A draft plan to end the occupation

By Libby

When I joined Newshoggers, I decided early on not to flag my own blog, even though I recruited a few co-bloggers to join me and they're a fine group of writers. All their posts deserve a wider audience than they get at The Impolitic but expat Brian, who blogs from Singapore, put up one this morning that I really want to share. It should be read in full but here's the closing grafs that sum up the point.

This time, the lie has been revealed very early in the game. We already know that there is no victory in sight, no thankful Iraqi nation that will ultimately become a shining democracy. Yet we allow it to continue. We allow our own soldiers to be horribly mistreated during and after their service. And even though our soldiers, the military brass and even the Pentagon cry out for more manpower, even as we send our wounded back to fight again and again, we believe the White House when they tell us that we have enough men to complete the "mission".

I don't have any idea what the "mission" is. But if we are going to stay in Iraq and Afghanistan and all of the other places that we find it necessary to have a military presence, if we really don't have the guts to stand up as a nation and demand an end to this unconscionable nightmare, then at least we must give our troops what they really need - rest, immediate and professional treatment, and adequate, timely replacements. We need the draft. And not one of our leaders has the courage to say it.

Frankly, I've been thinking the same thing for a long time and haven't had the courage to broach the subject either. But I'm glad I waited because Brian makes the point more eloquently than I ever could and I think he's right. The surest way to rouse Americans out of their complacency and end the occupation would be to reinstate the draft. For that reason alone, it should be put on the table.