Is Thomas Donnelly of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) About to Join Operation Yellow Elephant?

There may be many very good reasons, mostly strategic, for the U.S. not only to remain militarily engaged in Iraq, but to enhance our commitment to success, but almost nobody citing them has actually thought everything through:

If America needs more troops to protect its interests, then America's national leaders must call on real Americans, if qualified (healthy heterosexuals 41 and under) to volunteer for military service, even if they plan other careers later in life.

And if America's national leaders are unwilling, perhaps for legitimate reasons, to call on real Americans to volunteer, then perhaps also America's national leaders should reconsider their objectives. Steve Gilliard said it best June 22, 2005.

According to the Boston Globe, Thomas Donnelly of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) thinks that recruiting foreigners abroad for service in our military has some merit:

"It works as a military idea and it works in the context of American immigration," said Thomas Donnelly , a military scholar at the conservative American Enterprise Institute in Washington and a leading proponent of recruiting more foreigners to serve in the military.

Here's something else that Donnelly has said about a surge:

Much will depend on the president himself. He will have to take drastic steps, not delegate them to subordinates: insist on a strategy to secure Baghdad and generals who can achieve that goal; call on the active Army and Marine Corps to make greater sacrifices; mobilize a larger proportion of the National Guard and reserves; spend tens of billions to recruit, train, and equip larger land forces for the duration. He will need to summon every power of the commander in chief as well as mount the bully pulpit.

Well, Mr. Donnelly, we've been urging President Bush to encourage real Americans to Be A Man! Enlist! since June 2005. You know the best way for him to do so: Show the American people that our national elites, including the Bush clan and his own campaign contributors, are also personally participating in the GWOT.

Wouldn't it be great if this were news and not a snark?