Sorry, But It's Time For a Draft

It’s hard not to notice that we need a draft.
Bigtime.
Yesterday.
We’ve got two wars going and now a disaster on the Gulf. Again. But there’s nobody to respond to the B.P. mess because we’ve got too wars going.
We need people. We need to defend American soil, this time from polluters. But there’s nobody to do that job. Watch the news shows. The only people standing on the beach as the oil comes in are TV reporters. We need people with shovels.
I take no joy in calling for a draft. I remember being very nervous when I registered for the draft, especially since it was around the time that Ronald Reagan was regarded as a wacky war-monger, at least in my house, and not as the best president ever. That came later. Anyway, it was daunting to sign up with the Selective Service and think about going off to fight a war.
What we have today, though, is a volunteer army. God bless those who serve. They are brave and smart and capable and being asked to do too much. The government sends off too few people to handle too many responsibilities.
I guess what I’m really asking for is some kind of national service. Leave it up to the young people whether they want to wage war in Iraq or Afghanistan or shovel oil out of the sand on the Louisiana coast. But they need to do something, cause this nation is going from crisis to crisis to crisis and pretending it can all be done without any cost outside of a few unlucky volunteers. Make room for the unemployed, too. There are plenty of people who could help right now.
There are times when a federal response is needed. The B.P. crisis is one of those times. It was cute that the Obama Administration wasted a month pretending that the cleanup responsibilities rested alone with a private company. But once the oil hits, Americans begin to wonder why there has not been a speedier and smarter response on the part of the federal government itself.
There are jobs to do and we need people to do them.