We Need More Men (and Women, too)

"Pentagon officials conducting a review of Iraq strategy are considering a substantial but temporary increase in American troop levels and the addition of several thousand more trainers to work with Iraqi forces, a senior Defense Department official said Monday. The idea, dubbed the “surge option” by some officials, would involve increasing American forces by 20,000 troops or more for several months in the hope of improving security, especially in Baghdad."

20,000 more troops? I wonder where they're coming from.

article from the New York Times

Just Thought You Should Know, They're Ready for Us

Well, if this isn't a sign of bad things on the horizon, I don't know what is. From CNN:

"The Selective Service System, an agency independent of the Defense Department, says it's ready to respond quickly to any crisis that would threaten to overwhelm the current all-volunteer military.

'We're the fire department,' said spokesman Pat Schuback at the service headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. 'We're prepared to do the mission with whatever time period we're asked to do it in. Our current plan is 193 days and that was based on manpower analysis.' "

The fire department? Nice one. Even if you are fully, 100% ready to implement, why would you give a press conference to let everybody know? Probably because word has come down from the top to start preparing the public for dire possibilities. Thank god Rumsfeld's out. Otherwise, I think we'd be marching off to North Korea tomorrow. Let's hope not.

article from CNN

John McCain: More troops needed in Iraq

In his interview on Meet the Press yesterday, the 2008 GOP presidential frontrunner made it clear that he wants more soldiers on the ground in the Middle East.

“The consequences of failure are so severe that I will exhaust every possibility to try to fix this situation. Because it’s not the end when American troops leave. The battleground shifts, and we’ll be fighting them again,” McCain said.

Well, John, it certainly is a quagmire over there, and every political mind in the country seems to be taking the "there is no easy answer" position. But if we're going to significantly increase the American troop presence in Iraq, where are the troops going to come from?

article from MSNBC

Rep. Charles Rangel: Bring Back The Draft!

House Representative Charles Rangel, a New York democrat, has announced his intention to introduce a bill that will reinstate a draft for U.S. citizens ages 18-26

"If we're going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can't do that without a draft," Rangel said.

He's tried conscription legislation before, and hasn't gotten very far with it. But with countries on the verge of establishing tactical nuclear weapons, who knows what Congress might give the greenlight to.

article from Yahoo! News