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Can't rule out the draft
ROWLAND NETHAWAY, Senior editorial
Now that the presidential election is over, it is time to consider reinstating the military draft.
Both President Bush and Sen. Kerry said emphatically that they would not institute a military draft to shore up our troops, but that was yesterday. This is today. Times change. Situations change.
You might have noticed that neither candidate said what he would do if the United States needs to bring back mandatory conscription.
No one got around to asking the candidates that question. That's a shame because it's easy to imagine situations where the United States will need more troops than we currently have in our all-volunteer military.
"We're not going to have a draft, period," Bush told the nation during one of the televised debates.
"An all-volunteer army is best suited to fight the new wars of the 21st century," Bush said. "We don't need mass armies anymore."
Surely Bush, Donald Rumsfeld and the military brass hope that an all-volunteer military will be able to protect this nation at home and abroad and also adequately project America's geopolitical enterprises overseas.
Hope, however, cannot calm the tempest. It is impotent as a national security policy.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said a draft is not needed or desirable. The U.S. House of Representatives voted down a bill to reinstate the draft by an overwhelming 402-2.
Since the reinstatement of the draft would require legislation approved by Congress and signed by the president, that would appear to put an end to the speculation.
----Draft vote on conditions now----
The only problem is that the House vote was a largely political maneuver designed to squelch rumors of a "secret plan" to bring back the draft. It was based not only on politics, but also on current military demands.
There are about 157,000 troops now in Iraq with 133,000 of those in U.S. uniforms. In the lead up to the invasion of Iraq, Gen. Eric Shinseki, who then was the Army chief of staff, and then-Secretary of the Army Thomas White said the Iraq war would take "several hundred thousand soldiers."
Toppling Saddam Hussein's regime was easier than everyone expected, but the nation-building has been much more difficult than anyone imagined.
It turns out that more troops are needed to provide stability in Iraq after the regime change than in the actual war.
Times change. Situations change. Hope doesn't phase reality.
Already soldiers and Marines are being rotated back into Iraq in an effort to provide the needed troop strength to combat the deadly insurgency dedicated to preventing the establishment of an Iraqi democratic government. In what amounts to a "back-door draft," other U.S. troops already in Iraq are having their tours extended.
The terrorist-supporting mullahs in Iran appear intent on building their own nuclear bomb and could spark a civil war in next-door Iraq between their fellow Shia disciples and Iraq's Sunni minority.
North Korea apparently already has nuclear weapons and the insular communist nation is run by an unstable cult-like leader who could either invade Seoul, South Korea, or launch a nuke at Japan.
Current U.S. military plans call for pulling more of our troops out of South Korea and hoping for the best.
Because U.S. troop strength is stretched so thin now, it is out of the question to send troops into Sudan to stop the genocide of the black citizens in Darfur who are being slaughtered, raped and driven from their land with the support of the Sudanese government.
The all-volunteer military has been a 30-year success and will continue to be a success as long as demand for the military doesn't outstrip the supply of volunteers.
Unfortunately, U.S. military troop strength appears at the tipping point right now. We can either hope that the situation doesn't get worse, or we can consider more realistic alternatives.
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