then why the back door draft?

And why does it allow its soldiers to be politicized as noble, but eerily hapless martyrs, trapped in a quagmire, attacked from all sides, undermanned, incompetently led, trudging from marginal "improvement" to marginal "improvement," all the while continuously braying about how the big win is just around corner, if we'll just keep thinking positive, hero-worshipping thoughts?

Hmmmm ..... something here doesn't fit.

There's a whole culture of martyrdom, a whole Christianized myth-making ideology of martyrdom, taking root in our military, on Army bases, nurtured by the right-wing media. The milieu of the contractor world, where good soldiers go to die, get reborn and come back as much higher-paid international ass-kicking superstar vigilantes, is saturated with the whole ethos of the tragically misunderstood, deeply passionate, Jesus-warrior cult (again, Please see Scahills's Blackwater). It's like the macho man's answer to the whole culture of victimized "identity" and thwarted self-esteem, running amok in the Middle East and heavily armed; and W is these Last Mohicans' very own flinty, stammering Oprah figure. His stupidity, his dim, dense idiocy, is the mark of his manly, you know, authenticity. Inside that thick skull, nestled in the grumose filler of his fatuous brain stuff, there's a sentient being who really feels for the boys, and just wants to win so bad, and really believes in his god-mandated mission, you know? . . . . . it's just so hard, man, and he really hurts, you know? he suffers too, as he tries to figure all this out . . . . .

If the Army really wants to have the force that is required to complete the mission -- assuming that they really mean it when they (and their famous late Victorian mouthpiece, Mr. Hitchens) say that Al Qaeda in Iraq is an "existential threat" to the USA and we won't be able to live in peace until the entire Muslim world, or at least Iraq as a whole, is subdued and integrated -- if the Army wants to "win" that battle, and they only want to conscript willing soldiers, let them come to the people and explain the threat and demand the draft. Let them requisition one million troops.

If they're not willing to even state the true magnititude of the situation, and make a realistic assessment of what the nation needs to do, and demand that our entire society make a Total Commitment, from top to bottom, from Joe Blow to Dick Cheney and Eric Prince, in terms of both manpower and financial resources, then sympathy time is over. No more martyr shtick. No more stylized Band of Brothers, you just don't understand what intense shit soldiers go through narrative. In fact you can tell them to go fuck themselves, please, starting with David Petraeus . . . . .

MarkEHaag:

... If they're not willing to even state the true magnititude of the situation, and make a realistic assessment of what the nation needs to do, and demand that our entire society make a Total Commitment, from top to bottom, from Joe Blow to Dick Cheney and Eric Prince, in terms of both manpower and financial resources, then sympathy time is over. No more martyr shtick. . . .

Generally I prefer a more matter-of-fact, dispassionate and reasoned approach but your analysis (minus the expletives) is a valuable insight into the atmospherics which this administration deploys to obfuscate the real issues of this war. I would give them more leeway if they had served in a war zone as had the elder George Bush but it does increasingly appear to be a tragic piece of acting by poseurs at our expense. The dignity of military service has been slighted by those who would not themselves risk all for their country.

From what I've heard, Petraeus actually knows what he's doing. The problem is with his civilian superiors who gave him an already-bolloxed situation on the ground, not enough resources to work with, and orders to send his report to congress via them.

Let's face it. Civilian control of the military was- and is- a good idea, but it does mean that the effectiveness of said military is dis proportionately tied to the sanity, motivations, and intelligence of its civilian superiors.

feline74:

...From what I've heard, Petraeus actually knows what he's doing...

I concur. Elsewhere (can I say WP?) I commented upon my being let down by our 'blamer in chief' leaning on General Petraeus. They are all way above my highest paygrade attained but we can opine.