No to a draft!

Can there be any further doubt that the United States is now firmly in the hands of lunatics? And I don’t mean just Republican lunatics. Only George W. Bush would have the chutzpah (or idiocy) to nominate Alberto Gonzales for Attorney General. And Democrats have indicated that they will go along with this. Imagine! A legal advisor to the President of the United States decreed that the Geneva Convention need not apply to prisoners captured in Afghanistan and there were arguments that could be marshalled that would justify torturing such prisoners. This is the same legal wonk that helped write the despicable Patriot Act. One could argue, of course, that it is actually a brilliant nomination because, as a Hispanic, it will be difficult for the Democrats to deny him the position. Some of the more conservative Republicans are pleased because they seem to think this will keep him from being nominated for the Supreme Court. They would not like him there because he might not be totally in favor of doing away with Roe vs Wade. I do not see why this appointment would necessarily keep him from being nominated for the Supreme Court when a vacancy actually occurs. Some Democrats say that he isn’t too bad because he is better than John Ashcroft. But who on earth wouldn’t be better than Ashcroft? That’s like arguing that cancer is good because it’s not the Bubonic Plague. I repeat, our country is in the hands of absolute loonies. If you are not convinced by this nomination just take a look at the new Republican Senators, hyper-loonies to a man.

Someone I know is absolutely convinced there is going to be a draft and it will begin immediately after the inauguration. I say there will not be a draft. I say this not because I think they won’t try to institute a draft but because I think (at least hope) that if they try it, it may well be the “straw that breaks the camel’s back” As I am often wrong, perhaps they will be able to get away with it. I hope not. I hope the American public will wake up and insist that enough is enough. We will not send more American youths to die for oil wells in Iraq. I also believe that if they do start a draft, and if the American people allow it, we are surely doomed. It will be the end of the American democracy and the end of America’s claim to world-wide hegemony.

I also believe (hope) that we will be out of Iraq before a draft is instituted. It is so obvious that the United States cannot possibly “win” in Iraq that the only way out is to hold an election, no matter how useless and illegal, declare victory, and retreat in ignominious but denied defeat. God, I hope I am right for once.