The Blog of toussaint

I am so tired of hearing from Bush and his minions that we are in a fight for our way of life, for freedom itself, but they want to fight this world ending battle on the cheap.  We are supposedly engaged in a global war on terror, right?  Yet we are not helping the Lebanese fight what Fox "news" calls an Al Qaeda-linked group; we are not helping our best friends Israel; we are not putting pressure on Pakistan.  Moreover, we are breaking our own military.  My 50-year-old uncle Archie, who has served two tours in Iraq, tells me that the Army is telling people who are at the end of their contracts that it is going to Stop-Loss them at their old pay, so they might as well re-enlist and get this big old bonus and a raise.  Most do.  What other choice do they have?  What the Army doesn't understand is the degree of bitterness welling up in its soldiers. When this war is over, and it can no longer extort enlistment, the Army will see people quit in mass numbers. It will take years to repair the damage, and all the while the world will still be boiling over. 

If we are really in the battle of our lives, then it is time for a draft or conscription.  The reason we are not helping our friends fight is because we are so bogged down in Iraq.  Almost every solider we have is either in Iraq, coming back from Iraq, or preparing to go to Iraq.  The "surge" of 30-40,000 troops won't cut it. We need to get serious.  I happen not to think we are in the battle for our souls but if you do, then you need to be for a draft.  All the supporters of this war will get to put their money where their mouth is by going to help our brave fighters or by sending their children and really understanding first-hand what war is all about.  And all you anti-war people faced with the prospect of actually having to go to Iraq would get off your butts to give the Democrats in Congress enough backbone to end this mess. The country would be forced into the serious life and death debate that we need to have about our future and our place in the world. Mr. Bush, Mr. McCain, and the rest of the 28% that still blindly support the war need to PUT UP OR SHUT UP.