According to the Krepinevich
study for the DOD, we're already
"stretched to the breaking point" and
"in a race against time" against the insurgency that dropping enlistment numbers will probably cause us to lose.
So if we're going to keep with the
nation building thing, it's time to accept that it's going to take more bodies than will show up at the recruiting line, at least without combing the prisons and offering citizenship to every 21 year old male in Latin America.
At the same time, while numerous peace activists have been heralding the decline in troop numbers as the necessary pressure to force Bush to give up his designs on Iraq, this ignores the fundamental character of Bush. More likely, as
Sy Hersh pointed out back in December, drops in our troop levels will be matched by increasing use of air power, often directed by Iraqi sectarians with scores to settle. Do you think Bush will lose any sleep over the stories that will roll in about towns or buildings accidentally targeted? Think he's lost any sleep over the many that have already rolled in during this war?
This may be good for our boys in uniform ... but it's hardly a desirable humanitarian result.
Instead, I'm coming around to the need for a draft.
But one that's
Not your father's draft (or, as in my case, my older cousins draft).
Let's call up the numbers ... let's bring in the draftees for their physicals ... and as part of the process, let's ask each and every one of them
Do You Support the War in Iraq?
If the answer is yes, then they get moved into basic combat training and their travel itinery for the next few years is pretty much set.
If the answer is no, then (to the extent that the Army needs their services) they can man our bases stateside, keep things running in Germany and Japan, etc. A lot of the functions that we're now paying Halliburton contractors $120 an hour to perform because our forces are so committed to the Middle East.
A few benefits from this strategy:
a) it may not provide many more grunts for the streets of Baghdad - but it will save our DOD budget billions
b) part of saving our DOD budget billions will be
"starving the contractor beast". The Army's needs for additional support personnel has meant that many jobs that are in peacetime manned by enlisted men ... base security, middle management for military facilities, motor pool and other maintenance jobs ... have all become a massive slop trough for DOD contractors. Which means - these contractors
have a financial interest in keeping troops tied down in foreign conflicts.
c) are
you sick of
college Republicans who provide shock troops for the Republican political machinery while claiming no obligation to enlist
"because it's an all volunteer Army"? I know that
I certainly am!
Well, it's
put up or shut up time now, boys. You're with Bush, or against him. And with him won't simply mean hanging out in a Pioneer-funded- Hyatt-ballroom-cheerleading-session.