Iraq War Failure: Bush Draft Call Coming

Everyone knows that the Iraq War is a fiasco. We are losing there. In addition, the situation in Afghanistan has also deteriorated dramatically in recent months. Despite Bush's campaign promise not to bring back the draft, the administration is desperate. They have plans to attack Iran (or through their proxy, Israel). This is a World War in the making. And for that you're going to need troops. Currently, Americans soldiers are being forced to do several tours of duty in Iraq....

"In a lively but polite give-and-take, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld fielded questions Saturday from wives and other family members of Alaska-based soldiers whose combat tours in Iraq were abruptly extended just as they prepared to return home this month."

A big part of the problem is that increasingly our service men and women don't want to go fight an Iraq War that the American people don't support (just as in Vietnam War). The I.E.D. deaths have also contributed to the poor morale. Soldiers, if they are going to die, want to go down fighting an enemy not get blown up by a car bomb. To many of our troops have seen their buddies get torn to pieces. But the greatest demoralization comes from the seeming lack of hope for a successful conclusion to the Iraq War....

'Up until now the Marines were able to recruit plenty of people and get them to come back just by asking. They're the most gung ho of all the services," said Lawrence Korb, who specialized in manpower issues as an assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration. "The fact that they're forcing some Marines back into service is indicative of how military and former military people feel about this war.'

A Washington think tank makes an argument for a draft...

"'The all-volunteer force is good for fighting short wars ... but this is the long war,' said Bob Work, a senior defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments...."

The continued coercion of U.S. troops to serve more acceptable will lead to increased rebellion. This will force politicians to call for a draft....

"'In the past three years we've gone from strategic reserves' - troops called upon rarely in emergencies - 'to operational reserves' used to fill ongoing manpower shortages, said David R. Segal, the director of the Center for Research on Military Organization at the University of Maryland. 'That's not what they understood when they signed up.'"

Some are calling the recall of 2,500 Marines - a back door draft:

"Last week, the president authorized the Marine Corps to recall as many as 2,500 inactive reserves at a time to reinforce the 138,000 troops in Iraq, and also those in Afghanistan. About 14,000 inactive Army reservists already have gotten the involuntary call-up notice. As recently as two months ago, Pentagon leaders were talking about drawing down U.S. forces and beginning to turn over control to the Iraqi army. Like so many other of the administration's plans for the Iraq War, reducing the U.S. military presence hasn't gone anything like it was supposed to go."

With the Neocons beating the drums for war with Iran, a greater U.S. military presence in the Middle East is assured, especially after Israel's adventure in Lebanon.

Some Republicans can't bring themselves to use the word draft but we know what they mean. For example, former Defense Secretary, William Cohen, used the term "universal service" while appearing on FOX (where else) recently. Expect to hear more trial balloons like Cohen's.

If you don't want your children taken from you to die in needless wars you might want to demand your representative in Congress make a vow not to go along with a call for a draft along with policies that promote war.