Nicole Colson, Chicago
"We're not going to have a draft so long as I'm the president." President George W. Bush sounded like the Wizard of Oz in full "pay-no-attention-to-the-man-behind-the-curtain" mode in St Louis on October 8, when he tried to deflect attention away from rumours of a new military draft.
But recent news reports show that people are right to be worried. For example, an October 19 New York Times article reported that the Selective Service has been updating contingency plans for a mandatory call-up of medical personnel — including doctors, nurses and others — because of a looming shortage of health-care workers in the military.
In a secret report written over the summer, the NYT reported, a contractor hired by the Pentagon described how to pull off such a draft — including how the military could sway public opinion in its favour. Still, the report warned, steps to implement such a draft should be limited because "overtures from Selective Service to the medical community will be seen as precursors to a draft."
Selective Service officials immediately tried to downplay the idea. "The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to carry it out," Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, told the NYT. But in a recent article in the Wisconsin Medical Journal, Col. Roger Lalich, a senior physician in the Army National Guard, said, "A physician draft is the most likely conscription into the military in the near future."
Because this is an election year, both parties insist that a draft is a last resort, and both Bush and Democratic candidate John Kerry have repeatedly said they won't bring back conscription — though Democratic lawmakers in Congress have been more ready to associate themselves with floated proposals for a call-up.
But whoever is sitting in the White House in January may not have a choice. With US casualty rates in Iraq running in the thousands and National Guard units overextended, the military is already stretched thin. This year, the National Guard fell short of its recruitment goal by 10% — the first time since 1994 that it missed its target.
Add to that the fact that the Army admitted last week that more than 800 "Individual Ready Reservists" — former soldiers who have left the military, but who can be recalled — have failed to comply with Army orders to get back in uniform and report for duty in Iraq or Afghanistan. That's more than one-third of the total of the ready reservists who had been told to report to a mobilisation station by October 17.
With both candidates committed to continuing the occupation of Iraq and expanding the "war on terror," something has to give. Don't believe the hype: The threat of a new draft is very real.
[Abridged from Socialist Worker, <http://www.socialistworker.org>.]
From Green Left Weekly, November 3, 2004.
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