[Ramona_A_Stone]

Shhh greedy, we're not supposed to talk about that.

From some funny articles I ran across a while back:

this

In early November, a few news reports noted that the DoD’s “Defend America” website was running an announcement recruiting local draft board members. When this reporter called the phone number listed on the website on Nov. 5 to get more information, I was told to call the press office. There, the duty officer said he knew nothing about the posting, and referred me to the Selective Service System’s Public and Congressional Affairs Office. Asked about the web posting – an official-looking notice bearing the Selective Service System seal, Selective Service public affairs specialist Dan Amon told me his office “can’t remember ever having put it on there.” Acknowledging that “it sounds like us,” he carefully repeated, “No one remembers” posting it. When I called back the DoD press office and reported Amon’s response, the duty officer, Ensign Ott, asked me where I had seen the news reports about the notice, and suggested I could ask his boss about it. A short time later, he called me back and told me the site had been taken down. So, if you go to www.defendamerica.mil/articles/sss092203.html, you’ll get “file not found.” But it did exist on Nov. 5.

Maybe someone jumped the gun. Talking about reinstituting the draft before Election Day 2004 could be political suicide for Bush. But if he is re-elected, could there be a post-election surprise?

Clearly, the administration has a problem. Robert Dove, an American Friends Service Committee staff member who runs the New England region GI Rights Hotline, says there has been an “obvious increase” in hotline calls. Hotline staff are seeing an increase in AWOLs and UAs – absences without leave from the Army and “unauthorized absences” from the Navy.

Many of these callers are in advanced training, preparing to be shipped out to places like Iraq or Afghanistan. That’s typically when recruits start finding out that things aren’t what they signed up for, Dove told the World in a phone interview.

Many joined for the promise that they will get “up to $50,000” for education, he said. It turns out they have to apply in order to be eligible for the funding, have to put in a certain amount of time and done certain jobs in the service, and have to pass exams. After jumping those hurdles, only a handful get some money, Dove said, and most of those get between $2,000 and $3,000, just enough for a couple years of junior college. And, they have to pay a $1,200 fee, deducted in monthly installments from their military pay.

and this

As early as last November, however, red flags were being raised. The Journal News in New York state, for example, featured an article regarding New York's Selective Service System need for draft board members in case "a military draft would ever become necessary." And Rep. Charles B. Rangel's Dec. 31 op-ed piece in The New York Times entitled "Bring Back the Draft" caused considerable uproar, especially as it was accompanied by legislation introduced by Rangel and Sen. Fritz Hollings to do just that.

"The experts are all saying we're going to have to beef up our presence in Iraq," Rangel said in the Nov. 3, 2003 edition of Salon.com. "We've failed to convince our allies to send troops, we've extended deployments so morale is sinking, and the president is saying we can't cut and run. So what's left? The draft is a very sensitive subject, but at some point, we're going to need more troops, and at that point the only way to get them will be a return to the draft."

As most point out, however, any mention of conscription would be ill-advised before the 2004 election. "A number of analysts said yesterday that while any public suggestion of a draft would be politically suicidal for U.S. President George W. Bush in an election year, he could find himself with few other options if he is returned for a second term and the fighting in Iraq is still raging," the Toronto Star recently reported. "I don't think a presidential candidate would seriously propose a draft," the Cato Institute's Charles Pena added. "But an incumbent, safely in for a second term -- that might be a different story."

More liberal hysteria here.