The draft, we are told, would spread the burden of our glorious struggle to save Islam from itself fairly over the entire population. It would force the supporters of the Long War to put their boots where there mouths were and, at the same, time make the effete liberal opponents of the war take serious steps to resist it. It might even bring the war to an end, like what happened in Vietnam.

Excuse me. Some incidents are a little fuzzy but I am pretty sure that I was there. The war in Vietnam was tenaciously supported by our leaders who could not imagine a world where we were not absolutely in control. The draft, at best, created a lot of angry, incoherent and confused kids. We tried to move the world. We did not succeed. The anger lives on.

Not only that, when the government had the draft it could escalate the war without effort. Just increase the number of kids conscripted and wait six months for them to get trained. If we had a draft the surge would have come much sooner. By Wonks Anonymous estimate we would now be on surge 3.0. We would probably also be in Somalia, at least as advisers to the the freedom loving Ethiopian army.

Much as Wonks Anonymous would like to fantasize about drafting supporters of the war or the children of the rich and powerful, that's just not going to happen. What will happen is the same unfair system that made it so easy to prolong and increase the agony of Vietnam.

Maybe we should just raise taxes?