I’ve been so busy with the imaginary War on Christmas that I almost forgot last years New Years resolution; to end the very real, Iraq War. One step in the right direction has already been accomplished. The institution of what used to be called Constitutional oversight which prior to w’s ascension to power thanks to the non-partisan Supreme Court, was called “Checks and Balances or the Balance of Power.” Back in the 60’s when I was a teenager, a similar war was raging in Vietnam and the democrats controlled both the Executive and Legislative branches of government and the result was the same as what we had under the last six years of Republican rule. I personally feel that government works best when there is balance to our institutions. That’s how our founders designed it. The problem is that only the president can start wars or end them and "w" is not very good at listening to reason. Based on my liberal Constitutional secular views I feel the best way to end this war is to institute the draft again. Yeah, let’s have a lottery like we did in 69. No deferments and all people in all financial classes are eligible up to age 55. Then we’ll see how popular and gung-ho republicans are for this war. If we had this kind of draft earlier in the sixties even “w”, Cheney and rest of the neo-cons in the Whitehouse would have seen first hand what war is all about and I doubt we would have our precious blood and treasure still in Iraq today. Bring back the draft and the public will look at War in a totally different light. Then maybe we would have some balance in our politics also.