More "Backdoor Draft"

Despite the rosy predictions coming out of Field Marshal von Rumsfeld and the DOD, it looks like a bunch of discharged veterans from the so-called Ready Reserve are getting called back into uniform.

According to the news stories, up to 2500 Marines are getting the call to report back. In many cases, these are guys who have been out of the service for several years. Around 10,000 Army reservists have already been called back in the last three years.

The Christian Science Monitor has one of the most complete stories on this new and tragic development.

"Shortfalls in recruitment" in a number of military specialities are being blamed for this debacle. Yeah, there's a surprise. Who in the fuck would want to join up for a stint in the service knowing they'd be sent almost immediately to the Quaqmire in the Desert and get their asses shot off?

This marks the second time in three years that Baby Doc has authorized the Marines to call up these inactive reservists. Remember, we've been in the "last throes" of the insurgency since 2004. Two simultaneous wars have stretched troop levels to the breaking point, and yet the fuckers are still making big noises about invading Iran.

What this amounts to is a backdoor draft. Why can't they at least be honest about it and tell us the truth: We cannot fight a war on two fronts with an all-volunteer military, and we have to start a real draft.

But they don't want to do that, since the American people -- as stupid as many of them are about this whole fiasco -- this time just won't stand for the children of wealth and privilege dodging the draft by getting a bunch of student deferments (Cheney) or disappearing into a "champagne unit" of the Air National Guard (Bush) and then not even bothering to show up for duty. God forbid Jenna and Not-Jenna would have to don uniforms and show their support for their father's war.

So our reservists will be trucked off to the sandbox as cannon fodder and the rest of the country can go about its merry way without the sacrifices that, in a just world, ought to be borne by each and every American. But, in the words of Tom Delay, "nothing is more important in time of war than tax cuts".