Before Congress got out of town for August, a General warned at a hearing on the war that by next Spring either troop levels must fall to 70,000 in Iraq-or the draft must be reinstated!

The question asked today in the Examiner( Threads (at) dcexaminer.com ) is "Agree? Disagree? Congress should bring back the military draft."

This comes just one week after they ran William Kristal's piece claiming the war can be won and that General made his statements to Congress. In addition, a Washington Post article recently claimed Bush doesn't want the draft but conscription is not "off the table" altogether.

Here's the situation: The occupation was until now sustained by rotating troops in and out. The "surge" consists of sending nearly all those rotating troops in at once, but must be followed by a drawdown as there are no more troops to send when the surge units are exhausted. It's just like the crash that comes after a crackhead has been hitting the pipe too long.

If the draft is not reinstated, there is NO WAY around the eventual drawdown! If, however the draft was reinstated by the first of January, it might be possible to have replacement troops available to turn the surge into a permanenet increase in troop levels by April.

If the GOP and Blue Dog Dems think the surge is "working," this become a mighty temptation, with no other way seen to "win" the war. While bringing back the draft during a Presidential campaign season would be political suicide for the GOP, to NOT bring back the draft will guarantee defeat in Iraq for corporate America.

This, in turn, could permanently end US control over Middle East oil markets, as an anti-US regime rises to power controlling oil reserves the size of Saudi Arabia's.

If the draft IS reinstated, the US will probably still lose the war(the Iraqi Resistance will decide this one), but Bush could well decide this is a choice between the election and the war. Besides, if the GOP were to forfeit the 2008 election by bringing back the draft, it would just about guarantee that the final defeat in Iraq happened to a Democratic president.

There is just one problem in all this-where ther is a draft, ther is resistance! As I warned the Center for American Progress in 2005, bringing back the draft will open a new front in the war-INSIDE the United States.

During Vietnam almost 300 draft boards were destroyed by insurgents here. Just how do the supporters of the draft think all those kids in the ALF and ELF will react to getting draft notices? They already burn million dollar houses under construction, smash SUV's and storm animal torture labs,wo why would they not to the same to the draft boards?

Those recruiting stations that have been vandalized around here are nothing but a tiny, tiny taste of what would happen after a draft was reinstated, as are the very largest antiwar protests of the storming of Capitol Hill on January 27.

If the draft is reinstated, whole cities will be shut down by protesters while draft board offices burn-there will truly be no sleep for the wicked!

HIS UNHOLINESS (GEORGE WARMONGER BUSH) : "Sorry to Oil the Post 9-11 Bush Bohemian Grove Draft Boards in Amerika, the Post 9-11 Bush Bohemian Grove Hijacking of US Foreign Policy in Amerika, the Post 9-11 Bush Bohemian Grove No Child Left Behind Program aka The Bush Bohemian Grove Draft Program, and the Post 9-11 Bush Bohemain Grove Oil For Bombs, Torture, and Flag Draped Coffins Program in the Middle East but Oil comes First. READY TO REVEL WITH THE DEVIL ??????????"

Getting drafted means you have to pass the induction process. I don't see many teens and young adults today who could pass the test. I barely got in the Navy, as a volunteer. Also consider the alternatives to military service, provided by Selective Service. Get a job in medical, dental or forestry, while waiting for the draft, and you'll have a foot in those areas.

The idea that bringing back the draft will be more democratic than the current system of voluntary enlistments, which means that most combat troops come from barrios, ghettos, and so-called white trash areas like Bakersfield and South Boston, is nonsense. Would anyone but a fool believe that Bush's daughters or Mitt Romney's sons would ever get drafted? Even if a draft was brought back, the draftees would not come from wealthy or upper middle class backgrounds.

In the last stages of the Vietnam War, most deferments were abolished and a lottery system was installed, under which dates of birth were picked at random to be drafted. In other words, if your birthday was number 1 or number 20, you were supposedly sure to be drafted, while if your birthday was 365 or even 280 you had nothing to worry about. That is not the way things worked out. The Army and the Marine Corps were still stocked with cannon fodder who overwhelmingly came from working class or poverty stricken backgrounds. The wealthy still did not go. If I remember correctly, not one Harvard student was drafted. What are the chances that they all drew high numbers in the lottery?

A draft will never be "fair." Rich kids' parents will buy them out of it or make use of close friends in the government. Well-educated young people will easily figure out that it is easy to escape military if you get a friendly psychiatrist of psychologist to write a letter stating that you have severe emotional issues. Or you can simply act crazy at the military examination. Or you can claim that you are gay, whether or not you really are. Working class parents will have no bribe money, no contacts with govenment big-shots, and would often be aghast if their children wanted to claim mental illness. Some of them would not encourage their children to fight being drafted, but actually encourage them to enlist, reminding them that their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers were all heroes because they served in World War I, World War ll, Korea or Vietnam and hinting that they would disgrace the family if they did not wind up in Marine Corps boot camp.

Democratizing the system of stocking the military with troops with which to stage imperialist invasions should never be a struggle that people on the left take part in. The real struggle is to end the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and to fight against the coming war with Iran. Militarism is the enemy, and that is what the focus should be on - along with imperialism and capitalism itself.