Another snippet on the subject.the article wrote:WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld yesterday said the Pentagon was not considering a return of the military draft and would ease troop shortages related to the war in Iraq and other deployments by turning over to civilians jobs now done by members of the armed forces.
"I don't know anyone in the Executive Branch who thinks it's appropriate or necessary to reinstitute the draft," Rumsfeld told a gathering of newspaper editors and publishers. "We have a large population and a relatively small armed forces," he added, noting that the military draft abolished in 1973 had several problems, including high turnover and a complicated deferment system.
Likening the armed services to a barrel, he said: "We need to lower the spigot. We don't need a bigger barrel." That could be done, he said, by reassigning to civilian employees jobs now performed by 300,000 uniformed men and women.
Rumsfeld's comments came in an answer to a question posed at a luncheon of the Newspaper Association of America and the American Society of Newspaper Editors. They came two days after Republican Sen. Charles Hagel of Nebraska told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the situation in Iraq might necessitate a return to conscription.
It seems the plans to reopen the draft are overblown. Rather, more like what our right-wing friends have been saying all along - that it's largely the work of one kooky Republican and a few democrats to build a case against Bush's re-election.another article wrote: The issue of the military draft emerged in the major media this week after an independent-minded Republican senator raised it at a committee hearing on Tuesday. As Helen Dewar reported in The Washington Post: "Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), a Vietnam War veteran and an influential member of the Foreign Relations Committee, wants the United States to consider reviving the draft as part of a broader effort to ensure that all Americans 'bear some responsibility' and 'pay some price' in defending the nation's interests."
Long before that, the question had become a hot one on the Internet, particularly on blogs and Web sites that routinely express great skepticism about the Bush administration. (See, for instance, BuzzFlash.com.)
Here's how Dana Hull of the San Jose Mercury News puts it: "An Internet-driven rumor mill about the possible return of a military draft is forcing Pentagon officials to step up denials that such plans are in the works."
More articles can be found on Google with the keyword 'military draft'. Trying just 'draft' gets you all of that NFL nonsense.
