Americans Test Their Military Draft Machinery
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[edit] Abstract
The US is planning a test of its military draft system - the first test since 1998.
[edit] Details
A day after president George Bush made public his call to increase troop levels in Iraq, the US agency: The Selective Service System has announced its intention to run a full test of the draft machinery - something the agency says should have been done every 3 years, but has not been done since 1998 (due to funding constraints).
The US has used the draft (also known as conscription) throughout its history. The draft was called in the Civil War, World War I and World War II, and from 1948 to 1973. Currently, there have been no draft-callups since the Vietnam War. The draft is used to force randomly selected qualified people from the population into military service, usually to serve in a large scale war.
The war in Iraq has grown exceedingly violent and public support for the war has slid steadily in the US. Still, and despite the recently released plan on 'The Way Forward In Iraq' which calls for less US troops in Iraq, Bush has decided to go against the published plan and order more US boots on the ground in Iraq. However, finding the troops to fill those boots is becoming more and more difficult as the violence and unpopularity of the war have affected the military's ability to recruit new troops. Already the military has lowered its minimum standards for new recruits in an effort to raise its recruiting levels.
Many Americans fear that Bush would bring in the draft in efforts to save his war from looking like a disaster. However for a draft to come into effect, both the president and the congress must agree that it is required. The Whitehouse continues to deny any plans or proposals to bring in a draft, and Nancy Pelosi, the democratic speaker of the house to be, has said that bringing in a draft is not high on the democrats priority list.
Yet there are at least a few in the US government who are publicly pushing for a draft. Representative Charles Rangel from New York wants to bring in a draft - to balance out the demographics of the military. Rangel believes that the military is currently composed of too many poor and minority recruits - and that the draft with its random element would help balance the demographics in the military. The idea is that if the politicians and other rich families had to face the prospect of their own children being drafted into the military, there would be even less support for this already unpopular war.
Analysts have been saying for more than a year now that the US military is over-extended in Iraq, and that it would not have sufficient troop levels to start or take part in another large military exercise - such as an incursion into Iran, Syria or North Korea, for instance. Should another military mission be required of the US military while it is still in Iraq, the draft may become less of a machine on a shelf and more of a reality for youth once again in the US.
While the website for the Selective Service System now displays an opening text block about how this is only a planned test of the system, and that 'the public should not be alarmed', the currently worsening situation in Iraq, the president's call for more troops, and the currently low levels of new recruits all combined with this recent call to test the draft system may have more than a few members of the public quite 'alarmed'.
