go ahead and draft us

First, W's "war czar" Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute (aka "Let this guy be the "decider" for a while, he he he") puts the option of a military draft on the table:

NPR's Michele Norris: But does it make sense militarily?


Lute: 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.


Full interview here.

Then, the Pentagon "sharpy rejects" that assertion:

"I can tell you emphatically that there is absolutely no consideration
being given to reinstituting the draft," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
"The all-volunteer force has surpassed all expectations of its founders."

ABC news digs little deeper into the socio-political implications:

Until recently the rare calls for a return of the draft have come from liberals, who see the existence of a professional military as one reason there was so little public opposition to the US invasion of Iraq. Some conservatives have worried that the absence of universal military service would lead to a generation of civilian leaders with no military experience. And there has
been a rumbling of complaints that the war's burden has not been broadly shared.

And presidential candidate John Edwards call for an end before it begins.

What do I think? I say, reinstate the draft, ask us all to go to war, to chance paying the ultimate price that our soldiers' and their families are paying, for a war that never should have begun, a war for oil, money, and power, a war fought for rich men, a war to which they've given everything of themselves.

A draft is a wake-up call to the rest of us: our troops need us to share the battle with them. When they try to draft us, we will take our battle to the streets and demand they bring our comrades home now. When parents, complacent and numb to the world beyond Mail Street shudder in the way mothers and wives send their sons and husbands off to war, when young men - students and artists and doctors and businessmen and laborers - get the letter in the mail calling them to fight BushCo.'s war themselves, watch how fast we get our boys and and girls back alive.

I'm with Lute. Bring back the draft...and bring back a dose of reality to the American people.