Is A Draft Coming?
Last night I came across a discussion on C-SPAN called The Draft: Inevitable, Avoidable or Preferable?. The transcript is here(.pdf). I didn't see if all but I think this excerpt, from the Q&A session, tells why or why not we will have a draft:

Q: P. J. Crowley, a fellow here at the Center for American Progress. To Phil, don?t we have really a disconnect between the strategy of preemption and the capability of a military force to carry it out? So in favoring a draft, you would be, in essence, advocating for a continuance of the strategy of preemption as opposed to adapting your strategy, funding more nonmilitary dimensions of national power so that you will not overuse your military in future efforts in the war on terror?

MR. CARTER: I think that?s a very good point. I think that one of the assumptions we state up front in our article is that if you be ? if you want to be the world super power and if you continue on this glide path, then you must adopt a draft. Now, we advance that argument because that?s the direction our country is going in now, and we, you know, take our country as it is, not as we might like it to be.

MR. KORB: Thank you, Mr. Rumsfeld.

MR. CARTER: To adapt ? to adapt the secretary. But I think you have to question that assumption, and I think you have to ask yourself again on the demand side, do we want a foreign policy that requires this large of a military and this much military adventurism? It may well be more effective to use the soft power that Joseph Nye talks about or other tools of national power. I think that?s a very good point.

MR. KORB: Well, you know, the ? Bush put out his national security strategy in September, 2002, so he has not basically funded his own national security strategy, and that?s the problem. If you?re going to ? and it?s not just preemption. It?s preventive wars which says, you know, nobody is against preemption. If somebody is about to attack you, you don?t have to wait. Preventive war basically says, you?re going to attack someone who has the capability to do you harm. And that?s ? boy, you?d better have a much more robust military if you?re going to do that.

I always love a good discussion like this. So what's the answer? Yes a draft is coming, as long as this administration continues with its doctrine of preemption.
- posted by Mom/Dad @ 2:06 PM