Military draft? Not yet, but...
Commentary by Pat Murphy
America?s college and high school campuses and the Internet are afire with the rumor that the military draft is to be revived to keep U.S. military forces up to strength for Iraq and Afghanistan operations.
Not so, the White House and Congress say.
However, the plausibility for conscription gains credence as military enlistments fall short and resistance to the war in Iraq mushrooms.
Sparking draft rumors were ?Universal National Service Act? bills introduced by Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., and Rep. Charles Rangel, D-.N.Y., generally requiring two years of military duty or community service of 18-to-26-year-old males and females alike (S-89 and H-163). Neither has any widespread support.
Sen. Hollings and Rep. Rangel aren?t entirely pure in their motives: They know talk of a draft could sharply reduce homeland support for President Bush and the war in Iraq among families with draft-age children.
Yet, if Pentagon recruiting of new GIs or retaining current personnel when enlistments are completed falls short, the military faces years of being stretched painfully thin. A Pentagon study yet to be released reportedly concludes that the U.S. military doesn?t have sufficient forces to contain another overseas crisis, such as a North Korean invasion of South Korea or a war with Iran--or a new military adventure by the Bush administration.
Since a faction of Pentagon neo-conservative civilians persuaded President Bush to invade Iraq without proper postwar plans, without adequate troops and on bogus grounds, the military has borne the brunt of swelling resentment.
Items:
· Of 1,765 Army Individual Ready Reserve members scheduled to report for duty on Sept. 28, nearly one-third (622) failed to show, possibly facing prosecution if they continue their absence.
· Because of shortfalls in enlistments, the Army is reducing entrance standards for recruits plus increasing cash bonuses for enlistees as a lure.
· An Army serviceman prevented by Defense Secretary Rumsfeld?s ?stop-loss? order from leaving the service after his enlistment was completed is suing in federal court for release. A ruling against the Pentagon could free thousands of military personnel, further complicating manpower problems.
· With ongoing revelations the war in Iraq was justified with fraudulent evidence, and with increased fighting inflicting more U.S. casualties, more than 50 percent of Americans say the war isn?t justified.
And what of American youth?s take on the draft?
A senior at Wood River High School seems wiser and jaded from behavior of elders in the Vietnam-era draft. Under the headline, ?Hell no, they won?t go. . . .will they?? in the campus newspaper ?Wolverine Prints,? he said:
?No, I?ll get a deferment, just like my country?s leaders.?
