How would those of you who still support him and his policies respond to this development, should it come to pass, and I am particularly interested in hearing from supporters who would be *affected by it. *
Personally, I hope he tries it, because I think support for him would crumble instantly. But maybe that’s just wishful thinking, you tell me.
This may be destined for IMHO, but I’ll get in a lick now.
The signs indicating the reinstatement of a draft have been appearing, in my completely unsupported opinion, for some time now. Bush’s commitment to occupying Iraq will not cloud his political judgement, however. Don’t look for it to happen before the election next year. I am so glad I hit my 30-year mark a few years ago, and that my kids are nearly all past the usual draft age.
Will they?
Who knows? It’s a crazy (insane) move, but this Administration has not impressed me with its smarts.
Should they?
Unless there’s a clear and imminent threat to the nation, I don’t think a draft is morally justified.
What would happen?
Political suicide.
If they do before the election, will it be a guaranteed loss?
Depends – is the populace still believing what they see on Fox News and what they hear on talk radio? Will Diebold’s electronic voting machines be used on election day? How many lies can a $450 million war chest buy?
Personally, if there’s a need for more troops, I think the folks who voted for Bush and supported the Iraq war should be the ones drafted. They wanted the war, they can have it…
This may be the first time I’m glad to be over 30. Since I don’t have the family connections to be assigned to the National Guard, and even skip out early from that, I’ll have to rely on my advancing decrepitude to keep me out of harm’s way.
The answer seems simple, give up *some *control of the oil and the UN will pour troops in. But, in fact, that’s not a live option because the US has to keep hold of the supply of oil. If it was an option, the administration would grasp at the UN straw in an instant to avoid the political fallout from this looming disaster.
The real choice remains what it was at the start; pay the human and financial price for sustaining the empire vs. (by not controlling sufficient of the worlds supply of oil) accept the beginning of the empires decline.
Btw, one presumes this is just the standard positing of a radical solution that will result in people being relieved when the actual proposal is put forward i.e. ‘it could have been worse’ when it never was going to be. Even this administration can’t be this off the map.
Conventional wisdom still says they want an election, right ? This isn’t the first sign of an emerging fake ‘national emergency’, a racheting up of the drama leading, finally, to postponed elections ? Really, they wouldn’t do that, would they ?
Let me suggest to my learned friend from the great territory of Minnesoota, that you are never too old to be a mine sweeper or to have your cooling corpse thrown up on top of the parapet. If there is a reinstitution of an active draft maturity will provide will no immunity.
Despite my personal feeling that a year or so living in a squad bay with 19 or 20 strangers and sharing a shower with 40 , and learning to take your hat off when entering a building, and doing chin-ups to get breakfast, and keeping your self and your possessions clean and in good order, and learning to keep your mouth shut and do what you are told when you are told, and learning to depend on comrades and learning that those same comrades rely on you might just do the youth of America a world of good, I am convinced that the nation’s security and foreign relations objectives do not require an active program of conscription and that restarting the military draft would be political suicide.
It’s extremely unlikely that the draft will be restored and it will be political suicide before the election.The administration’s main hope right now is to try to build Iraqi security forces as fast as possible to relieve US troops; ideally so that they can start coming home in the months before the election. This strategy carries its own risks (Zakaria has a good piece in the latest Newsweek) but there aren’t any attractive options really. The rest of the world isn’t sending enough troops and the US Army is stretched to near its limit.
Got the coal. It works now. Of course, I can only read a few paragraphs without being a “subscriber,” so who knows what the rest of it says.
It’d be pretty tough to get elected after instituting a draft, IMO, unless we’re attacked again. So if they do plan on implementing it, I bet they do it after the election, if he wins.
I’m curious, though - what’s all this about “young males”? Women serve on the front lines now; I’m assuming they wouldn’t be excluded from a draft. … right?
[soc] I can still do over 50 push ups in a minute. Then I need a break. Maybe a nap. OTOH, I’d rather go and get killed than be a raging hypocrite. Seriously, I’ve been writing mouth checks. Do they need any troops that can really knock down a nine iron? I promise to only shoot at Iraqis carrying mortars. Way too old. Isn’t the cut-off 26, for now?
As for rational thought: CyberPundit nailed it, IMO. That column you mentioned is very interesting also. I’m pretty near my breaking point with the overconfident right that got us into this, and the underwhelming left that wants to lose it.
We can’t afford it, and we can’t afford not to spend it. smoke from ears
