From the March 2005 Idaho Observer:

Read my lips-NO draft

The Washington Post reported in February, 2005, that the army was 6.8 percent off its recruiting goals for this year and the Pentagon does not deny that it is having trouble finding volunteers to enlist for immediate assignment to active duty after completing boot camp.

Personnel shortfalls are hampering current operations in Iraq; stop-loss measures have been implemented to keep regular army troops past their contractual obligations and National Guard and Border Patrol personnel have been brought in to keep numbers of ground troops up in Iraq. It is also evident that plans to expand hostilities into Iran and Syria appear to be going forward. Yet the Bush administration still flatly denies that it's planning to reinstate the draft.

Like father like son? In 1988 George Bush was elected president after saying, "Read my lips-no new taxes." That campaign promise turned out to be a lie. In 2004, President George Bush promised that he would not reinstate the draft. Unless millions of America's sons and daughters decide all at once that its their patriotic duty to kill Arabs in the oil-drenched sands of the Middle East, the Bush administration will simply not have enough troops to accomplish its mission in Iraq (whatever that mission may be).

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has maintained that modern innovations in weapons technology requires fewer troops than what were needed in previous wars. His belief is being challenged by what appears to be an expensive failure to "pacify" Iraq and there is no end in sight for the commitment of troops in that theatre of operations.

The U.S. will be forced to reinstate the draft (The Idaho Observer, February, 2005) or unleash a secret weapon that replaces bodies on the battlefield.