Draft 2.0

Talk about conflicted that is me.

According to this story in the Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0%5C,%5C,%5C-6841959,00.html the draft is on the table.

As one who survived the embrace of the draft during Viet Nam (4F - for reasons that baffle me still), I cannot decide what I think of the draft.

On the one hand it gives this vicious government - the same government that can intern, murder, torture, and disappear unhindered and now thanks to our Democratic Congress ,spy in all manners of ways on Fredo's say so- the bodies to go kill also on its unimpeded whim. But then it seems to have those anyway.

On the other hand there is nothing like getting drafted to get your attention, and all those who care about you, about going to fight a war.

If you are gonna be drafted during a war, you want a damn good reason for that war. It is not like a volunteer force where you decide to accept the risk and it is still less like our current mercenary auxiliary - almost as numerous as the actual soldiers on the ground approximately 120,ooo strong with fully 20% of those in combat roles (and over 1000 dead) - who do it for whatever reasons they have.

Viet Nam proved that a draft cannot prevent a war but more than anything it proved that you can stop a wrongheaded war once it was going. Granted 50,000 soldiers had to die. And yes they died in vain. Let me say that again - in Viet Nam they died in vain.

Just like every military death in Iraq has been in vain because stupid people made stupid decisions and We The People were too stupid to stop them when we could.

So let General Lute, our War Czar - remember when we used to call that the President? - say a draft is "on the table" (another mushy run-it-up-the-flagpole locution that seems to have become a well-honed exercise for this criminal regime).

All I can say is go ahead - re-invigorate the draft.

Until now the new progressives have dissed open protest - taking to the street as being a gauche hippie thing or something.

The right has people whose entire careers are dedicated to making the left a laughing stock for any protest no matter how meager.

We now have "Free Speech Zones" where those who might disagree on the street can disagree in corrals set up by local police and political operatives impersonating law enforcement officials harass lawful participants in public meetings and everyone does surveillance.

So, yeah, see what happens when you force every kid to try to Cheney his way through deferment after deferment or to Bush his way through through an AWOL by another name.

Yeah just see...

Maybe this War Czar - unlike the previous one - can do some good.