President Bush in the first debate mentioned that United States would have an all volunteer army. Then I was watching an interview of Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont with Tim Russert where he told candidly that a draft is unavoidable given the current circumstances. Now the NY Times has an article about it.
More than one-third of nearly 3,900 former soldiers mobilized under a special wartime program have resisted their call-ups. The Army National Guard fell nearly 10 percent short of its 2004 recruiting goal of 56,000 enlistees. The Army, concerned about recruiting, has eased some standards. And there have been bipartisan calls in Congress to expand the Army by more than 20,000 soldiers.
Just months ago, Pentagon officials suggested that a new draft could be avoided if recruitment and retention numbers stayed high. But as fighting in Iraq escalates, signs are growing that those numbers may not be adequate in the coming years. Thus, the new talk about a draft. [The Option Nobody’s Pushing. Yet]
If Bush gets re-elected, there can be more pre-emptive strikes against other nations as well. With the war now going on in two fronts and if the size of volunteer army is not increased, maybe the inevitable will happen.
Only if Congress agrees to it, which I doubt given the fact that it will be unpopular.
Niraj, If Bush wins and the republicans having majority in the congress the chances of a draft happening might not ge far fetched.
It stands to reson that it will be unpopular or become so very quickly.
Kautilya, interestingly the only times the draft has been proposed during the Bush administration it was by Democratic congressmen – one of Charlie Rangel(?) and I forget who the other guy was.
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HR00163:@@@P
The Bill has 14 cosponsors and it has been placed on the suspension calendar
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_10_03.php#003571
Fine me someone in the Pentagon who thinks the draft would be a good idea and supports it (it would ruin the standing professional army) and Ill buy you a 50 dollar Amazon gift certificate!
Just some more URL’s to help put this meme to rest.
From Snopes
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/draft.asp. I also suggest Factcheck.org http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docid=200. If you know someone who is a officer in the military talk to them about what effect the draft would have. The way the military is currently set up trying to support, train, and integrate a large draft of troopers who overload the military. Who would train all these people, how long would it take, etc. You will find that if you ask real military people these questions the vast majority will tell you that the Draft would be a terrible idea.
You are right, robi – every time I have heard this discsussed, all the military people came out against the idea. They wanted to have a volunteer soldier covering their back in the battlefield – not someone forced into service.
I think most people know the only reason this subject has even come up is because of the time of year (Nov 2 is coming soon).
Recently the house moved to Squash Rangel’s draft bill which is being spun as even more evidence that the Republicans are trying to bring back the draft which is just crazy in that no one on either side supports it and the person who made the bill happens to be a democrat (both draft bills have been sponsored by dems) http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13021_LA_Times_Distorts_Draft_Vote.
This is all just electioneering. The only way we will see the Draft reinstated is if we are attacked by some major foreign power and fight a long drawn out war. No one is going to allow a draft back other wise and the President does not have the power to just unilaterally declare a Draft. So even if the President starts ten wars tomorrow he is going to just have to deal with the troop situation as is (which is one of the main reasons our country is so big on force multipliers).