McCain Thinking of Reinstating the Draft?
I tuned into Keith Olbermann tonight and I learned that a woman at a John McCain tonwhall meeting today in Las Cruces, New Mexico, expressed her dismay at how veterans, especially wounded ones, are virtually forgotten by the government and country that they served. She asked McCain how, given how veterans are often treated, we expect to maintain an all-volunteer military at personnel levels that would allow us to, "chase Bin Laden to the gates of Hell," as McCain promised to do at the recent Saddleback Civil Forum on the Presidency, hosted by the Rev. Rick Warren, without reinstating selective service (aka - The Draft).
McCain responded to the woman by saying that he agreed with everything she said. He did not single out the woman's suggestion that selective service might need to be reinstated, either to refute that point or to support it. Perhaps he didn't hear the woman clearly. Perhaps he wholeheartedly agrees.
In any event, if McCain is serious about maintaining high troop levels in Iraq and being able to counter other emerging threats or defend other interests, such as the hapless former Soviet repubic of Georgia, then it might be reasonable to expect a militarist President McCain to call for reinstating the draft. Just don't expect it to be a plank in his election campaign platform.
Comments
I have long thought that, had our army been conscripted rather than an all-volunteer force, Mr. Bush would have been impeached at this point.
(And I'm much more sanguine about the Iraq War than you guys).
No way is McCain going to institute a draft.
Posted by: barabajagal | August 21, 2008 9:25 AM
Bar,
Had there been a draft all along, I wonder if there even would have been an Iraq war. (Afghanistan was a no-brainer.)
Posted by: Jude | August 21, 2008 9:58 AM