Ready or Not: The Draft Is Coming

Here's a little topic that no one is addressing at the moment. Please allow me to enlighten you: The Bush administration is, at this very moment, scheming to draft American children - yours and mine - into the armed forces. That's right! Step right up, kids! You, too, can become a cog in the military industrial complex's mighty machine! I really hope I'm wrong about this but I don't think I am. They won't make the announcement before the November elections for obvious reasons. But you can bet the farm that it will probably come between election day 2006 and New Years Day 2007 or shortly thereafter.

How am I able to make this incredibly bold prediction? It's really very simple: It is now obvious to any fool - even our esteemed commander-in-chief - that Donald Rumsfeld's original idea of a lean and compact military was a delusional pipe dream from the very beginning. One hundred and fifty thousand measly troops to invade and occupy an entire country?? What - are they out of their fucking minds???....

What am I saying? Of course they are.... General Eric Shinseki, early on, said that it couldn't be done and that it would take at least twice that number and then some to achieve any tangible military objective. And what good did all of his prescience, caution and honesty do him? It cost him his career. That's the strange thing about the Bush White House. If you want to succeed, you'd better damn well check the ugly truth at the door, pardner!

But all of this argument about troop levels is really only academic, isn't it? The fact that Saddam Hussein was a danger to no one but himself and that America never should have invaded Iraq to begin with is, by now, pretty much of a no-brainer. The people behind the Project For A New American Century (PNAC) which included Rumsfeld, Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz, had been planning the invasion years before Bush even took the oath of office. At the first cabinet meeting in January of 2001, according to Paul O'Neil and Richard Clarke, Saddam's fate was sealed - with or without WMD. All they needed to make their move was one flimsy excuse. That excuse arrived on the morning of September 11, 2001.

At this moment in our history, again, for obvious reasons, military enlistments are at an all time low.This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Ask yourself this question: What able-bodied, sane young person with a bright and promising future would want to volunteer for the army or the navy - or any branch of the service for that matter - with a murderous, half-witted little piece of shit like George W. Bush calling the shots? Would you? I didn't think so.

And yet it doesn't take a genius to understand that the military ambition of the First Fool with respect to the Middle East, North Korea - and Heaven only knows where else - is totally at odds with what is readily available in terms of man (and woman) power. Since military recruiters aren't getting the job done these days and with re-enlistments all but disappearing, what's left to do? Of course! Draft the little buggers!

Did I say "Draft"?

Of course, the Bush administration, with its positively weird penchant for Orwellian Newspeak ("When we talk about war, we're really talkin' about peace"), won't call it a "draft", per se. Oh, perish the thought, dear reader! They'll probably conjure up some quaint little title like, "Freedom Service". Isn't that cute? Knowing this contemptible and all-too-predictable White House, they might even call the program, "Operation: Tide Of Patriotism", with a neat little acronym designed specifically to appeal to a generation of MTV-weaned, not very bright teenagers:

"OTOP! Dude, that's so cool!!!"

Again, I sincerely hope I'm wrong but I don't think I am. Given the sociopathic nature of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the tidal wave of human shit that comprises this disgusting administration, I know as well as I know my own name (Tom Degan - Nice to meet'cha!) that the idea of shoveling scores of thousands of American kids into the untenable slaughterhouse these dirty old men have engendered is, at the very least, on the table. It only stands to reason.

These despicable bastards and bitches (Hi, Condi!) have plans - big plans - that they have every intention of carrying out. But they can't possibly pursue their objectives with what they've got; They need bodies. Lots and lots and lots and lots of bodies. And of this you can be absolutely sure: Many of these bodies - scores of thousands of them - will ultimately translate into dead bodies. Bush has already overseen the slaughter of at least one-hundred thousand men, women and little children in Iraq. Can you possibly be foolish enough to believe that this president - of all presidents - gives a flying fuck about your kid? Please.

"Be the first one on your block to have your boy come home in a box! And it's, one-two-three, What're we fightin' for"???

Country Joe and the Fish
Woodstock, August 1969

Three and a half years ago, almost to this very day, the president of the United States of America broadcast a message for the youth of Iraq: "Don't give your lives for a dying regime". Truth be told, I was shocked that George W. Bush was even capable of such sage advice. It's also excellent advice for the youth of America: Don't give your lives for this sick, corrupt and dying regime! And if I may, I would also like to add this little pearl to the discussion: Organize and resist.

Pray for peace.

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY

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http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com 

Cheer!