[petuniasevan]

we still have too many defeatist generals and admirals whose motto is "Just say no."

Bush is in illustrious company: Abraham Lincoln had his share of timid generals.
He fired them when it became obvious they were not warriors; Bush should do the same.

[fogarty]

So quick we are to condemn military leadership. In this case, it is not cowardice, but facing reality. The generals said an operation to topple Saddam would take 200,000 troops. Very well. And the generals saw quickly that we do not have the assets or the manpower for that mission.

We simply don't have the ground combat divisions or air wings we had a decade ago. And until the arm-chair strategists and politicians realize that, we are not going to muster enough for a full-scale invasion of Iraq. As the military leadership knows, we have maybe 1/3 the manpower, equipment, and weaponry we did a decade ago. Ten years of decay are not corrected in a year's defense spending.

Of course, there is an solution: the draft. I'm all for it. I've already laid my life on the line and taken the oath. We'll see how many of these armchair strategists are willing to let their sons and daughters get drafted without complaint.