Here’s a great post from Austin Bay on a Washington Monthly story by Phil Carter advocating a military draft: A Draft?—The Washington Monthly Story Doesn’t Make the Case.

The democratic surge in the Middle East has put a hard date-time stamp on this commentary— as in out-dated and strategically wrong. See my post on GEN Abizaid’s testimony about the size of the Iraq’s terror clique and its waning power to intimidate.

I don’t know his co-author, Paul Glastris (other than the bio says he’s editor-in-chief of Washington Monthly), but Phil’s a first-rate troop. Still, the take in these two paragraphs smacks of DNC— that’s not an allegation, that’s a comparison. I think a case can be made for the draft (see my comments at the end of this post), and at some point this discussion needs to happen. Give Carter and Glastris credit: much of the article addresses important nuts and bolts issues regarding military manpower requirements. However— for the time being REP Charles Rangel’s political gamesmanship with the draft issue has poisoned rational and civil debate on the issue. The attempt to use “draft fear” to motivate college students to vote for John Kerry flopped — but that gambit’s toxins remain. Last fall I found flyers outside of my seminar class alledging a secret Bush plan to reinstitute the draft. That’s right, a conspiracy. Pish. One evening one of my students asked me about the issue after class. My response: “I’d love to discuss issues like universal military service or government service. But not in a climate of scare tactics. This is a sick lie.”

Read the whole thing.