Bush War Adviser Says Draft Worth a Look

A few months back I posted a bulletin saying I believed there was a very good chance that the dreaded military draft would soon be making a comeback.

There is legislation currently on the books, drafted originally by Rep. Charles Rangel in 2003 and re-introduced in January, 2007, requiring national service for all citizens between the ages of 18-42 during a time of war, with a further proviso for mandatory military service during wartime.

This was originally introduced by Rep Rangel as a form of protest but it is on the books nonetheless and, cynic that I am, I felt that the reintroduction of this bill earlier this year was entirely too convenient if the stop-loss orders and low morale wore down the existing military to a point where no other options were readily available.

Here is a link to the Library Of Congress site for the amended bill (H.R. 393): "http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:H.R.393:"

For a true rockin' good time for all the twenty and thirty year olds on myspace, check out this site: "http://everyoneserves.org".

I believed then, as I do now, that not only is the draft possible but that it is actually quite probable.

At the time, I might as well have written that the Easter Bunny was going to bomb Indiana and then attack the Tooth Fairy because everyone thought this idea preposterous and let me know just how stupid I was.

I guess perhaps I really am THAT stupid because I still believe it very likely that the draft will be reintroduced.

It was mandatory when I was in High School that all 18 year olds register with Selective Service. I had a draft card when I was 18 and was worried all throughout high school that my days of little boy jock bliss might one day come to a screeching and unhappy stop and that I would wake up and find my blond skirt-chasing behind standing waist-deep in a rice paddie in South Vietnam.

Thankfully, I was in the United State's last draft class: I was born in 1955, the "all-Volunteer" Army was introduced while I was a Senior in High School in 1973.

I hope this never happens but, fwiw, I am attaching the following article taken from commondreams.org: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/11/3117/

Published on Saturday, August 11, 2007 by The Associated Press
Bush War Adviser Says Draft Worth a Look
by Richard Lardner

Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday. "I think it makes sense to certainly consider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."0811 05

"And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.

President Nixon abolished the draft in 1973. Restoring it, Lute said, would be a "major policy shift" and Bush has made it clear that he doesn't think it's necessary.

The repeated deployments affect not only the troops but their families, who can influence whether a service member decides to stay in the military, Lute said.

"There's both a personal dimension of this, where this kind of stress plays out across dinner tables and in living room conversations within these families," he said. "And ultimately, the health of the all- volunteer force is going to rest on those sorts of personal family decisions."

The military conducted a draft during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. The Selective Service System, re- established in 1980, maintains a registry of 18-year-old men.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has called for reinstating the draft as a way to end the Iraq war.

Bush picked Lute in mid-May as a deputy national security adviser with responsibility for ensuring efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are coordinated with policymakers in Washington. Lute, an active-duty general, was chosen after several retired generals turned down the job.