No one will agree to draft, at least not before Nov. 2

Kalamazoo Gazette | September 29 2004

It's no surprise that rumors persist in e-mail and on the Internet that the federal government intends to revive the military draft next year.

The war in Iraq has drawn 138,000 U.S. servicemen and servicewomen there, while the potential for additional military action in places like Iraq, North Korea and Syria will up the need for military personnel.

Meanwhile, recruitment is down in some branches, especially the National Guard, which fell short of its recruiting goal for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, by about 5,000.

Army, Army Reserve and National Guard officers worry that, unless the tour of duty in Iraq is reduced from the current 12 months to somewhere between six and nine months, their ability to recruit new troops will continue to erode. And yet, if the lengths of tours of duty are reduced, even more troops will be needed.

But it's also no surprise that neither President Bush nor his Democratic challenger, U.S. Sen. John Kerry, will admit to any plans to reinstate the draft next year, although Kerry has suggested that might be the case if Bush is re-elected in November.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Pentagon officials have said repeatedly they have no plans to revive the draft. They've said an all-volunteer military is a better fighting force than a bunch of conscripts.

And we agree with that.

But if the United States is serious about using this nation's military to deal with the nations and world leaders with which it has problems, instead of the past practice of political, military and economic containment, then it had better have the man- and woman-power to back up that strategy. Abandoning containment policy in favor of sending in the troops worries us. It makes the world a more dangerous place and is extremely costly, both in terms of lives and money, as we are learning by watching the bills from the war in Iraq, as well as that country's eventual reconstruction, pile higher and higher.

If more military involvement is the direction this country takes in the next presidential term, then it isn't unreasonable to expect the Defense Department to have a plan to ensure an adequately staffed military.

Then, as we have said before, a military draft might eventually become a necessity.

But during a presidential campaign, it is just a bogeyman for Democrats to pull out and point to -- and for Republicans to disavow.

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