Toronto Star: Will U.S. Bring back the Draft?

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1068073289288&call_pageid=968332188854

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I don't think a presidential candidate would seriously propose a draft," said Charles Pena, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Cato Institute. "But an incumbent, safely in for a second term — that might be a different story.

"When you crunch the numbers, you understand why you hear talk about a draft. You only have to look at troop levels to realize we don't have the numbers to do the job in Iraq properly."

The U.S. now has 130,000 troops in Iraq and Pentagon officials, from Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on down, have maintained they do not want or need more troops there.

But with Turkey being the latest country to decline to send troops and even staunch U.S. allies such as Australia and Spain pulling their nationals out of increasingly dangerous Baghdad, the prospect for international help is dim.

When the U.S. fought the first Persian Gulf War in 1991, it had 10 army divisions ready to deploy at home as reinforcements.

Today, there is a single division remaining in the U.S. that could be deployed to Iraq.

The U.S. reserves are stretched thin, and the Pentagon doesn't want to extend the stay for troops already being asked to serve the longest unbroken war stints since Vietnam.
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before the election, and then come back in after the election? I don't think Bush will really leave Iraq, but he could do something like this in order to insure election.

Bush won't suggest a draft until he has won re-election. Should he, I guarentee that the first thing he does is reinstate the draft.
This election will decide the lives of tens of thousands of US soldiers.
The blood is starting to flow; we must stop it by denying Bush four more years.

propose a draft. That would be G.W. Bush.

...will be up for reelection in 2006. That will weight as heavily on their minds then, as it does on Karl Roves mind now.

its a matter of WHEN...and its all pointing to after the elections of
2004. I think that by summer of 2005, young men and women will be
sucked into the meat grinder...

time to 75 days!

Strategic Objective 1.2: Ensure a mobilization infrastructure of 56 State Headquarters,
442 Area Offices and 1,980 Local Boards are operational within 75 days of an authorized
return to conscription.


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

They don't have to register now, and the fundies would never stand for it. As a matter of fact, if we get the draft back for any length of time, the military will use the greater numbers of men to force woman further back from the combat zone, into the more traditional roles. (nurse & clerk/typist).

Tell that to the incumbent republican (and Democratic) Senators & Representatives. Bush won't have to face the voters again, but everybody in the House, and 1/3 of the Senate will have to run for reelection in 2006. If they think they can draft 200,000 young men (how many adult relatives & friends does that translate into?) in 2005 and then breeze back into office in 2006, they have severe cranial/rectal inversion.

If Bush wins in a landslide, the republican Representatives and Senators may be bold enough to approve this (and the democrats scared enough to go along). If it's a squeaker, they may be moved to forget Bush (what can he do for them after 2008?), and cover their own asses.

from the threat of the ever present evil-doers.

They won't even acknowledge that they might be considering a draft, because the "PNACers" KNOW that would scuttle Bush's reelection. The Dems wouldn't need any issue but that, and the 400 dead so far in Iraq.

If they institute a draft in 2005, and send those draftees to war, the republicans WON'T control congress in 2007. Every republican in Congress knows that.

...so there is nothing to lead me to believe that more than a few Democrats in Congress would oppose a draft. I don't understand it, but that's the way it looks to me.

will cover their butts by using the voice vote again
so that there is no paper trail.

Voice vote needs to be outlawed along with tacking
this and that onto various bills that have nothing
to do with this and that.

put the necessary pressure on House members.