Gearing Up for the Draft

[bemildred]

I was thinking when I wrote the Zugzwang piece that a "Pearl
Harbor" event around Christmas might be seen as a "solution" to the
problem of getting support for the draft. I'm glad this guy said
it so I don't have to.

There’s only one way the American people will accept the reinstatement of the draft. There would have to be “a massive casualty-producing event” on American soil. That’s it. There’s simply no other way Bush can get the popular support needed. And, since we’re able to figure that out, it’s certain that White House planners-and-schemers have figured it out, too. This sets us up for some very ugly scenarios, including the possibility that we’ll be seeing more terrorist “events” sometime in the near future.

We’re hearing stories almost daily about how “stretched” the military is. A recent army survey discovered that only half the soldiers are planning to re-enlist. Elaine Monaghan reports from the Times of London that: “The US military is fighting desertion, recruitment shortfalls and legal challenges from its own troops.” She also notes that, “a further sign of strain can be seen in the Army's decision this year to mobilize5 , 600members of a pool of former soldiers that can be mobilized only in a national emergency,” and that, “Forty per cent of the138 , 000 (National Guard) troops in Iraq are part-timers who never expected to be sent to the front line.”

These are signs that the military is understaffed, demoralized and seriously overextended. It needs more “warm bodies” to fill their depleted ranks, and it needs them soon. The state of affairs in Iraq is quickly deteriorating. The siege in Falluja did nothing to quell the resistance, and for all practical purposes, the situation is getting worse. Stop loss rules have been enacted, forcing soldiers to stay in the military well beyond their original commitment, and tours of duty have been extended for everyone presently in uniform. Those who watched CBS’ 60 Minutes last Sunday saw how the Defense Dept has even called a 55 year old woman back to duty to serve in Iraq. These are signs of desperation, and a clear indication that the draft will be reinstated. Casualties in Iraq are also high, increasing the pressure on the Pentagon to come up with more men.

Consider the comments of Paul Craig Roberts in a recent Counterpunch article: “According to the US military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, the hospital has treated20 , 802US troops for injuries received in Iraq. According to the Pentagon's figures,54 % of the wounded are too seriously injured to return to their units. If that figure is correct, it would mean that the resistance fighters have put11 , 233US troops out of action. Add in the1 , 254US troops who have been killed for a total of12 ,487. That's9 % of our total force in Iraq and a much higher percentage of our combat force.”9 % in less than two years. If that doesn’t show how badly the war in Iraq is going, then this will. Roberts says that the Pentagon has begin “redeploying the disabled” because “we have no more troops to throw at the few thousand lightly armed Iraqi resistance fighters who have tied down eight US divisions.”

aljazeera.info