An Omission

Molly Ivins wrote an excellent column on the destruction in New Orleans from Katrina, but I’m not going to link to it because she mentions near the end, in a fashion that is uncomfortably cavalier as far as I’m concerned, that we should bring back the draft.

I’ve been thinking about this all day, particularly an hour ago when I tucked in the young one and said good night, with his stuffed animals Max the pug and Snappy the turtle by his side.

The thought of any politician deciding to conscript him and send him to some God-forsaken location in this world for reasons that he will never understand and have him kill people of a different skin color starts to induce a rage in me that makes me want to do just about the same thing myself to the person who would be responsible for such a heinous act. This is to say nothing of the very real possibility that he would either be killed or get so scrambled physically or mentally that he would never be the same.

Regarding this issue, I feel that I am about the only person who can look out for him. The Dems and Repugs are going to try and weasel (verb?) this issue into the spotlight once more, especially with our conventional forces and National Guard strength depleted from Bushco’s war and the Katrina fallout. Unfortunately, this all is likely to be inevitable.

I have not finished weighing my options in the event that this happens; I am still very much in that process. Also, if he ever tells me one day, after he has reviewed every single piece of reliable information that he can get and spoken with family members who have served, that he wants to do so also, of course I will support him (I want the recruiters to get out of his face). The military can be a fine way of life for the right person if it is a voluntary choice. If not, he should be allowed to do something else.

Also, a final note about Molly: she is absolutely a titan and continues to be so, but as far as I’m concerned, this is the second major slipup of hers in the past few months. The first one was over her statement that our forces killed more Iraqis in our invasion than those that were killed under Saddam Hussein, and when she realized the mistake, she corrected that immediately and apologized profusely like the true pro that she is. I know she’s battled cancer in the last few years, and I sincerely hope her health is OK and not affecting her work.