation that called for more troops. The now reviled President Bush had 90% plus approval ratings when he invaded Afghanistan. Another attack would certainly help push through his agenda in the last year of his presidency.

It’s very clear, with the Democrats having caved into Bush, that the Iraq war will continue through January 20, 2009, the day Bush leaves office. That is almost a year and a half from now. There are a lot of people who are going to die in Iraq between now and then, that’s pretty much guaranteed. The main question relates to if or how the war expands into other regions.

In war — especially modern war — a year and a half is an eternity.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 11th, 2007 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Executive Power, Government Accountability, Structure and System, World War III. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.