So this is where we are....

I don't know about you, but to me it seems that it is becoming more and more apparent that there is no way out of Iraq. Well, actually there is one way: pack up our stuff and leave. But no one is going to do this, it seems.

We are getting three options from the Pentagon: 1) more troops - 20,000 or so. 2) Fewer troops, but stay there for 10 years or more. 3) get out now.

What is most disturbing is that no one likes any of these options. Military experts, politicians, and the public are finally on the same page...they don't like the options. I don't either. And there isn't much hope of the Iraq Study Group coming up with any other options.

There are retired generals and John McCain who say we need like 125,000 more troops. Which really breaks my heart. Not just that we would have to send almost twice as many soldiers into that civil war, but that the fact of the matter is that we do not have these troops. Not even close. Thats why we are hearing that Charlie Rangel wants to re-institute the draft. Which might be the only responsible thing I have heard in regard to the war in two years.

The Bush administration wants us to believe that this is a war like World War Two, a noble cause, a fight for freedom, etc. If that is the case they should be supporting the Draft, and I have to say that I support the Draft.

I support it because I believe that it will bring a faster end to this failed policy. First off, the wealth will switch to a staunch anti-war position to protect their children. Second, as Rangel has indicated, it is a good patriotic way to fill the needs that we have in Homeland and Border Security - if we are serious about it. Third, it could eliminate all of these Mercenaries that are filling out our military. Mercenaries are a blight on our Military's reputation and a drag on morale, since they make 3 to 4 times what the average soldier makes. The last of my reasons for the support for the Draft is that forcing the Chicken Hawks to pay for the war. Attach the Draft to any vote on funding, any vote on troop strength, any vote on long expensive fences, any vote on tax cuts, and make them pay for what they have gotten this country into.

I also have problems with the idea that we have to stay at all. The mission was to eliminate Saddam and create a region in which Democracy could develop. That mission is done. Would we have tolerated the French sticking around after the Revolution to "ensure" that we organized our own government in a way that we approved of? No way, we still can't stand the French.

It's something that have to want. There is a general out there who has said that "we want it more than they do." If this is the case, victory on the Presidents terms is impossible. So Mr. President, support the troops or get them the hell out of there and let the Iraqis form there own government.