Hey Stephen. You can rest easy, at least when it comes to being drafted.
What a wonderful, informative, and sometimes criminally misleading place the internet is. Anytime I hear a rumor like this, I always go to the internet equivalent of truth investigators, Snopes.com (check out the section on humor).
There, you’ll find your forwarded email almost word for word, and an explanation of the issue and why it’s highly unlikely to happen.
For those of you too lazy to click through (or have a phobia associated with clicking on any links I post) here’s the Cliff Notes version: Democrats in Congress are in the minority. That means they have virtually no power; instead of writing up bills and making laws, you spend your time devising ways to mess with who’s in charge.
Jimmy Doctor (Jim McDermott) and friends are pissed (as am I) at the way the Bushies and the Republican controlled Congress have been using and abusing the military. So they’ve sponsored this resolution.
A resolution, by the way, is known as a “sense of the house”, meaning it’s a general test the waters vote on what people think. It’s the relationship equivalent of telling that girl back in 5th grade that you like her, when you know full well girls have cooties.
McDermott is completely aware the bill isn’t going anywhere, but that’s not the point. The point is to focus the debate on the “backdoor” draft. Bush, Rumsfeld, and the Neo-Cons have so overstretched our military with the war in Iraq that they’re effectively “drafting” people by calling up the National Guard.(What the heck is a Neo-Con, anyway? Look here, with a nice Are You a Necon? bonus quiz. I’m a Liberal/Realist.)
Yes, it’s true, those who signed up for National Guard service know there is a chance they could be called up. But I would argue that the original intent of the National Guard was for use in an emergency military situation (like, for example, if the Soviets actually had attacked us like they did in my all-time favorite Saturday TV-11 special, Red Dawn ), natural disasters, or as a way for people to offer military service even if it isn’t their primary career. Not, as the Bushies have done, a way to enforce their misguided and wrongheaded worldview.
The Bushies have managed to use this “backdoor” draft without much backlash. Why institute an actual draft and take the heat for that when you can go the backdoor route?
It's possible McDermott’s bill (and the resulting chatter) will help focus attention on this military mismanagement by the Bushies. Kerry, for his part, has called for more active duty troops to help stop this backdoor draft
A fascinating discussion that won’t happen this cycle would be what if the US instituted mandatory service? I’m not necessarily talking military, but maybe one year of mandatory service for everyone in the country…it could be Vista Volunteers, Americorps , the Peace Corps, or military, the way Israel does.
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