And You Think There WON'T Be a Draft?

Last Thursday, a new study commissioned by the Pentagon was the topic of discussion in a Senate hearing room, even though it hasn't been officially released yet. We were on the road, so I'm just now catching up with the details of this. Sen. Jack Reed (D-Rhode Island) did us all the favor of reading portions of the report aloud into the record. The bottomline: the study found that "the American military does not have sufficient forces to sustain current and anticipated stability operations, like the festering conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan and other missions that might arise."

The study found what does not appear in El Presidente's Fantasyland: "inadequate total numbers of U.S. troops" and "a lack of long-term endurance."

This current crop of 18- and 19-year-olds ought to supply the numbers along with the endurance. Once he gets reelected, you watch, George W. Bush will suddenly discover that we can't do what he's set in motion without significant new troops, which aren't going to be recruited volunteerly in American's shopping centers. Not with the current news coming out of Iraq.

Our own nephew just turned 18 and has registered for the draft. As far as we know, he hasn't paid a bit of attention to who's leading us and where he's leading us, but he should.

As Senator Reed observed, it's not just Afghanistan and Iraq that might drag on. "Iran and North Korea are provocative," he said. "They very well might cause us to take military action; one hopes not. And then, as you often say, there's also the surprises that we don't even contemplate at this moment."

Surprises and a Cowboy-in-Chief. Potent stuff. The DRAFT is coming, folks.