WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States will "have to face" a painful dilemma on restoring the military draft as rising casualties result in persistent shortfalls in US army recruitment, a top US senator warned.
Joseph Biden, the top Democrat of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the prediction after new data released by the Pentagon showed the US Army failing to meet its recruitment targets for four straight months.
"We're going to have to face that question," Biden said on NBC's "Meet the Press" television show when asked if it was realistic to expect restoration of the draft.
"The truth of the matter is, it is going to become a subject, if, in fact, there's a 40 percent shortfall in recruitment. It's just a reality," he said.
I do wish people like Biden would stop saying things like this without actually offering any constructive alternatives or without properly laying this problem at the feet of the Bush administration. Pretty soon the Democrats will be the party of the draft, thus robbing of us of the opportunity to have exactly 100 Senate seats and 435 House seats.
Though, there is no chance of a general draft in this country. None. Years of fuck you Republicanism has ensured that. There is no way Chris Matthews is going to let his son Michael (who may be a standup guy, this isn't about him being responsible for his father) get plucked out of the Brown to go to war. There's no way that all over this country little Johhny McMansion is going to go take the SATs, get accepted to his Big 10 school of choice, and then get shipped off to Iraq.
If it does happen, the only way it'll happen is if targets the cloutless in this country. They'll be plucking kids out of juvenile detention centers, making it a part of plea bargains for petty offenses, etc... Only kids who no one gives a shit about will go.