During the televised presidential debates, in response to a Kerry comment, President Bush said, "I promise our army will remain voluntary, we will not reinstate the draft.” Meanwhile, the facts [of the Army deployment] indicate that if Bush is re-elected, he will not be able to keep his word. [The situation in Iraq is not sustainable], unless he agrees to increase the number of armed forces by at least 40,000, as Senator Kerry proposes.

It is obvious to many service men and women that the so-called "Bush Doctrine," which consists of inflicting preventive strikes on presumed enemies, will require considerably more troops than the Pentagon currently has at their disposal. The President’s assertions to the contrary are, to put it mildly, incongruous with reality.

Michael O’Hanlon, Senior Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution, stated in the Los Angeles Times that, since the removal of the draft, “the U.S. Army has never been in such a difficult position. Troops are sent back to active duty without having had adequate time to rest. For example, both the 3rd Infantry Division and the 1st Marines Division, which played an enormous role in removing Saddam Hussein’s regime, will be redeployed to Iraq in January 2005, and about 50,000 additional reservists have been called to service, more than once, since September 11, 2001.”

Captain Jay Ferriola, of Long Island, recently gained media attention when he petitioned the Federal court to block the army's attempt to re-deploy him to Iraq, after completing his eight years of service. "What’s happening today is none other than a hidden draft,” he said. “Four years of active duty plus four years on reserve duty, this, in my opinion, is fully satisfactory. I never planned on making a career in the Army. I believe that it is enough to serve my country."

This June the Captain filed a report of his resignation, which was supported by his commander; however, his Army superiors refused him. Ferriola is now being called to serve again for 18 more months in Iraq.

"The repeated call to service of my client is illegal,” stated Ferriola’s well-known attorney, Barry Slotnick. He added, “They do not have a right to force Jay to stay in the military and deny him the chance of being discharged from the ranks of the armed forces."

Two weeks ago, the Republican National Committee sent an angry letter to the organization Rock the Vote, accusing its leaders of using the unpopularity of the draft among youth for partisan political purposes. Allegedly, Rock the Vote attempts to mobilize the issue in favor of John Kerry.

Frankly, their complaint is strange. As the New York Times reports, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld recently obtained the findings of a study that researched the question of whether the U.S. Army was capable of dealing with the problem of its current troop levels. The conclusion was not encouraging: only with enormous effort.

Why then should the people at the Republican National Committee be so upset with Rock the Vote? The study, ordered by the Pentagon, actually confirms that the Army is stretching itself thin – a strategy fraught with serious consequences. If urgent measures to increase troop levels are not adopted, bringing back the draft may not be avoidable.

Recently, the media reported accounts of U.S. reservists refusing orders to accompany cargo and fuel caravans when the probability of attacks by insurgents is very high. The reason for their refusal, the group charged, was that the escort are too small and ill equipped to repel an attack by insurgents, who are more numerous and better armed. Reservists call such missions the "Highway to Heaven."

During the debates, Kerry reproached the President for failing to respond to requests by coalition troops for reinforcements. Essentially, Bush did not answer the question directly, only saying that troop levels are fine. Unfortunately, however, that is not the truth.

In his article "Feeling the Draft," New York Times opinion columnist Paul Krugman presented some interesting yet tragic facts. The shortage of troops has forced the Pentagon to agree to the send to Iraq the elite Black Horse Regiment, which specializes in the instruction and training of other units. In a conversation with Krugman, military expert Philip Carter said, "This is like eating your corn seed."

The draft can also be felt in the updated plans of the Selective Service System to mobilize doctors, nurses and other medical workers, in case their Army colleagues are unable to manage their responsibilities.

After this information became known to the media, Richard S. Flahavan, spokesman for the Selective Service System, was forced to respond.

"We have been routinely updating the entire plan for a health care draft. The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to carry it out."

Let’s remind our readers that as early as 1987, Congress charged the Selective Service System with developing a contingency plan for drafting physicians, and other medical staff into the military.

According to the updated version, about 3.4 million doctors, nurses and medical personnel, between the ages of 18 to 44, will be required to register with the Selective Service System, so that their information can be compiled in a special database. From the registered, a list of 36,000 people with different specialties will be culled and presented to the Pentagon, in the case the need for more medical personnel arises.

Representatives of Widmeyer Communications, the public relations company contracted by the Selective Service, said that an introduction of this plan could seriously disrupt the U.S. domestic public health system. Doctors and nurses selected as potential draftees can obtain deferments only if they can prove their indispensability of their services at home. Widmeyer representatives also noted that in the case of a medical draft comes to pass, health care providers will surely ask, "Why only us?” The answer is obvious; the doctors are only the beginning of a draft.

Recently, the Wisconsin Medical Journal interviewed Col. Roger A. Lalich, a senior physician in the Army National Guard, who said: "It appears that a general draft is not likely to occur. A physician draft is the most likely conscription into the military in the near future." Furthermore, Lalich mentions in the interview a Pentagon memorandum that discusses the need for a “special skills draft."

In order to gauge public opinion about a military or special skills draft, experts from the Selective Service and Widmeyer Communication held focus groups with specialists from a variety of professions. The overwhelming majority did not express enthusiasm with respect to this initiative, especially with sending civilian specialists to foreign soil.