Return of the draft?

If you’re in college, then you’ve probably heard a disturbing rumor: that President George W. Bush will, if reelected, reinstate the military draft.

It’s coming from a variety of sources. Filmmaker Michael Moore is speaking on campuses as part of his “Slacker Uprising Tour” and telling students that the president has already decided on and devised a second-term draft. CBS’s “Evening News” interviewed a distressed woman last Tuesday who said she was a Republican but would vote for a Democrat if it meant keeping her sons from being drafted. “Rock the Vote” is promoting a campaign that warns young voters about a draft through literature, videos, and “You Have Been Drafted” cards. And some professors have been telling their students that a plan to reinstate the draft this spring is in the works.

The draft rumor is getting wide circulation, and it’s no doubt a scary one. Problem is, it’s completely untrue. There is literally not a shred of evidence to indicate that a draft is in the works, and there are plenty of reasons why it cannot and will not happen.

For what it’s worth, every member of the Bush administration has been matter of fact in stating that a draft will not happen. The president has said “we don’t need the draft” and will not have it. Vice President Dick Cheney says an all-volunteer force “works extraordinarily well.” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld calls the suggestion of a Bush-initiated draft “absolute nonsense.”

Others concur. Bob Dole and Sen. John McCain regularly attest to the lack of need for a draft, and Newsweek reports that draft rumors are only that, rumors. Selective Service spokesman Dan Amon calls the possibility of a reinstated draft an “urban legend” and notes that “if the White House is planning a draft, you’d think they might have told us about it.”

As stated, there are several reasons why a draft will not be reinstated. One is that the military itself is strongly against it for reasons of discipline and cohesiveness. An even bigger one is that President Bush would not even have the Constitutional authority to reinstate a draft if he wanted to.

Indeed, a reinstated draft can only occur if the House of Representatives and Senate pass legislation ordering it. This is obviously not going to happen, as the ability of Congressmen to filibuster means that such legislation would not pass without 60 percent support. And the need for legislation also means that a draft could not be reinstated without significant debate—debate that would no doubt galvanize public opposition and make a draft political suicide.

It’s also difficult to see why the president would want a draft. Even a Bush-hater like Michael Moore who does not trust the president’s word contradicts himself in spreading the rumor. If the president truly were a trigger-happy warmonger, then he would logically oppose a draft, as it would make it nearly impossible to order another preemptive strike. Moore should also be persuaded by Newsday columnist Sheryl McCarthy, who argues that “an administration that’s headed mostly by men who avoided the Vietnam War and that panders to the upper classes is not about to alienate its core supporters by exposing their children to a draft when we’re already at war.”