"Undermining my electoral viability since 2001."

Enjoy The Draft!

Enjoy The Draft is a great satire site some friends of mine put together. If you actually want to register your opinion on the matter, you can head on over to NoIraqDraft.com.

For the record, in spite of what you might like to believe, if Bush is re-elected the chances of events leading to forced military service move from "possible but unlikely" to "frighteningly possible." This is not scaremongering; it's rational analysis.

I was talking to someone the other night who serenely insisted that it wouldn't happen because mothers would not allow it. Some say because it's currently politically unpopular, it would never happen. Others simply scoff at the very notion.

I think these people are (like the president) somewhat insulated from military and geopolitical reality.

Let's play a little game called "what if." What if North Korea starts lobbing artillery at Seoul? What if Iran is conclusively shown to be sending arms, fighters and possibly even non-nuclear WMDs into places like Fallujia and Sadir City? What if there's a coup in Saudi Arabia or Syria? What if the Russians decide to invade some of their former satelites and that triggers a wider conflict, perhaps including Pakistan?

The reality is, at the moment we ain't got shit to do. Training units are being called away from training new troops to fighting in the Middle East. Reservists are being forced to re-up. There's a major crisis of manpower, and without a change in plans and priorities, something's got to give.

Public support for warlike causes is historically remarkably easy to whip up. Let's not get carried away with how people "won't get fooled again." More than half of all Republicans (and close to 1/3 of Democrats) still think Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11, ok? It wouldn't even take another nation getting involved (as above) or an attack on US soil to stir up the pot. What if 35 young US solders (male and female) are captured on an unprotected supply run -- similar to the one that recently sparked a mutiny -- and then brutally executed/beheaded by Iraqi insurgients en masse?

That shit could happen any day now, but how 'bout if it happened right before Christmas; if it was all over the news through the new year as the saga drug out to it's final tragic bloody conclusion. Think that might sway some public opinion?

That would force the reality that we need to protect our supply lines -- Rumsfeld's pet theories of war notwithstanding, public opinion would demand we support our troops rather than leaving them exposed. Only problem is that means fighting the war like most generals initially requested, with 100 thousand more bodies to stand around holding guns and getting shot at. It would be either that or packing up and leaving, and if you think Bush is flexible enough to cut and run, you haven't been paying attention to his tempermet or his political advosors' willingness to exploit tragedy for their own ends.

It's a real thing; there really honestly could be a draft if we don't get our shit together here. One more time: NoIraqDraft.com.

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