Iraq fighting fuels fears about return of the draft

Although officials say it’s unlikely, extended service of reservists worries young

By Frank Oliveri
Gannett News Service

WASHINGTON - Eighteen-year-old Ravi Mohandie has a plan for his life.

He’s studying to become a civil engineer at the University of Hawaii. Then he wants a master’s degree in oceanography and a job helping protect the state’s big island from tidal waves.

Nowhere in his plan is the possibility of being drafted for military service.

"I already know where I want to go with my life, and that would completely change it," he said. "It makes me real nervous."

In college dorms, Internet chat rooms and the halls of Congress, Americans are questioning whether the nation needs a draft to increase the number of people serving in the military.

The talk has been fueled by the escalating conflict in Iraq, the recent announcement that some reservists and Guard members would have to extend their duty and the Selective Service’s recent call to fill vacancies on local draft boards.

Selective Service, which administers the draft, has said filling vacancies is routine and tried to calm the chatter with a note on its Web site: "Notwithstanding recent stories in the news media and on the Internet, Selective Service is not getting ready to conduct a draft for the U.S. Armed Forces."

Proponents of a draft say it’s needed because the military has more commitments than it can handle. They say a draft would spread the burden of military service across socioeconomic groups.

But Pentagon officials are adamantly opposed to the draft, saying the military has the personnel it needs and that a professional, volunteer army performs better and is less costly to train in the long run. They’re also concerned that a draft would cause morale to plummet.

"There were a lot of difficulties with the draft, as people may recall," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said last week.

Army Reserve Staff Sgt. Marty Antone fears a draft would hurt morale. Antone just returned home to Oneida from the Sunni Triangle in Iraq, where he received a Purple Heart for a shoulder injury he suffered when locals threw bricks and stones at him and other U.S. soldiers.

Antone, who in civilian life is a detective sergeant with the Oneida Police Department, expected to serve six months in Iraq, but that was extended to a year. His son, Dorian, was born while he was away.

Still, he doesn’t believe in a draft because he and other volunteers in the military wouldn’t want to serve with people who weren’t there by choice.

"I swore to protect the Constitution," he said. "I’d rather be with someone who in their heart believes this is the right thing to do."

A CNN-USA TODAY-Gallup Poll taken in late October showed 80 percent of Americans were against a return to the draft, which President Nixon abolished in 1973 during the waning days of the Vietnam War.

Only 17 percent said they supported a draft. Just before the Iraq war, support for the draft was at 27 percent.

In early 2003, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., a Korean War veteran, and Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., a World War II veteran, proposed a national draft of men and women for military service and civil positions such as teaching, law enforcement or homeland security.

Few in Congress, however, support the idea. "If the vote were taken today, it would fail," said Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii, who received the nation’s highest medal for valor for service during World War II.

"Right now, it’s not necessary," Inouye said. "Why fill our families with anxiety if we don’t need to?"

Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a Vietnam veteran, recently raised the question of a draft in an op-ed piece in a Nebraska newspaper. He argued that U.S. commitments were beginning to stretch the military thin.

In addition to 135,000 troops in Iraq, the United States has 14,000 troops in Afghanistan, 37,000 in South Korea and 250,000 handling peacekeeping missions and other commitments across the globe.

About 20,000 reservists and Guard members were forced to extend their tour in Iraq by at least 90 days when fighting intensified in recent weeks.
"How long do you keep hostage the troops you have before you admit you need to recruit more troops?" Rangel asked.

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