The Draft

Paul Craig Roberts writes for antiwar.com on April 22, 2004, that we're "Locked on Course to Wider War." "The American public," he says, "has been deceived and locked on a course toward conscription and a wider war."

Roberts points directly at senior Republican Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel who said on April 20, 2004, that "deteriorating security in Iraq may force the United States to reintroduce the military draft." [2]

Hagel told "a Senate Foreign Relations Committee [that] 'There's not an American ... that doesn't understand what we are engaged in today and what the prospects are for the future ... [Adding, if] that's the case, why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?' Hagel said, arguing that restoring compulsory military service would force 'our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face.'" [3]

Hagel added "that a draft, which was ended in the early 1970s, would spread the burden of military service in Iraq more equitably among various social strata. ... 'Those who are serving today and dying today are the middle class and lower middle class,' he observed."

The AFP points out that the "call to consider a imposing a draft comes just days after the Pentagon moved to extend the missions of some 20,000 US troops in Iraq." [4] See Iraqi sovereignty: June 30, 2004 and Operation Iraqi Freedom: Year Two for context.