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Tuesday, June 28, 2005

JUNE 28 NEWS AND VIEWS

I've said it myself. Now, Paul Campos has said it...

But a far more modest step than bringing back the draft is available, and the complete unwillingness of supporters of the war to take it says a great deal.

Where are the calls for voluntary enlistment? Try to find a single speech in which any member of the Bush administration, or any other prominent politician who supports the war, calls on America's young people (or its middle-aged - there's no reason to be picky when you're fighting for national survival) to come to the aid of our badly undermanned armed forces.

You won't find one - and the reasons aren't hard to guess. First, asking others to make sacrifices that you yourself refuse to make, and that you aren't willing for your own children to make, requires a level of hypocrisy that even most politicians can't quite stomach.

Second, the politicians who started it probably don't believe the war in Iraq is crucial to America's survival. Or if they do, the way they're fighting it qualifies as something close to treason.

Now, Campos is obviously an opponent of the war. But his argument makes logical sense. If Iraq is part of the War on Terrorism, and the War on Terrorism is a war not of choice, but necessity, then an all-out effort is needed to win in Iraq. Have the American people ever been called upon to make an all-out effort to win in Iraq? Have they ever been called upon to make an all-out effort to win the War on Terrorism? They have not. This is because the President has bought into the idea (promulgated by Don Rumsfeld in all probability) that this is a "different kind of war" that can be won without the military muscle and sacrifice required in previous wars. I think that is bunk, which is why I have said many times since 9/11 that we should have had Congress declare war on Al Qaeda and voted funds to significantly expand the military to fight that war.

The President will speak to the nation tonight about the war. I hope he gives us something more than the same old rhetoric. We need a call to arms (I won't hold my breath).

John Kerry already has some advice for the President.

The Army is taking some criticism in the MSM, here and here.

Even though it appears that the Democrats have the upper hand on this as a political issue, Fred Barnes thinks they are still blowing it.

1 Comments:

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