The Coming Draft

[Dirty Hippie]

...

However, the Bush Administration's military goals cannot be met without forced conscription. Consider these facts:


Twenty-one of the US Army's 33 regular combat brigades are now on active duty in the "hot" zones of Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, and the Balkans. That's 63 percent of the Army's fighting force ... all without factoring in additional troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere around the globe.


This is a huge overextension. History has proven that long-term military operations can only be sustained if you have twice as many soldiers waiting in the pipeline as are stationed out in the field. By that rule of thumb, the regular military is now 125,000 soldiers short – a gap the Bush administration has temporarily plugged by calling more than 150,000 Army Reserve and National Guard troops into active service..

...

The human well is drying up. Enlistment rates in the regular armed forces and the National Guard have dropped precipitously, and according to a poll conducted by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, a whopping 49 percent of soldiers stationed in Iraq say they don't intend to reenlist – even with the Army offering a $10,000 bonus.

...

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18225

[klook]

1. Weatherstripping

...is what you use to block drafts, right? I think it's time for some energy conservation.

Maybe this will help inflame American youth to vote out the warlords. There's nothing like the thought that it could be your own ass, or that of a loved one, dragged into military service to wake you up.

[SheilaT]

2. A lot of people here are going

to scream at this and say there's no way Bush will risk a draft before being "re-elected". Personally, I think that it's highly likely a draft will be instituted as part of the re-election campaign as a way to demonstrate patriotism and loyalty to W and to convince people that they can't possibly even consider not keeping Our Hero in office.

Keep in mind that this Congress has an unpleasant record of passing major legislation very quickly, sometimes literally in the middle of the night, without any real debate or consideration.

It could happen. Don't doubt it for one minute.

[Systematic Chaos]

3. Trust me, I for one don't doubt that one bit.

If they get desperate enough they I believe they are capable of just about anything.

[donhakman]

4. The propoganda dept.

through such "media" as clear channel is already airing various commercials for military service/draft.

The commerical has catch phrases such as "America, the land of proud helmets and badges"...

They have come a long way since WW II when the recruiters went to existing army outfits looking for pilots with such catch phrases as "We need volunteers for pilots cuz were losin a lot of em."

The impetus for America to accept a draft will be a terrorist act in the US. This is necessesary for the neocon empire builders to replenish the military. After Spain, I imagine they are having a heated debate on when to schedule it.

[BJ]

5. A draft might not be a bad thing.

Especially if it's a version of the Hollings-Rangel "Universial National Service Act. Moreover, as a democracy we should very wary of the current all voluteer military becoming a power beholding only to itself.

And the current all-volunteer military has a subtle racist cast, as recruiters guide minority men and women into "service" units while a disporportionate number of white males are encouraged to enlist in combat units.