by Jeff Davis

It has never been entirely clear just how Bush and his little neocon friends intend to occupy Iraq and Afghanistan forever, not to mention fight the looming war on Iran with a dwindling number of ground troops. And don’t forget the hundreds of military bases overseas in non-combat zones. Even after the infamous “back door draft” where thousands of Army Reserve and National Guard troops were dragged off to Iraq, the army was still coming up short. The next step was lowering recruiting standards to the point where any criminal, drug addict, “mentally challenged” drooler and garden variety psychopath can get in. The only way the Army can meet its manpower quotas these days is by cooking the books, pretending that their recruitment goals were as low as the tiny number of new volunteers showing up.

We are losing troops at an alarming rate. The number of US soldiers dead is 3,876. The number of soldiers with serious brain injuries is estimated at 20,000. The number of soldiers with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) could be as high as 20 percent for troops who come under attack five or more times. Then there’s another 10 to 20 thousand with one or more limbs blown off or severe internal injuries. Very few soldiers want to reenlist for the Iraq meatgrinder and our military has to replace the soldiers who won’t reenlist as well as the ones killed, too severely injured and the PTSD cases.

We can’t keep up all these military deployments without a draft, and a few politicians are honest enough to say so. One recent news article reports “Sen. Chuck Hagel, speaking to an audience of Lincoln High School students, warned Tuesday that the nation may need to turn to compulsory military service ‘or some kind of draft’ to support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” I thought the draft WAS compulsory military service, but perhaps Senator Hagel’s understanding of the English language is more nuanced than mine.

The article also notes “Questioned after his speech, Hagel, R-Neb., said he is not calling for reinstatement of the military draft. But he said the growing difficulty of maintaining an adequate volunteer military force is a reality. ‘I’m just stating the obvious. At some point we’re going to have to make a decision on how to attract a quality force,’ he said.” Presumably by that Hagel means a force not comprised of the scum of the earth, which the Army seems to be going after at present.

The same article continues “Hagel, a Vietnam veteran and Purple Heart recipient, spoke to more than 120 government and history students as part of a project to have veterans speak to students about their experiences. The U.S. military draft ended in 1973, part of the bitter reaction to the Vietnam War. Hagel told the Lincoln students that the burdens of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are being carried by too small a share of the nation’s population. ‘We have more than 300 million people in this country, but less than 1 percent of our population has to bear all of the burden, to make all of the sacrifices, to do all the fighting and all the dying for the rest of us,’ he said.”

After the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, Americans were lining up to volunteer. The 911 attack however has always had a peculiar strangeness to it. Many Americans are suspicious that our own government had a role in allowing that attack to happen. Obviously, that half of Americans isn’t going to want to volunteer. We invaded Afghanistan, took it over and Osama bin Laden wasn’t there. (This is just the sort of incompetence people expect from the Bush administration.) So you could join the military to fight al Qaeda in a country, where he clearly isn’t, and risk being killed much like Pat Tillman, who was the highest profile volunteer for the war on terror. Gee, I wonder why people don’t want to enlist.

Look, the draft is coming back, and I think everyone with at least two brain cells to rub together knows it. The neocons and Hillary when she comes in simply can’t run a huge empire with only a few hundred thousand troops. The attack on Iran will either be immediately preceded by, or immediately followed by, some kind of massive “terror attack.” The whole country will snap to attention and stop asking questions, and that’s when Bush or Hillary and their little neocon friends will slip the draft revival legislation through the spineless cowards in Congress.