Ted Rall : A COLD DRAFT -Will Bush Bring Back the Draft?

[papau]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=127&ncid=742&e=7&u=/uclicktext/20031204/cm_ucru/acolddraft

A COLD DRAFT
Thu Dec 4, 6:22 PM ET By UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE/TED RALL

Will Bush Bring Back the Draft?


NEW YORK--When I was a kid, standing around the post office waiting for my mom to buy stamps, I entertained myself by flipping through the "wanted" notices clipped to the bulletin board. I was impressed by the fact that most of the people who'd done bad things didn't look all that evil in their mug shots. Mostly the felons looked tired. And poor. You could tell from their frayed collars.


Mixed in with the accused murderers, kidnappers and mail fraud conspirators (this was the post office, after all) were local kids wanted for dodging the draft. Their profiles didn't look anything like those of men wanted for tri-state killing sprees. The sections dedicated to "prior convictions" were blank and the government didn't have fingerprints for them. Draft evaders' photos came from their high school yearbooks where everyone turned a little to the right, grinning with optimism and framed by shaggy early '70s haircuts. Nevertheless, the message was clear. As far as the government was concerned, evading service in Vietnam was as bad as boosting a bank.


Whenever the feds needed more cannon fodder, they interrupted primetime sit-coms to broadcast a draft lottery. Two guys wearing American flag lapel pins would turn a metal tumbler and pluck out slips of paper bearing birthdays from 18 years earlier. "If you were born on April 4, 1951, you have 30 days to report to your local Selective Service bureau." <snip>


Our armed forces are stretched dangerously thin. 60,000 of the 130,000 troops stationed in Iraq come from the National Guard or reserves. 90,000 more are serving in Kuwait, Afghanistan (news - web sites), South Korea (news - web sites), Kosovo and Macedonia. Demoralized by low pay and long tours of duty under harsh conditions--why won't Bush invade someplace with nice weather and hot babes?--49 percent of soldiers told Stars and Stripes newspaper that they won't re-enlist. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top brass say they prefer volunteer professionals to surly conscripts, but in the end they may not have a choice.


This much is certain: If Bush resumes his neocolonial landgrab after "re"election, he'll have to bring back the draft. And a new generation of young men, ordered to disrupt their lives to feed the vanity and bank accounts of a cabal of gangsters, will ponder whether to flee or fight.


(Ted Rall is the author of the graphic travelogue "To Afghanistan and Back," an award-winning recounting of his experiences covering the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. It is now available in a revised and updated paperback edition containing new material. Ordering information is available at amazon.com.)

[izzie]

1. Lets set up a pool. It wall be after Bush tells us he is not going to do i

If he gets in we will have a draft.

[papau]

2. I agree

:-(

[wysi]

3. Do I hear Mr. Biafra singing?

'Don't worry it's for a cause...
feeding global corporations' claws!'

Thank Brian I am 37 and living in New Zealand. But I feel sad for all those boys who are going to die (like the ones who are dying now) for nothing at all.

A former colleague of mine has a son in Mosul, and yet he continues to back *. I can't understand why.