Return of the Draft

Well, it appears that after years of the repeal of the draft, the current administration's vision of spreading democracy and freedom may require additional personnel. No surprise that discussions have been underway on how to get more troops to take care of coming needs (i.e. Iran).

An article by Tim Dickinson of the Rolling Stone reveals some very interesting details:

According to an internal Selective Service memo made public under the Freedom of Information Act, the agency's acting director met with two of Rumsfeld's undersecretaries in February 2003 precisely to debate, discuss and ponder a return to the draft.

The memo then proposes, in detail, that the Selective Service be "re-engineered" to cover all Americans -- "men and (for the first time) women" -- ages eighteen to thirty-four.

Testifying before Congress two weeks after the meeting, acting director of Selective Service Lewis Brodsky acknowledged that "consultations with senior Defense manpower officials" have spurred the agency to shift its preparations away from a full-scale, Vietnam-style draft of untrained men "to a draft of smaller numbers of critical-skills personnel."

According to the above, a shortage of any particular skill deemed as "critical" could mean your being drafted should you be so lucky as to possess that skill. This could severely impact the operations of companies, pratices, organizations of all sizes, from individual to corporate. Not to mention the impact on the livelihood of the individual's family.

But experts on military manpower say the focus on drafting personnel with special skills misses the larger point. The Army needs more soldiers, not just more doctors and linguists. "What you've got now is a real shortage of grunts -- guys who can actually carry bayonets," says McPeak. A wholesale draft may be necessary, he adds, "to deal with the situation we've got ourselves into. We've got to have a bigger Army."

Looks like the kids from less fortunate environments will once again be used as cannon fodder. Perhaps a nefarious plan to take advantage of all those who will be unable to find jobs under the current economic downward spiral.

So, just as the current administration created new terminology (i.e. enemy combatant) for getting around the treatment of prisoners of war as governed by the Geneva Convention, it appears they are preparing to pull the same slight of hand with the selective service.

Not only may your sons and daughters have to flee to Canada, so may you.