Draft?

Come on all you big strong men, time
to give Uncle Sam a helpin' hand.

Is the Next Step a Draft?

August 22, 2006 6:53 PM

Rhonda Schwartz Reports:

An Iraq War veterans group says the call-up of thousands of Marines from the Individual Ready Reserve, announced by the Pentagon today, is "one of the last steps before resorting to a draft."

"This move should serve as a wake-up call to America," said Jon Soltz, an Army captain who served in Iraq and heads the group VoteVets.org, which raises funds for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans running for Congress. "Today's announcement that thousands of Marines in the Individual Ready Reserve will be called back to go to Iraq is proof that our military is overextended, and there is no plan for victory in Iraq."

While the Pentagon has repeatedly maintained the armed forces have met their recruiting and retention goals, Soltz says, "Today's actions speak louder than words."

The IRR are reservists, who have returned to civilian life, don't drill on a regular basis and prior to the Iraq war were rarely called to active duty. The Army has been dipping into their IRR pool since shortly after the beginning of the war, but today the Marine Corps said they also planned to call thousands of these traditionally last resort troops back to active duty.

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The Bush administration has stated that the reinstatement of a military draft is unlikely. Earlier this summer, Vice President Cheney told reporters he is supporter of an all volunteer military.

"We keep the provisions for the draft in case circumstances should arise where it might be needed," he said, "but I don't foresee the development of those kinds of conditions any time in the future.

The Duke class of 2008 is not going to Iraq for George Bush. The GOP will be turfed out of office first. Support for the war is a lot more fragile than people think. Hell, even black and latino kids are not enlisting in the numbers they used to. If they had, Steven Green and his ilk would never have been allowed to enlist.

Bush can stay in Iraq as long as it's a colonial war with a volunteer army. Once the draft becomes an issue, the war in Iraq is over. Bush can say what he wants, but no one wants a draft their kids would serve in.

Even floating this as a trial balloon means all the patty cake about Jenna and not Jenna will be over, as would his bodyman going to Harvard B school without finishing college. People will want to know why no member of the Bush family is in the military. And all this "well, they're individuals" crap would be tossed under the bus like so much litter.

The chickenhawks have proved that this war is only popular as long as the Casey Sheehans of the world die and their mothers shut up about it. They try to draft middle class white kids to be Army Infantry or Marine Riflemen and all hell breaks loose.

It's been easy to ignore or tee off on Sheehan, but if they seriously talk about the draft, she'll be taken as seriously as a hurricane warning.

Bush's colonial war has gone on because most people could ignore it. Once that is no longer the case, his war and his presidency is over.