{"id":12503,"date":"2007-08-11T09:15:30","date_gmt":"2007-08-11T13:15:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/12503.html"},"modified":"2007-08-11T09:15:30","modified_gmt":"2007-08-11T13:15:30","slug":"lute-says-it-makes-sense-to-consider-military-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/lute-says-it-makes-sense-to-consider-military-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Lute says it ‘makes sense’ to ‘consider’ military draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, confirmed by the Senate in June to serve as the president’s war advisor (aka, the “war czar”), has kept a remarkably low profile. NSA Stephen Hadley told reporters<\/a> a while back that Lute would be “up close to the president” to work “full time, 24\/7” on implementing Bush’s war policy, but that apparently includes practically disappearing from public view<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In fact, Lute has not been mentioned<\/a> by Bush, Cheney, or any White House spokesperson, in any context, since he was confirmed. I was beginning to think we may want to put his face on milk-cartons.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, Lute finally emerged — and immediately sparked a controversy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush’s new war adviser said Friday.<\/p>\n

“I think it makes sense to certainly consider it,” Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.”<\/p>\n

“And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation’s security by one means or another,” said Lute, who is sometimes referred to as the “Iraq war czar.” It was his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And with that, we may not be hearing from Lute again anytime soon.
\n
\nIn case there’s any ambiguity, or concern that Lute was taken out of context, here’s the exact exchange from the NPT transcript:<\/p>\n

NORRIS: You know, given the stress on the military and the concern about these extended deployments for an all-volunteer military, can you foresee, in the future, a return to the draft?<\/p>\n

LUTE: You know, that’s a national policy decision point that we have not yet reached, Michele, because the…<\/p>\n

NORRIS: But does it make sense militarily?<\/p>\n

LUTE: I think it makes sense to certainly consider it, and I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation’s security by one means or another. Today, the current means of the all-volunteer force is serving us exceptionally well. It would be a major policy shift – not actually a military, but a political policy shift to move to some other course.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said, “The president’s position is that the all-volunteer military meets the needs of the country and there is no discussion of a draft. Gen. Lute made that point as well.”<\/p>\n

Perhaps, but I don’t think that will necessarily quell the controversy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, confirmed by the Senate in June to serve as the president’s war advisor (aka, the “war czar”), has kept a remarkably low profile. NSA Stephen Hadley told reporters a while back that Lute would be “up close to the president” to work “full time, 24\/7” on implementing Bush’s war policy, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12503\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}