would you, Mr. President, volunteer for duty in Iraq?

Mr. Bush dodged the draft in his own class conscious, "the rules are for suckers" manner. It is true that former Lt. Governor Ben Barnes pulled strings to get Bush into the Texas Air National Guard. Barnes openly discussed what he had done for Bush and others who were well connected enough to avoid the draft. My hat is off to anyone who refused to go to that illegal war, but Bush didn't object to the war on moral or religious grounds. He supported the war, particularly if he didn't have to fight in it.

He had famously commented that he learned from the Vietnam War that politicians defer to the generals in the field. That presidents should listen to and respond to their generals. Politics shouldn't be a part of warfare.

No American president, as commander in chief, allows generals to run a war. (Isn't he the decider?) And evidently Bush isn't taking any advice from his own generals in Iraq. Two generals on the ground in Iraq would rather retire than accept an increase in troops in Iraq which they oppose. Some military officials have suggested that sending more troops into Iraq will cause harm to an already heavily stressed, all volunteer army.

But for heaven's sake, don't suggest a draft. The day after Bush suggested that he was considering sending more troops to Iraq, Bush's own Secretary of Veteran's Affairs Jim Nicholson commented that a draft would be good for America and then quickly backed away from his own statement, no doubt after a come to Jesus discussion with the White House, and said that he didn't support a draft.

If Bush was in his twenties again, would he volunteer for duty in Iraq?