Draft or Inter-National Guard

If you haven't watched CNN Presents: The Iraq War: Voices from the Home Front you should. I watched it this past Sunday. The host, John King, traveled through several states interviewing families with members serving or who have served in Iraq. Several families unfortunately had members that had died in Iraq. The sum of the story was the waning support for the war at home.

It was during John King's closing remarks where he was contrasting Iraq with Vietnam that I took exception to one of his remarks. The gist of King's remark was that the two wars could not be compared because during the Vietnam War there was a draft.

To Mr. King I pose the question, "how many soldiers currently serving in the National Guard & are now in Iraq ever imagined they would be deployed overseas?" Many of these soldiers have been deployed several times. Isn't this a draft? I'm not suggesting that the National Guard soldiers serving in Iraq do or do not want to be serving there but I am insisting that a form of draft does exist today.

If the National Guard was deployed overseas during Vietnam at the rate it is today do you think GW would have ended up in the Texas National Guard?

I would argue that the draft of today is a hell of a lot more convenient for the Pentagon to wield than the draft of the Vietnam era. It is obviously less noticeable to the media (Hello John! - Wake up!) and doesn't require a vote from Congress.

We all need to be thankful to the men and women serving in the National Guard. Its time for GW to be honest, come up with a plan and bring them all home.