NY Times Editorial on How Few Troops left after 03/05. Bush readies DRAFT [View All]

The logical conclusion of this editorial--which is actually never stated--is that after March 2005, Bush will have to reinstate the DRAFT to maintain security in Iraq and not "cut and run". Also unstated is that the Selective Service is spending $28 million to be ready to hold the first DRAFT Lottery 75 days after March 31, 2005

http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html

The SSS has allocated a million dollars of that money to test and reactivate the Alternative Service for COs 96 days after March 31, 2005. If re-elected, Bush will say on April 1, 2005 "We're not going to CUT AND RUN FROM IRAQ", and the Congress WILL authorize a return to the DRAFT!

http://www.sss.gov/PDFs/NovDec2003-Register.pdf (p. 6-7 for Medical
and new Special Skills Draft of 20 to 44 year-old men and women)

Those men who will be 20 in 2005, as well as all 3.4 million medical personnel, as well as computer experts and linguists under the age of 45, men and women, can be inducted--starting June 15, 2005 with the first Lottery drawing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/29/opinion/29MON1.html?ex=1073707104&ei=1&en=5f0618bd9612a5df

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The Thinning of the Army

Over a third of the Army's active-duty combat troops are now in Iraq, and by spring the Pentagon plans to let most of them come home for urgently needed rest. Many will have served longer than a normal overseas tour and under extremely harsh conditions. When the 130,000 Americans rotate out for home leave, nearly the same number will rotate in. At that point, should the country need to send additional fighters anywhere else in the world, it will have dangerously few of them to spare.

This is the clearest warning yet that the Bush administration is pushing America's peacetime armed forces toward their limits. Washington will not be able to sustain the mismatch between unrealistic White House ambitions and finite Pentagon means much longer without long-term damage to our military strength. The only solution is for the Bush administration to return to foreign policy sanity, starting with a more cooperative, less vindictive approach to European allies who could help share America's military burdens.

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Well over 100,000 American troops will be needed for many more months, unless the Bush administration starts wooing NATO allies instead of snubbing them. Eventually, the Iraqi recruits now being hurriedly trained may provide some relief. Yet there are doubts about their military competence and political reliability, and fears that if Washington is in too much of a hurry, it will succeed only in recreating Saddam Hussein's old security forces in new American-issued uniforms.

Meanwhile, if a sudden crisis were to erupt in North Korea, Afghanistan or elsewhere, the Pentagon might be hard pressed to respond. For a time, it could make do by sending tired troops back into action, mobilizing reserves and borrowing forces from areas that are quiet but still highly volatile. Such expedients have severe long-term costs. The White House must recognize the damage its unilateralism is inflicting on the Army and change course before the damage becomes harder to undo.

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CNN/TIME POLL DEC 30/JAN 1 Bush 51% - Dean 46%!!