In case you missed it: the D-word looms eerily

[netmouse]

Jim posts about President Bush's new war adviser saying in an interview on NPR that he thinks we should certainly consider re-instating the draft.

In case anyone's wondering, I would be, uh, against that. I think any conflict where an insufficient number of our youngsters (and other healthy people) are willing to go in service is a conflict we shouldn't be involved in. That's aside from the whole question of whether or not there are better approaches to conflict than fighting, much of the time.

Comments

[nicegeek.livejournal.com]

It's probably worth reading the original interview. The actual quote was:

Q: You know, given the stress on the military and the concern about these extended deployments for an all-volunteer military, can you foresee, in the future, a return to the draft?

A: You know, that's a national policy decision point that we have not yet reached, Michele, because the —

Q: But does it make sense militarily?

A: I think it makes sense to certainly consider it, 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. Today, the current means of the all-volunteer force is serving us exceptionally well. It would be a major policy shift — not actually a military, but a political policy shift to move to some other course.

To me, it doesn't sound like this is being looked at as a likely option - it sounds more like he just doesn't want to rule it out. Note also that he never uses the word "seriously".

[netmouse.livejournal.com]

whoops, didn't mean to paraphrase. I've changed "seriously consider" to "certainly consider".