Conscription Time?

The military is now finding itself unable to meet its quota of new hires.

"The war-strained all-volunteer U.S. military has a growing manpower problem and a cross-section of Washington policymakers has proposed a solution -- increase the size of the regular military by 30,000, 40,000 or even 100,000 or more." (AP, April 7)

The Pentagon spinners have been instructed to say this is because of the great economy made possible by George W. Bush's tax cuts leading to too many better opportunities for - ahem - draft-age men and women. I don't buy it for a moment. I think it's more a matter of the pool of available soldiers feeling some resistance to the idea of getting their asses shot off in a foreign land.
Due to the shortage of troops available to occupy the restive provinces of the New American Century, there is renewed talk of a draft. Filling the ranks of the military with conscriptees. Ironically,

Charlie Rangel (Congressman from NYC) introduced a bill in the congress to reinstate the draft (see my post 10/8/2004), though with a few changes. His actual purpose was to start a debate about the inherent inequity of sending a preponderantly poor and minority military to defend the wealth and privilege of the rich. Thus the irony. The reinstated draft may well bear the name of "the Rangel Act".
In any case, I say No Draft! Why should more Americans have to go overseas to protect our puppet governments? We're spending plenty of money to set them up; they should have to provide their own cannon fodder! A significant part of the $200,000,000,000-and-counting we have spent on Iraq has gone to creating an internal army. I say Sign 'Em Up! Make 'em U.S. Army auxiliaries. Like the Gurkhas of the British Empire, we can instill a myth-based sense of loyalty and eliteness. Teach 'em to look down on the "locals". Send them to Afghanistan, Syria, Iran (though geez, a new Iraq-Iran war, I donno), wherever else we want to pre-empt the attempt by another country militarize the way we already have. It worked for the Roman Empire for centuries. It worked for the British Empire for quite a while. Maybe it can work for the American Empire, too.
So, Sign 'Em Up!
Let's try to get some value for the money we've spent on our military adventuring. Something better than a few presidential photo-ops.