The Republicans are running like mad away from the rumor that's running like wildfire around on the web in the form of email and blog messages, that the Bush administration and the Pentagon have a secret plan to reinstate the Draft after the election.

The memo that's going around notes that there are bills in both the Senate and the House that call for a Draft call-up. Now this is a little alarmist and off the mark, because both those bills were introduced by Democrats--Charles Rangel (D-New York) in the House and Ernest Hollings (D-TK) in the Senate--who weren't so much hoping for their bills to pass as to make a point about the unfair burden the war is placing by all the low-income folks and minorities who sign up for the military, the reserves or the National Guard for economic reasons, and who are now trapped in the sands of Iraq.

Frightened silly by the flood of news speculating about a call-up around the corner--Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry was actually asked about it at a campaign "town meeting" a few days ago and said that while he would not support a draft, he couldn’t speak for Bush--the Republicans have responded by killing the Rangel's House bill. Bush also made a point--or recited a point that was read into his ear-piece (see the article below about his performance in the Miami debate!)—about the war in Iraq being fought "by a volunteer army."

More recently, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld weighed in, saying there is no plan for a draft, and claiming that Kerry's insinuation that Bush might have to turn to conscription was "full of it."

But this Republican PR effort should not be taken too seriously.

As the administration and the Republican dominated Congress proved with the USA PATRIOT Act, which was thrown together in a couple of days in late 2001 and passed with no hearings while the ink was still drying on the copies of the bill, it doesn't take long to introduce and ram through a bill in Congress--particularly a Republican bill sought by the president.

Besides, we know (as I wrote in an expose back in 2003 in Salon magazine which just won me a "Most Censored Story" award from Project Censored), that the Bush administration and the Pentagon have been busily restaffing the dusty local and regional draft boards that are the crucial human machinery of the Selective Service System.

And there is this matter of how you fight a war like the one in Iraq when you’re running out of troops.

Col. David H. Hackworth, one of the country's most decorated soldiers, is convinced that Kerry and the people passing around worried emails have it right. For one thing, he notes acerbically that Rumsfeld "has been flat wrong on every major military call regarding Iraq."

He goes on to say, "Right now--with both our regular and Reserve soldiers stretched beyond the breaking point--our all-volunteer force is tapping out. If our overseas troop commitments continue at the present rate or climb higher, there won't be enough Army and Marine grunts to do the job. And thin, overworked units, from Special Forces teams to infantry battalions, lose fights."

Hackworth's conclusion: "Although Pentagon puff artists insist they’re making quota, recruiters are already saying it would be easier to find $100 bills on the sidewalk outside a homeless shelter than fill their enlistment quotas, even with the huge bonuses now being paid. So the draft--which will include both boys and girls this time around--is a no-brainer in ‘05 and ‘06."

For the rest of this column, please go (at no charge) to This Can't Be Happening! .