The U.S. Needs to Bring Back the Draft.

DATE: 07/01/2004 02:39:53 AM
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...Well, at least <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19322-2004Jun30.html">according to this guy</a>, we should.

There are some good points in this article.  However, I can't help going back to my philosophical objections to th conflict.  Unlike Vietnam, this war was started based on lies - lies told by the Bush administration.  They lied about Iraq's connection with those responsible for 9/11, and they lied (and were hypocrites) about the presence of WMDs (and please don't give me the 'they didn't know' line of shit.  Think about it: if you thought someone did something to threaten you, but you weren't even close to being sure about it, would you punch them in the mouth and start a fight?  Now ask yourself: would you start a war in a similar situation?).  

On the other hand, Vietnam was an ideological war, and everyone knew it.  It's one of the reasons that so many protested the conflict.  But at least the public wasn't misled - at least, not to this extent.  In any case, this writer is correct -- there are very few good arguments against the draft...beyond the fact that this war shouldn't exist.  

So what to do?  Well, throwing more troops at it might work, or it might not.  I'm no military strategist, so I don't know.  I do recall, however, that the tactic failed miserably in Vietnam.  More and more people were drafted and sent, but not much changed - other than the <a href="http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00BYEC">death toll increasing</a> on both sides.  Personally, I'd rather have a U.S. military fully committed to bringing down terrorists -- particularly Osama.  Bu9t of course, we've been over this.  The U.S. is in Iraq so deep that withdrawing might be a complete disaster for everyone involved.  This has to be one of the worst catch-22's imaginable.          

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