The more that I hear lawmakers and others complaining that we're stretching our military too thin - to the point where we may need to reinstate the draft to keep our troop levels up - I keep thinking back to the Republican goal of "starving the beast".
The Republican goal of starving social programs through massive tax cuts and running up record deficits is a bad thing - that's our social security money they're giving away. But a similar trend is appearing in troop levels, as an unintended consequence of the Bush wars. Republicans (and Dems alike) may not be willing to starve the military beast's cash flow, but the Bush wars are starving it of young men and women - a deficit that may only be able to be filled by a draft.
A draft is political suicide (let's hope), so this troop deficit may be here to stay. In fact, it may place a major obstacle in the way of future wars or troop deployments. So have Bush's illconcieved wars inadvertantly placed a significant restriction on the use of the American military to dominate the world? Maybe the war in Iraq has made the world a safer place after all!
What do you think?