Modest proposal for Iraq exit strategy

George Bush must feel at a total loss as he stares at the quagmire into which he has sunk this nation in Iraq. His generals have told him repeatedly that the insurgency in the Sunni heartland cannot be defeated militarily with the available troops the United States has. There is no hope of military assistance from European nations, such as Germany, Russia, and France, whose leaders told Bush in advance to look before he leaped.

The hope of a home-grown Iraqi army taking over the fighting and dying that the National Guard, the Marines and the Army are doing all too much of is disappearing like a desert mirage. What is our hero of the May 2003, “Mission Accomplished” landing on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, to do?

There is no doubt that Bush wishes he had listened to Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, who warned that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would take 450,000 troops. Instead, Bush retired him for having the courage to speak truth to power.

But even were Bush to belatedly adopt the Shinseki strategy of sending a large enough force to properly secure Iraq’s borders and ensure domestic order, there are not another 300,000 American troops anywhere to undertake that task. Re-enlistment rates in the Guard, the Army and the Marines are nearing all-time lows.

The final alternative, reinstating the draft, at first seems as unlikely to resolve the problem as any other “solution.” American campuses would be in an uproar if all men and women, ages 18 to 25, were suddenly asked to face service in Iraq. But there is a solution if Bush simply begins to think creatively.

He must reinstate the draft for registered Republicans only.

I can almost hear the complaints, the first being that for Bush to do this would involve breaking a campaign promise. However, while a majority of Americans cannot forgive Bush for his myriad of broken vows, registered Republicans have been more tolerant. It matters not to them that Bush has been anything but a “uniter, not a divider,” that he has engaged in the type of nation-building he decried in his first campaign, or that he has produced larger and larger annual deficits, despite a promise to do the opposite. George Bush is their man, through thick and thin.

The second complaint is that drafting registered Republicans will cause a huge surge in Republicans re-registering as Independents or, perish the thought, as Democrats. But these doubts simply don’t give enough credit to the unshaken belief that most Republicans have in their leader.

I concede that there will be a significant drop in Republican registration once the prospect of a draft looms, but the solution will be to slowly raise the maximum draft age as the pool of eligible draftees declines. As the maximum age reaches 50, such stalwart patriots as Ann Coulter, can suit up. When the maximum age reaches 60, even Bush will have a chance to face the draft again, this time without a cushy Air National Guard deferment. Once the maximum age hits 70, Dick Cheney can go for the all-time record for draft deferments

As George Bush once said, “You are either with us or you are against us.” George, let’s see if your party is really with you.

Arthur Greif is an attorney who lives in Hampden.