&gt; One thing that sending in ground troops would do is hopefully reignite the debate as to whether we should be in that country at all.<p>Agree, but you&#x27;re only part way.  We really need to bring back the draft.  On the ground in Iraq in 2008, watching ‘drone’ feeds of SF soldiers on missions on one screen and the stock market crashing on the other screen, all I could think about was “Don’t people care?  There are soldiers risking their lives in foreign countries, doing things in America’s name, and all the TV talks about is houses and stock prices.”  
The number of contractors in country was probably 3 to 1 or more compared to military -  Kenyans providing internal security, Filipinos working in the commissary, Pakistanis working in the chow hall, and Americans driving F-350s all over doing maintenance or whatever.  The SF guys hated their contractor counterparts who took none of the risk they did and made a $1,000 a day just to provide a little training for the Iraqis.  Being a pilot on a ground job, I hated the contract pilots making $20k a month for a job I easily could have done.<p>Until we’re all in it together, we won’t see change.  As long as Americans can get upset, then turn off the TV and forget about it, nothing will happen, the military and civilian worlds will continue to drift apart.  And a private, separate military is not good for this country.