All We Want For Christmas

While watching the news shows this morning, I came up with a way Santa can make President Bush and myself (and a few other people) happy with just one gift.

The President wants a "swell" in the number of troops in Iraq. Because this may last for two years or more, he is linking this plan to an increase in the overall size of the Army and Marines. It remains unclear how he plans to achieve this.

While the best data I could Google say that most of the active and reserve services did eventually hit their Fiscal Year 2006 recruitment goals, it required changes in recruiting tactics and incentives. This could work again, but incentives tend to require money, and Speaker Pelosi is now holding the purse strings.

Another option is, of course, the draft. Despite Congressman Rangel's initiatives, this seems unlikely at best. Congress doesn't seem to want a draft (or won't admit it), and the President has always scoffed at asking for one. The only things I see leaning toward a draft are: (1) The last thing the President "ruled out" was the firing of Sec. Rumsfeld; (2) oddly, the Selective Service System recently announced plans to test its draft machinery.

(I found the picture thru Google, but couldn't find appropriate attribution on either of the links given: tenbyfour.blogspot.com or misilay.pair.com/ftp1955/pub/gall.rainbow.jpg. My apologies if it's proprietary.)

What we really need is a new pool of recruits from which to draw. A group of people who might be ready and willing to serve, but haven't been able to do so. Or who have found ways to serve anyway, only to be discharged. I'm not sure allowing gays, lesbians, and bisexuals to serve in the military would solve the problem completely, but it could be a good first step. (Don't start sending arguments that straight people would quit enlisting -- I don't buy them.)

The President could give this gift to himself (like those G-Star jeans I bought yesterday). An executive order from the C-in-C ending discrimination is unlikely to be challenged by a Democratic Congress. Given they just attained a majority by running socially conservative candidates in reddish states, the issue would probably never be allowed to come to the floor. Such a bold move might also allow President Bush's legacy to include something other that Iraq -- namely the "compassionate conservatism" he espoused earlier in his political career. So:

Santa,
For President Bush and me, could your end the discrimination against homosexuals in the military? He'll need an official signed executive order. I'd take a copy in my stocking. Or, if you prefer, a hot guy in uniform who wants to enact this new policy. Thanks.

-- Joel

PS: I like sailor uniforms the best.


Merry Christmas!