Do you feel a draft? Maybe not yet, but you might feel one soon. I have yet to see it in an American news source, but the Toronto Star and the UK’s Guardian are both reporting that the Department of Defense is shoring up the infrastructure for a national draft.
This is no surprise. The U.S. military currently has 9,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan and 130,000 in Iraq. After extending tours of duty several times, the Army has promised soldiers and their families that troops will not have to remain in a war zone for longer than a year at a stretch, which means troops will be rotating out of Iraq by late winter. This should not be a problem, as the Pentagon has estimated that troop numbers in Iraq will be reduced over time.
Except. Except that none of the Pentagon’s estimates about post-war Iraq have yet panned out. Nothing has gone according to plan. By now, the generals thought that Iraq would be peaceful enough to drop the force level down to 60,000 troops. The top brass also thought other nations would have contributed substantial numbers of troops by now, but that hasn’t happened either. Just last week, Turkey withdrew its offer of 10,000 soldiers. The Spanish are reducing their small contingent and with two dozen dead Italian police, soldiers and civilians Tuesday, we have to wonder what will happen to that small force. Many military commentators and retired officers say America has too few troops in Iraq, that they are overburdened, stretched too thin and vulnerable to attack. The Bush administration refuses to send more troops because the polling numbers on public approval of the war are tanking already.
Things will get worse before they get better. Of the 130,000 troops in Iraq, 60,000 are members of the Army Reserves. A recent poll by Stars and Stripes indicates half of those reservists will choose to terminate their affiliation with the Army when their obligation has been fulfilled. That’s 30,000 troops who will disappear from the Army. We do not have another 30,000 troops to replace them.
The bad guys in Iraq – whether we characterize them as Saddam loyalists, al Qaeda terrorists or something else – know this. They know they just have to keep the pressure on until March 2004 and they can catch George Bush in a vise. Either he must draw down his force in the face of a hostile enemy or he has to reinstate the draft in an election year.
America has not had a draft since 1973, when the last troops were pulled out of Vietnam. The system was broken. On one hand, thousands of young men defied the draft; on the other, the old draft system gave deferments to men in college – like George Bush and Dick Cheney. The Vietnam War was fought by the poor and black.
Poor and black is a good description of today’s all-volunteer Army and in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel of Harlem suggested we bring back the draft – only no college deferments this time.
Now, quietly, George W. may be coming around to Charlie’s way of thinking. There are 2,000 local draft boards across America; 80 percent of them have no members. I don’t think Mr. Bush will slit his political throat by calling for a draft before the election, but come the second week of November 2004, expect to start reading and hearing about a draft, regardless who wins.
So, let’s prepare. If you go to the Pentagon’s web site and follow the links, you can submit your name as a candidate to sit on your local draft board. I’ve already done it. I doubt my application will be approved, what with my arrest record, but don’t let that stop you.
It’s counterintuitive, but if there is to be a draft in this country, it will be best if peace-loving people manage to install themselves on local draft boards and pass out deferments like Halloween candy to the poor and black. Let’s classify all the millionaire’s sons – and daughters – as 1-A and then see how eager we are for pre-emptive wars. We’ve see what happens when we sit back and let the radical right seize control. It’s time for people of goodwill to grab the levers of government wherever we can grasp them.
Of the 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam, not one was the son of a member of Congress. I don’t want to see a senator’s child to die in Iraq, but I don’t want a janitor’s child to die there, either.
The Janitor’s Son
Do you feel a draft? Maybe not yet, but you might feel one soon. I have yet to see it in an American news source, but the Toronto Star and the UK’s Guardian are both reporting that the Department of Defense is shoring up the infrastructure for a national draft.
This is no surprise. The U.S. military currently has 9,000 troops deployed in Afghanistan and 130,000 in Iraq. After extending tours of duty several times, the Army has promised soldiers and their families that troops will not have to remain in a war zone for longer than a year at a stretch, which means troops will be rotating out of Iraq by late winter. This should not be a problem, as the Pentagon has estimated that troop numbers in Iraq will be reduced over time.
Except. Except that none of the Pentagon’s estimates about post-war Iraq have yet panned out. Nothing has gone according to plan. By now, the generals thought that Iraq would be peaceful enough to drop the force level down to 60,000 troops. The top brass also thought other nations would have contributed substantial numbers of troops by now, but that hasn’t happened either. Just last week, Turkey withdrew its offer of 10,000 soldiers. The Spanish are reducing their small contingent and with two dozen dead Italian police, soldiers and civilians Tuesday, we have to wonder what will happen to that small force. Many military commentators and retired officers say America has too few troops in Iraq, that they are overburdened, stretched too thin and vulnerable to attack. The Bush administration refuses to send more troops because the polling numbers on public approval of the war are tanking already.
Things will get worse before they get better. Of the 130,000 troops in Iraq, 60,000 are members of the Army Reserves. A recent poll by Stars and Stripes indicates half of those reservists will choose to terminate their affiliation with the Army when their obligation has been fulfilled. That’s 30,000 troops who will disappear from the Army. We do not have another 30,000 troops to replace them.
The bad guys in Iraq – whether we characterize them as Saddam loyalists, al Qaeda terrorists or something else – know this. They know they just have to keep the pressure on until March 2004 and they can catch George Bush in a vise. Either he must draw down his force in the face of a hostile enemy or he has to reinstate the draft in an election year.
America has not had a draft since 1973, when the last troops were pulled out of Vietnam. The system was broken. On one hand, thousands of young men defied the draft; on the other, the old draft system gave deferments to men in college – like George Bush and Dick Cheney. The Vietnam War was fought by the poor and black.
Poor and black is a good description of today’s all-volunteer Army and in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, Democratic Congressman Charlie Rangel of Harlem suggested we bring back the draft – only no college deferments this time.
Now, quietly, George W. may be coming around to Charlie’s way of thinking. There are 2,000 local draft boards across America; 80 percent of them have no members. I don’t think Mr. Bush will slit his political throat by calling for a draft before the election, but come the second week of November 2004, expect to start reading and hearing about a draft, regardless who wins.
So, let’s prepare. If you go to the Pentagon’s web site and follow the links, you can submit your name as a candidate to sit on your local draft board. I’ve already done it. I doubt my application will be approved, what with my arrest record, but don’t let that stop you.
It’s counterintuitive, but if there is to be a draft in this country, it will be best if peace-loving people manage to install themselves on local draft boards and pass out deferments like Halloween candy to the poor and black. Let’s classify all the millionaire’s sons – and daughters – as 1-A and then see how eager we are for pre-emptive wars. We’ve see what happens when we sit back and let the radical right seize control. It’s time for people of goodwill to grab the levers of government wherever we can grasp them.
Of the 58,000 Americans who died in Vietnam, not one was the son of a member of Congress. I don’t want to see a senator’s child to die in Iraq, but I don’t want a janitor’s child to die there, either.