Thanks, Senator Hagel

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who reads this site on a daily basis and does exactly as we suggest, picked up our "bring back the draft" plea yesterday and spoke in the U.S. Senate eloquently on the subject of national sacrifice (if not specifically the draft). He feels that all Americans should "bear some responsibility ... pay some price" in defending the nation's interests, a basic concept that his own president has steadfastly avoided. El Presidente is much too busy giving all available cash to the already-rich to EVER suggest that they might need to SACRIFICE. Sacrificing is for the little people, like the guys and gals who make up our all volunteer Army.

Sen. Hagel said he was not exactly advocating reinstatement of the draft, although he added he was "not so sure that isn't a bad idea."

His main interest, he said, is to ensure that some kind of mandatory national service is considered so "the privileged, the rich" as well as the less affluent bear the burden of fighting wars of the future.

Hagel said he did not expect to see action on such a bill this year but wanted to spark debate that would "bring some reality to our policymaking" about future military needs. With U.S. forces in Iraq stretched thinner than they have been at any time since Vietnam and with wartime needs likely to continue indefinitely, "this is a steam engine coming right down the track at us," he said.

What he did not comment on -- except indirectly, by inference -- is the King of Denial currently in the White House, George "We Don't Need More Troops in Iraq" Bush, George W. "Because Everything Is Just Hunky-Dory."

The draft would do wonders to awaken the younger generation to the fact that their democracy is threatened with extinction and that they might ought to rouse momentarily out of their MTV haze and pay attention to who's doing what and to whom and how.