Bush wants the Draft? I think not., page 1

Originally posted by Herman
Come onnn doesn't this interest anyone? I bet if it were an anti-Bush thing people would be all over it.

I'm more concerned about the backdoor draft, but to answer you accusation, Rangel wants a draft to prevent war, not supply troops for one. Do you think anyone in the Bush administration would go near a draft idea before elections? Stop-loss is going to have to do. But what will happen after the election, if Bush wins? Let's look at some clues.

Then.

Large-Scale Ground Wars Unlikely

Department of Defense officials say the military is preparing to wage a "sustained and broad" campaign against terrorists and those who support them.

But the operations the Pentagon is planning are likely not on the same scale or of the same nature as America's last armed conflict � the 1991 Persian Gulf War, when the United States deployed more than a half-million servicemen and women to the region in the successful effort to repel Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

"It's very hard to imagine a military operation on the scale of 'Desert Storm,'" says Campbell. "We're not going to have the same kind of staging areas and I don't think we'll have the same potential uses of ground forces."

Campbell and other military experts say the United States will likely rely heavily on air and sea power and special forces units, which rarely operate in groups larger than one hundred.
ABC News

Now.

Appeal for draft board volunteers revives memories of Vietnam era

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday November 5, 2003
The Guardian

The Pentagon has begun recruiting for local draft boards, dredging up painful memories of Vietnam era conscription at a time of deepening misgiving about America's occupation of Iraq.

In a notice posted on the defence department's Defend America website, Americans over the age of 18 and with no criminal record are invited to "serve your community and the nation" by volunteering for the boards, which decide which recruits should be sent to war.

*SNIP*

However, officials were not immediately able to explain how the advertisement appeared on the site. Mr Amon said the notices were a response to the natural attrition in the ranks of the draft board, where some 80% of 11,000 places are now vacant. "It is the routine cycle of things," he said.

But it was unclear why the Pentagon decided at this time it was necessary to fill staff bodies which had played no function since the early 1980s.
Guardian UK