Lt. General Douglas Lute, the President’s Iraq War Czar, told a Congressional Committee yesterday that the military draft was an option worth considering:
WASHINGTON — Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush’s new war adviser said Friday.
“I think it makes sense to certainly consider it,” Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”
“And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation’s security by one means or another,” Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.
An option ? Perhaps. Morally justified ? Never.
August 11th, 2007 at 6:53 am
When did moral justifications ever enter into the Bush administration’s considerations?
August 12th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Doug wrote- Morally justified? Never.
That’s funny considering we had a draft for WWII. Are you saying defeating Hitler wasn’t morally justified?
I’d say the terrorists being fought today pose a greater threat to Americans freedom than did the Axis Powers in WWII. Notwithstanding Pearl Harbor, Japan wasn’t a threat to invade the mainland US.(A few frozen rocks in Alaska don’t really count)
Bill
August 12th, 2007 at 10:05 am
It’s not war that is morally unjustified, it’s forcing people to fight that has no justification.
August 12th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Florida Masochist,
As a thought experiment, consider what would have happened if the crowned heads of Europe had been politically incapable of conscripting their subjects in 1914 or thereafter. Some unfortunate young men might still have been swept up in early war mania and volunteered for service in the trenches, but their leaders would have had so much trouble replacing them that peace would soon become the only option. Almost certainly, the madness of war wouldn’t have lasted long enough to beget the madness of the Treaty of Versailles, which begot the madness of Hitler and another war. The twentieth century would have been much happier.
August 12th, 2007 at 4:33 pm
Furthermore, FM, I don’t believe the older generation ever has the right to force the younger generation by act of government to pay for its geopolitical fuck-ups.
I’d rather see an American city nuked than my nephew sent to boot camp against his will. Sorry. Everyone’s a little bit
racistnepotist.August 12th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
Brian,
Excellent point. And imagine even further if Woodrow Wilson hadn’t been able to force young men to go fight in a pointless (to American interests) war on the fields of Europe.
August 13th, 2007 at 12:03 am
Of course, Doug. Wilson was utopian and progressive when open racism wasn’t seen as incompatible with those things. And he himself was a racist.
We’re the government. We’ll send your son or daughter wherever we want, just because we know better and we can.