Well if I had to choose between the two, I'd have to go with the latter, but we're talking about troops that have served in Iraq here. All twelve who served between 2003 and 2006 want us out of the war...unless we relinquish our volunteer army and begin to conscript soldiers like we did for the Vietnam War.
From The AFP:
"There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq," wrote the ex-captains, all of whom saw service in Iraq between 2003 and 2006.
"To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately.
"A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition," they wrote.
The Iraq war "is as undermanned and under-resourced as it was from the start," the authors wrote, stating bluntly that "Iraq is in shambles."
The authors say they have "seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it's like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it's time to get out."
The captains describe widespread corruption in the Iraqi government, a country where the infrastructure is in "deplorable condition."
Iraq's oil industry "still fails to produce the revenue that Pentagon war planners hoped would pay for Iraq's reconstruction," they wrote.
Even with the 'surge' of US forces this year there are not enough troops in Iraq. Temporary regional success "may brief well on PowerPoint presentations," but in practice "they just push insurgents to another spot on the map."
If anyone knows what they are talking about in Iraq, it is men like these. Not the generals that watch from the green zone or the politicians that seldomly drop in to see the relatively quiet protected area. None of our leaders really wants a draft, besides those like Charlie Rangel that want one only to increase the antipathy against the war and the President. A draft would elevate the national consciousness to a degree not seen since the Vietnam War and bring even more resentment to the elected officials that support it.
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