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Tuesday, February 1, 2005

7:29:02 PM

"Lies and The Lying Liars Who Tell Them"

Al Franken's book may need an update. Donald Rumsfeld, before the 2004 election, declared in writing that "the idea of reinstating the draft has never been debated, endorsed, discussed, theorized, pondered or even whispered by anyone in the Bush administration." First of all, that categorical, all-encompassing denial is automatically BS on the face of it. Second, and most important, it's a lie.

According to Tim Dickinson, writing in the Rolling Stone #967, an internal Selective Service memo shows that the acting director of the SS (unfortunate choice of abbreviations), "met with Rumsfeld's undersecretaries in February of 2003 precisely to debate, discuss and ponder a return to the draft." Dickinson's article details the substance of ideas floated by the SS to reconfigure the draft for all men and women between the ages of 18 and 34. Those citizens would be required to notify the board of any "specialized skills" they may obtain. Those with specialized skills needed by the military could then be subject to call-up.

Sound far-fetched? The memo notes the administration is against a draft; but a Selective Service spokesman told Rolling Stone that preparing for a skills-based draft is "in fact what we have been doing." I may have missed the story, but as far as I know, no other national media has reported this.

Bush pledged that there not be a draft. But what will happen if we end up in Iran? Where will the new troops and their replacements come from? How will we meet the needs of the military if a new crisis breaks out in North Korea, or anywhere else? We have no Reserves - they're in Iraq, too!
7:13:00 PM

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