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." (link...)

"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. (link...)

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."