Marine Father, Marine Son

In the November 22 issue of the American Conservative(not on line), former Marine Leon Knauer laments the disservice that the Bush administration is doing to his son, serving in Iraq. He is especially disturbed that the President has refused to seriously address the troop shortage in that country. "During the campaign, President Bush discounted our troop shortage and asserted that the Iraqi militia would soon replace our military . . . Neither candidate had the political courage to suggest reinstating the draft because that would run the risk of losing votes . . .few in our society are feeling any pain. Few are really participating in this war. If the draft is not a viable option, we are clearly not committed and should prepare for an orderly withdrawal."
I don't favor a draft, but Knauer has a point. The president, knowing all along that he was going to invade Iraq, didn't even call on patriotic volunteers to join up when his moral authority was so high in the aftermath of 9/11. So today; our military is stretching the reserves to the limit, calling up members of the Inactive Reserve, holding people in the service after their contract has expired and sending the mothers of young children into harms way in order to maintain troop levels in Iraq.