Bush’s Draft Dodge

Center for American Progress senior fellow Lawrence Korb and research associate Max Bergmann write in today’s Los Angeles Times that if Bush wants to maintain his escalation, he should call for reinstating the draft:

That would be the responsible path. Yet the president will never call for the draft. He knows the country would never support the level of sacrifice for this war that implementing a draft would demand. But this is one of the very reasons why the all-volunteer Army was designed the way it was — to prevent a commander in chief from fighting a war that lacks the support of the public. […]

If the president is committed to fighting the war in Iraq over the long term, instead of simply running out the clock on his presidency, he should have the courage of his convictions and call for reinstating the draft. If not, the only responsible course is to set a timetable to bring the troops

Sample of comments left at ThinkProgress:

• That's what its going to take to get this stupid war for oil to come to an end... Can you imagine Bush pushing for that. Looking the American people in the eye and telling them that we have to reinstate something that he dodged by having daddy get him in the guard? I find it amazing that all of the military supporters of this little gutter snipe haven’t come unglued with him for blowing off his guard responsibliites and then never having spent a second in jail for doing it.
• If we paid our troops the same as we paid our mercenaries, there wouldn’t be a need for a draft.
• Never happen. If Chimpy reinstates the draft, we’ll see a level of political unrest and civil disobedience in this country that will make the 60s look like a sewing circle.
• No, he won’t reinstate the draft, but if Congress REALLY wants to get the attention of the American people, pass law to roll back bush’s tax cuts to pay for the war. The only way to get the attention of the American people AND get them to take action is to hit them in a way they’ll recognize and feel. The draft would do that, but tax “increase” aka roll back of cuts would do it quickly and efficiently.
• DRAFT THE BUSH TWINS FIRST! CHENEY & KRISTOL KIDS TO FOLLOW.

LSB: No, a draft for this war will never happen. The chickenhawks in Bushco would have to explain their own deferments and draft-dodging; and the Congress, despite caving-in to our despot leader on the recent war funding, would finally be forced to listen to the 76% of the American population and refuse to allow the draft. Despite their protestations to the contrary, this congress has not shown any balls so far, so why would anyone think they'd roll back the tax cuts to fund this war and solidify the right-wing description of them as "tax and spend liberals."

For the next 18 months our brave men and women will continue to be canon fodder in a civil war that has nothing to do with fighting terror at home. Enlistments will continue to decline, as the money to support our troops will go to Halliburton and other contractors, not for the promised hardware to keep our soldiers safe nor for veteran health care.

As this unjust war continues, the terrorist continue to grow and become even more embolden - not as a result of any dialogue at home, but by our continued occupation of their homeland. We, too, as previous blogs here and some MSM have written, are less safe because of cuts in Homeland Security and as contractors hire away qualified personnel as mercenaries.

Until we have a media that honestly, without Republi-Con spin, communicates the news; until we have an electorate that holds their Congr-ass-persons accountable for drawing out this war; and until we have a true president of the people, nothing is going to change.

There is a lot to do, so let's get started!