The Draft coming back ?

President Bush in the first debate mentioned that United States would have an all volunteer army. Then I was watching an interview of Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont with Tim Russert where he told candidly that a draft is unavoidable given the current circumstances. Now the NY Times has an article about it.

More than one-third of nearly 3,900 former soldiers mobilized under a special wartime program have resisted their call-ups. The Army National Guard fell nearly 10 percent short of its 2004 recruiting goal of 56,000 enlistees. The Army, concerned about recruiting, has eased some standards. And there have been bipartisan calls in Congress to expand the Army by more than 20,000 soldiers.

Just months ago, Pentagon officials suggested that a new draft could be avoided if recruitment and retention numbers stayed high. But as fighting in Iraq escalates, signs are growing that those numbers may not be adequate in the coming years. Thus, the new talk about a draft. [The Option Nobody's Pushing. Yet]

If Bush gets re-elected, there can be more pre-emptive strikes against other nations as well. With the war now going on in two fronts and if the size of volunteer army is not increased, maybe the inevitable will happen.

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