Bush's war czar uses the D word D-R-A-F-T

Submitted by Carole Borges on Tue, 2007/08/14 - 7:52am

The "surge" may be just the beginning of what could be a tsunami.

"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." http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12688693

"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," said Lute, who is sometimes referred to as the "Iraq war czar." It was his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.
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I enjoyed this post on the Talk Left website. http://www.talkleft.com/story/2007/8/11/21749/2704

I agree in the sense that if there's a draft, there would have to be an alternative service option for those opposed to killing other human beings. With some reservations I feel mandatory national service with decent pay might not be a bad idea. Maybe it could help rebuild America's infrastructure.

I was in the last draft (4.00 / 2) (#2)
by Bob In Pacifica on Sat Aug 11, 2007 at 09:33:38 AM EST

"I came in No. 1 in Nixon's draft (the only lottery I've thus far won). I had been very loudly and vocally against the Vietnam War, and I managed to actually avoid the military for a few years.
I was technically a volunteer, that is, for two years, because I was definitely going to be called up, but the only way I volunteered was because it was a question of when I'd get the notice and the suspense was killing me.

The New York Times did a front page story on my basic training company (for those with access to a microfiche), Nixon's first "all-volunteer" unit. It was an interesting assortment: some non-citizens who wanted to get citizenship, a number of guys who had the choice of either joining the army or going to jail. One guy actually thought that joining the army would be a good way of cleaning up his heroin habit. There was a farmboy from Western Pennsylvania who didn't want to take showers and who almost blew off my face with an M-16 on the firing range. There was a number of guys like me, who "volunteered" because they'd otherwise have been drafted.

Of course, after we'd volunteered the draft ended.

The army at the time was filled with cynics who weren't buying the lies out of the White House. In short, having a draft was a check on power of the military. There were plenty of us ready to rat out the My Lais. I'm not opposed to a draft if there are reasonable alternatives to the military (two years in a hospital, Americorps, etc.) for people of conscience.

While theoretically a draft would put the burden of public support more strongly on any administration waging an unpopular war, I don't know if a draft today would work as well to fill our armed forces with dissenters. After all, so much of our "military" in Iraq are Blackwater employees, mostly invisible to us. And in the next generation our military will be increasingly filled with "Hessians" and robotized, so that soon the killing can be done by skittering killing machines sent into neighborhoods to waste our "enemies" without putting any Americans at risk."

Carole Borges's blog

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Think about the strategy

Submitted by metulj on Tue, 2007/08/14 - 9:08am.

Think about the strategy here. If the next president, who will most likely be a Democrat, is saddled with a draft, no matter how much you point it out, it will be that next president's fault/problem. If there is no draft and the next president decides to implement one, then all of the abuse for committing a sin against America's youth will be laid at that president's feet, no matter the original stupidity of this whole adventure by Bush. If, like Hillary Clinton, the next president comes down hard against the draft and will shut it down upon taking the presidency, then that president will be seen as weak and not giving the military what it needs to succeed, etc.

Talk about triangulation.

True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler

There's not going to be any draft.

Submitted by Johnny Ringo on Tue, 2007/08/14 - 11:20am.

Ain't gonna happen. No way, no how. The military is against it, the politicians are against it (with tiny number of exeptions, and even they aren't serious - they're just trying to make a point), and the body politic is against it.

The draft being reinstated was a boogeyman raised by a few Kerry supporters during 2004 election cycle, and it went nowhere then too. Absent an actual invasion of the homeland by the Chinese, or some catastrophic world conflagration on the order of WWII, I'd be willing to bet my IRA that there won't be a draft reinstated in this country in my lifetime.

Oh, and it might do to recall who implemented the return of draft registration. It wasn't a Republican.

And one more thing - in reading the interview with the "War Czar", it appears that the NPR reporter doing the interview is much more interested in the draft than is the "Czar":

Reporter: You know, given the stress on the military and the concern about these extended deployments for an all-volunteer military, can you foresee, in the future, a return to the draft?

Lute: You know, that's a national policy decision point that we have not yet reached, Michele, because the —

Reporter: But does it make sense militarily?

Lute: I think it makes sense to certainly consider it, 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. Today, the current means of the all-volunteer force is serving us exceptionally well. It would be a major policy shift — not actually a military, but a political policy shift to move to some other course.

The only thing I have

Submitted by metulj on Tue, 2007/08/14 - 11:28am.

The only thing I have against you, Johnny is that you are naive. Lute wouldn't have said it if he wasn't cleared to say it.

"not actually a military, but a political policy shift to move to some other course"

Which exactly proves my point.

True happiness is knowing you are a hypocrite. -- Ivor Cutler

Please

Submitted by Johnny Ringo on Tue, 2007/08/14 - 11:49am.

"Cleared" to say what, exactly? That the the draft was an "option"? Of course it's an option - it's been an option ever since Carter reinstated draft registration in the late 1970's. And I suppose it continues being an options since Democrats keep bringing it up. Dropping nukes on our enemies has also been an option on the table since 1945 as well, but with the notable exception of the Japanese, that option has similarly not been exercised in the 65 or so years its been available. I suppose that means nuking Pakistan in order to get Bin Laden is an option on the table, but I don't think I'm naive in believing it to be most unlikely.

But if it makes you feel better about our national security to believe that a military draft is just around the corner, by all means believe away.