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Bush Plans to Reinstate the Draft Next Year
(BuzzFlash, April 22, 2004)
it has only become more apparent that the U.S. military is in dire condition, short on soldiers, supplies and government support. It's gotten to where the military is calling up troops who aren't medically fit, and is extending the tours of more than 20,000 soldiers -- soldiers who have already served one year and whose families were counting on their return this month. . . . "I cried for an entire day after getting the news of the extension of the soldiers in Iraq. Now I have to laugh knowing that everywhere we look, we don't see any welcome home banners anymore. Now we see crisis and anger management banners. Everything was supposed to be happiness. Now it's sadness, and still they pretend we are calm, happy families, like what just happened is nothing but part of the soldiers' jobs," one Army wife wrote in a letter to Stars and Stripes. . . . Where are these new troops supposed to come from? As Connor Freff Cochran recently explained on AlterNet.org, 63 percent of the Army's fighting force is on active duty in the "hot" zones of Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea and the Balkans. And we still have troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, among other places. . . . "This is a huge overextension," Cochran wrote. "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." . . . It would take legislative action by Congress to reinstate the draft, which ended in 1973. But let's face it: for the tens of thousands of soldiers in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan whose civilian lives have been put on hold indefinitely due to an arbitrary "stop-loss order," a draft has already begun. . . . Realizing that Bush has left the military in a lurch, it's not surprising that so many BuzzFlash readers have raised concerns about two bills, H163 and S89, introduced in January 2003. Known as the Universal National Service Act of 2003 (or, the popular title, "Reinstate the Draft Bill" ), both are described as: "A bill to provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes." . . . Keep in mind that the bills call for drafting men and women, and college students won't get a deferment past their current semester. The purpose was to ensure that the burden of protection not be borne by those who have few options aside from joining the military. How many politicians are going to support that before the November election? . . . In the March issue of The Atlantic Monthly, James Fallows neatly summarizes the reality of the situation: "The military's people, its equipment, its supplies and spare parts, its logistics systems, and all its other assets are under pressure they cannot sustain. Everything has been operating on an emergency basis for more than two years, with no end to the emergency in sight. The situation was serious before the invasion of Iraq; now it is acute." . . . Bush will start implementing a draft through reactivation of the Selective Service Boards, shortly after he is sworn in for a second term, if that nightmare scenario of his election should come to pass. . . . But not to worry for the offspring of the Bush dynasty. The Bush loyalists will find a way to keep the twins and other Bush kin from serving. None of the Bush brothers, including George, have fought in a war. They don't plan on starting any new Bush traditions now with the "next generation." . . . It's our sons and daughters who will be drafted not the kin of the Bush family. You can be sure of that. . . . But there is one complication: unless the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" law is changed, those who publicly identify themselves as gay or lesbian would be ineligible to serve in the military -- the unintended consequence of which is that young people are likely to find an easy "out," as it were. Much to Bush's chagrin, if there is a draft, same-sex marriage might find a much broader support base. . . . The Lord works in strange ways -- and the Bush draft may just end being the biggest recruiting tool for homosexuality in history.

posted by LoZo 3:45 PM