What Ya Know, They Do Have a Plan

I thought they did, just nice that they've decided to get around to telling us.

The top US commander in Iraq has drawn up plans that could lead to sharp reductions in American forces there as early as September, and cut the number of combat brigades by nearly two-thirds by late 2007.

The commander, Army General George W. Casey, presented the plan to Pentagon leaders and President Bush in confidential briefings made during a visit to Washington last week, according to an administration official. Other officials emphasized that no final decision was taken on troop levels, but said that the outline was likely to serve as the basis for future planning.

Well, that's something. But you can hand it to the BoGlo to make political conjecture against the evil republicans.

Not only would the first of the draw-downs come just weeks before November's midterm congressional elections, in which Republicans are facing the prospect of significant losses, due in part to the war's growing unpopularity. The plan also comes as some Democrats have been pushing the Bush administration to come up with a timetable for withdrawal.

No detailed withdrawal dates they start yelping about this being a political move. But for all they know there could very well be more troops at that point. But who listens to the BoGlo for unbiased news?

And then there is the BoGlo columnist calling for a draft. A draft?

REINSTATE THE military draft and see how quickly the United States ends its war in Iraq.

Imagine if all our sons and daughters were at risk for deployment to the desert. Imagine if all our children faced the Al Qaeda-style butchery that took the lives of two American soldiers, Private First Class Thomas L. Tucker of Madras, Ore., and Private First Class Kristian Menchaca of Houston.

If we feared our children were next up to be gutted like fish, we might be less likely to shake our heads at crazy antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan. If turning 18 meant your kid's boots on the ground, a resolution to pull troops out of Iraq by a certain date might grab more than six votes in the US Senate.

A key difference between Iraq and Vietnam is the country's ability to keep this war at a convenient distance. We can turn from the front page headlines of war, death, and destruction to sports and celebrity gossip; a click of the remote, and the face of a young soldier, now dead, fades to "Friends" reruns or "America's Next Top Model." the US Senate.

Now that is disturbing. The suggestion that a draft would be good for moving the country from its complacency is appaling. Destroying our professional voluntary military and backsliding it to the mess that the military was in the Vietnam era strikes me as an idiotic idea.

But the mind trust of the Boston Globe knows no bounds.