THIS MODERN WORLD

I’m juggling a lot of plates these days and feeling kind of overwhelmed from time to time, and in a low moment awhile back I suggested that this blog may not continue in its present form after the election. Well, I really wasn’t fishing for compliments, but I do truly appreciate the avalanche of email this little comment inspired. At any rate, I’m having fun with it right now. At some point I’ll probably cut back for a little while, or maybe take a little break, but I’m feeling less inclined to shut the place down entirely.

An entry from Bob’s new blog, lifted whole:

Bob Rumson, er, Dick Cheney is at it again.

Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday evoked the possibility of terrorists bombing U.S. cities with nuclear weapons and questioned whether Sen. John Kerry could combat such a threat…

Only we, who ignored a daily briefing called Osama Bin Laden Determined To Strike In US, can protect you from the terrorists.

Only we, who have been so focused on Iraq — which had no WMD — and thus allowed North Korea and Iran to join the nuclear club, can protect you from the nuclear threat.

Only we, who were completely unable to anticipate that Iraq would spiral horribly out of control, have the vision to rule this country safely.

And there are actually people — about 100 million of them, apparently — who can believe this bullshit.

I say this again: AAAAAAGGGGGGHHH.

A reader points this one out:

The Selective Service has been updating its contingency plans for a draft of doctors, nurses and other health care workers in case of a national emergency that overwhelms the military’s medical corps.

In a confidential report this summer, a contractor hired by the agency described how such a draft might work, how to secure compliance and how to mold public opinion and communicate with health care professionals, whose lives could be disrupted.

On the one hand, the report said, the Selective Service System should establish contacts in advance with medical societies, hospitals, schools of medicine and nursing, managed care organizations, rural health care providers and the editors of medical journals and trade publications.

On the other hand, it said, such contacts must be limited, low key and discreet because “overtures from Selective Service to the medical community will be seen as precursors to a draft,” and that could alarm the public.

— snip —

Under the plan, Mr. Flahavan said, about 3.4 million male and female health care workers ages 18 to 44 would be expected to register with the Selective Service. From this pool, he said, the agency could select tens of thousands of health care professionals practicing in 62 health care specialties.

— snip —

In a recent article in The Wisconsin Medical Journal, published by the state medical society, Col. Roger A. Lalich, a senior physician in the Army National Guard, said: “It appears that a general draft is not likely to occur. A physician draft is the most likely conscription into the military in the near future.”

I guess if I were a 44 year old doctor, I might be a little bit nervous too.

Gen. Tommy R. Franks climbed out of a C-130 plane at the Baghdad airport on April 16, 2003, and pumped his fist into the air. American troops had pushed into the capital of liberated Iraq little more than a week before, and it was the war commander’s first visit to the city…

Huddling in a drawing room with his top commanders, General Franks told them it was time to make plans to leave. Combat forces should be prepared to start pulling out within 60 days if all went as expected, he said. By September, the more than 140,000 troops in Iraq could be down to little more than a division, about 30,000 troops.

By September.

Of 2003.

If all went as expected.

(Story here.)

Here:

Kerry’s third attack is the whole Mary Cheney thing. That’s been hashed over enough. But remarkably, Kerry has not apologized. You use somebody’s daughter to attack the father and his running mate. The parents are upset. The only decent thing is to apologize. If anything, an apology would make Kerry look admirable. But Kerry, in his permanent attack dog mode, can’t do the decent and politically advantageous thing.

Okay, deep breath. Reality check time. Here’s that horrible “attack” in which John Kerry so ruthlessly attempted to use the daughter against the father, thereby upsetting decent godfearing folk everywhere:

“We’re all God’s children, Bob. And I think if you were to talk to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who is a lesbian, she would tell you that she’s being who she was, she’s being who she was born as.”

For the last time: that’s only an insult if you think that being a lesbian is something to be ashamed of. Or if you are an achingly banal New York Times columnist in way, way over your head.

* * *

In that same column, Brooks pooh-poohs talk of a draft.

The administration, which hasn’t even asked for trivial public sacrifices in a time of war, does not want to bring back the draft. The Pentagon does not want to bring back the draft. The Republican Party does not want to bring back the draft. Given the nature of military technology, it doesn’t make sense to bring back the draft. There may be some in the bureaucracy taking precautions, but it is hard to imagine an attack with less basis in fact.

And that’s the extent of the argument: there won’t be a draft, shut up, don’t worry about it.

Happily across the page, Paul Krugman looks at the issue from a reality-based perspective:

Those who are worrying about a revived draft are in the same position as those who worried about a return to budget deficits four years ago, when President Bush began pushing through his program of tax cuts. Back then he insisted that he wouldn’t drive the budget into deficit – but those who looked at the facts strongly suspected otherwise. Now he insists that he won’t revive the draft. But the facts suggest that he will.

There were two reasons some of us never believed Mr. Bush’s budget promises. First, his claims that his tax cuts were affordable rested on patently unrealistic budget projections. Second, his broader policy goals, including the partial privatization of Social Security – which is clearly on his agenda for a second term – would involve large costs that were not included even in those unrealistic projections. This led to the justified suspicion that his election-year promises notwithstanding, Mr. Bush would preside over a return to budget deficits.

It’s exactly the same when it comes to the draft. Mr. Bush’s claim that we don’t need any expansion in our military is patently unrealistic; it ignores the severe stress our Army is already under. And the experience in Iraq shows that pursuing his broader foreign policy doctrine – the “Bush doctrine” of pre-emptive war – would require much larger military forces than we now have.

All I know is, if I were twenty five, I’d be damned nervous.