Bush’s VA secretary floats idea of draft

December 22, 2006

Let’s hope this wasn’t some kind of trial balloon.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson gave qualified support yesterday to renewing the draft – a suggestion that rattled the White House.

“I think that our society would benefit from that, yes, sir,” Nicholson said of replacing the all-volunteer force with a tough draft purged of the deferments that allowed many to avoid service in Vietnam.

“I think if we bring back the draft, there should be no loopholes for anybody who happens to be drafted,” he said. “If it’s a random system, it ought to be an honestly random system.”

Coming a day after the president announced his desire to increase the size of the military, Nicholson’s timing could have been better.

The White House pounced, telling reporters, “The administration is not considering reinstating the draft.”

Of course, the Bush gang also made Nicholson reverse course. Too bad the spin was unpersuasive.

Nicholson later said his remarks had been “misconstrued,” and he issued a statement saying, “I strongly support the all-volunteer military and do not support returning to a draft.”

It’s hard to “misconstrue” comments such as “I think that our society would benefit” from a draft.” If Nicholson wants a full retraction, it’ll take some better rhetorical acrobatics than this.

Then again, I have some follow-up for the VA Secretary — if you think a loophole-less draft would benefit society, why don’t you support returning to a draft?

No “honestly random” system is going to be just – and by “just” I mean, “guaranteed to drag the Bush twins kicking and screaming to the front lines of Iraq.”

That’s just. Nothing else.

  • George H.W. Bush enlisted during WWII in order to save the Bush family name, tarnished by Prescott Bush’s years as “Hitler’s banker”. You’d think at least one of the Bush daughters could volunteer (complete with Secret Service protection, of course) for limited duty in her dizzy daddy’s Iraq Quagmire.

    Not that it would fool anybody, but at least it be a tiny step in the right direction. Instead, they’re off partying their way through Latin America, buying 100,000 acre estates in Paraguay (which doesn’t honor US requests for extradition). The Bush Crime Family at its best.

  • “why don’t you suppose returning to a draft?” ?

    why don’t you Support returning to a draft?

    Frankly, I’d support universal national service by all young adults (and I have a nineteen year old daughter) which would include working in community service, peace corps, teaching (very important), and military service.

    The fact is however that our military is so technical, so removed from just a soldier humping a pack and a gun through the streets of Baghdad, that a two year commitment means practically nothing. At best it would create a knowledgeable and trained pool of men and women who might look to the military as a reasonable carreer. It would also bridge the divide between the communities the military draws recruits from (Flint MI anyone?) and those more insulated from the military.

    But really, if 1% of BG2’s voters (680,000 men and women?) from 2004 would just step up with their guns and their Hummers as W’s Volunteers for service in Iraq, we wouldn’t need a draft.

  • When you have Navy corpsmen (medics) serving on the ground in Iraq–like they are–and you have loosen recruiting standards–like raising the enlistment age to 42–the army and the marines have a serious manpower problem. A problem that Bush simply ignores.

    If the draft comes back, there should be no student deferments allowed!

  • I think Jim Nicholson was expressing his honest personal belief, not suggesting a public policy. If you talk to a lot of veterans (and I do) many of them feel that their military experience was of personal value on some level. A number of them also feel that military service is a good social “leveling” tool to get people from various backgrounds to interact. Others are concerned with the “fairness” issues involved in who fights this war (although even with a draft, there was little social justice in who fought in Viet Nam).
    I think Nicholson did not realize his personal opinion was going to be considered as anything else. It does not surprise me at all that this is his opinion.

  • If they lower standards enough, they might even take Bush back into the military.

    That would be an interesting draft. 50% women? 70 year olds? Presidents?

    Bush governs by loop-hole.

  • I think we could benefit from a “national service” draft if all were optimal: IF…a BIG word

    1) More people might become anti war if their children were being used as fodder for the corporate invaders profit. (Unless of course the corporate media convinced them that war was holy and they should be proud that their children die in the name of a lie)

    2) A draft for national service could be used to benefit America and the world…teaching, building etc and not war…maybe the draftees could be given a choice of endeavors? army, teaching, greening, building etc.

    3) A draft with no exemptions other than health would be a societal equalizer and uniter as in the past. (But an expanded draft to include: male & female, married and unmarried, in school or out of school ) Probably best just out of highschool at 18-20 yrs ….for a two stint…then they should get a stipend for education or training in selected fields… ) Put our billions into rebuilding & education within America or outside America… just not into killing and nation destroying.

  • If we had had an all-conscription force, would Congress and the nation have permitted W to go into Irag in the first place? I doubt it. The all-volunteer army is viewed as the all-sucker army by the neocons who think they have a good thing with a force that they can say asked to fight over there.

  • If the draft comes back, there should be no student deferments allowed!
    -slip kid no more

    Well, that would be really unfair to those College Republicans and future Vice Presidents with “other priorities than military service.”

  • Let’s hope this wasn’t some kind of trial balloon.

    I hope it is. I’d like to see all of those “You hate soldiers because you don’t support BushCo’s dumbarse war; just send in more soldiers; ” lip flappers crap their pants in fear.

  • Let us drift into back into the past…

    If you talk to a lot of ex-slaves, as I do, they often say that slavery allowed them to see the world and get them out of their insular cultures. They made a lot of lifelong friends from other tribes that they would never have met except for slavery…

    Fuck the draft. And the heck with anyone who thinks they have a right to tell me or my kids or anyone what to do with two years of their life.

  • Bush needs more troops.

    But he doesn’t have more troops becuase Rumsfeld cut troop numbers against advice of the military.

    He doesn’t have more troops becuase he has alienated all our European allies.

    And Arab allies.

    He doesn’t have more troops because he disbanded the Iraqi army.

    He can’t get more troops because he has lost the american people and it is too late to call for a draft.

    Now that is between Iraq and a hard place.

  • Dale

    here… here

    if they start a draft, i’m taking my kid outta here. given the current state of affairs, i don’t think fairness could even be recognized much less implemented.

    there only one flag worth living for and that’s the gaia

  • “Well, that would be really unfair to those College Republicans and future Vice Presidents with “other priorities than military service.” – 2Manchu

    Exactly! We’ll never see a draft unless there are so many loopholes that no College Republican will ever get close enough to a rifle to even smell the cosmoline.

    Unless they’re shooting caged birds at Uncle Dickie’s place, of course. 🙁

  • There’s always been a profound disconnect between the overheated rhetoric of the administration around their tragically stupid war, and what they’ve been willing to ask for in support of it. “Keep shopping” is about as far as the Bushistas ever would go in appealing to patriotism.

    But there’s another, more profound reason this dimwitted president and his corps of enablers wouldn’t seriously entertain the idea of a draft: it would be tantamount to admitting a colossal mistake. Not happening.

  • A draft with no exemptions other than health

    No exemptions even for health if we go with the “draft or national service” route. Even those with bad backs, flat feet, etc. can teach in inner city schools, do community social services work, yada yada yada. I don’t like the idea of cumpulsory service for 1 or 2 years, but if it does come to pass there should be zero exceptions. None. Nada. Zilch.

  • 1- Nobody who hasn’t served has any business talking about a draft. Serve your country first, then complain about it.

    2- The only problem that I have with a draft is that we would have to end up accepting a lot of useless idiots into my Army, and I don’t want anyone there who I can’t trust with a rifle (heck, even with a volunteer Army, enough people slip through that I wouldn’t trust with that).

    3- Mandatory National Service is the best and most appropriate solution- 100% participation. (Of course, additional incentives would be available to encourage people to choose military service). But going to work for your country, in whatever capacity, helps to invest everyone in our country. Paris Hilton would surely benefit from some honest work, even for a short period.

  • 100% universal National Service. Take the li’l dears away from their mind-numbing TeeVees and video games for just two years. Address problems, from the inner cities to the national parks, which are not being addressed. Armed Forces as an option for those who exceed technological qualifications. Everyone benefits.

  • I am in favor of some sort of national service program which would include a military component for some. While it would help the nation directly by providing needed services, it should also bring people from a variety of backgrounds to together and, in so doing, hasten the process of assimilation.

    There should be a minimum number of years of service required and in return participants would get funding toward their education. Anyone who served beyond the minimum would accrue addition funding for that purpose. As side benefit would be that the burden of assimilation, which is currently placed on colleges and university to the detriment of their primary mission of education and research would be alleviated.

  • “Paris Hilton would surely benefit from some honest work, even for a short period.” – Castor Troy

    I was not a big fan of The Simple Life, but there were times when Paris was and could be serious.

    I suspect (I could be wrong I suppose) that she’s just laughing behind her hand at all the celebrity for celebrity’s sake lunecy that follows her around. After all, it’s not her fault that half the world is full of idiots who think her life is more interesting than their own 😉

    And yes I agree on Mandatory National Service and on carefully selecting who gets to learn to use a rifle on the Government’s dime.

  • “Nobody who hasn’t served has any business talking about a draft. Serve your country first, then complain about it.”

    I’ve got an idea… how ’bout no? There is absolutely nothing you could do that would convince me to leave my 18 mo. old daughter, wife, and job for any length of time that would be worth the sacrifice. Try and force me, or anyone else in my boat, and see how much sabotage and trouble you get for the effort.

  • I’m with Dee @15 and Dustin at @23.

    When Democrats start talking about National Service, I start thinking the Republicans don’t have a monopoly on F A S C I S M.

  • You guys are p-cans… 2 year national service, by draft, with no loopholes for exemptions? You guys are chinkapins…

    Where are we gonna house and train them, now that Rummy-dum-dum has closed allathem bases? And what equipment are we gonna train them on, since there’s not enough even now, because everything is shipped off to Ay-rak and doesn’t come back, being IED-ed?

    And then… It takes much longer to train a soldier now than it did 60 or even 30 yrs ago, because the battlefields are different as is the weaponry. So, even supposing that the bills mandating a no-loophole national service went through the congress like a laxative, and the draft took an immediate effect… The new (drafted) soldiers wouldn’t be ready to be shipped out till the beginning of ’08. By which time, ISG and the American voters want *the last of the stragglers* back here.

    Me, I’m of the “Get the f**k out of Iraq” persuasion but, even on a strictly pragmatic basis this is not a good idea.

  • I didn’t agree with “mr. bush’s war” when he lied this country into it—and I’m not about to change my notions about mr. bush’s war now. Neither today; nor tomorrow; nor next week-next month-next year. I will not feed my children into the bloody maw of mr. bush’s anti-Islam machinations; I will not sacrifice them upon the altar of the neocon god of war profiteering.

    Remember Kent State? Contemplate, for a moment or three, a thousand such scenarios. Ten times ten thousand such scenarios, if it makes you piteous little neocon troglodytes feel more warm and fuzzy inside—but add the following equation to your wretched dream of glory:

    This time ’round, the “students” will be shooting back.

    And, I’m not interested in the Reich theory that “resistance plays into the terrorists’ hands.” The chief terrorist, as I see it, is the flaming lunatic who currently occupies a particular address on Pennsylvania Avenue. If that chief terrorist and his pompous little band of bureaucratic drivel want this fight—if they really, REALLY want it so bad—then let them bring the fight on in the most expeditious manner possible. There will be those who flee, and there will be those who submit—and there will be those who choose to stand against the tidal surge of mr. bush’s Fascism.

    I will evacuate my family, should the need arise—and then I will stand against that wave.

    The question, my friends, is thus:

    WILL YOU STAND?

    Will you stand for what America “should” represent?

    Will you stand for the great lady who stands before the harbor of New York?
    Will you stand for a cracked bell in Philadelphia—and an old parchment bearing the words “We the People”—and a rather large gentleman who sits beyond the pillars near the Mall in Washington?

    Will you stand for the bridge at Concord, and the sacrifes at Gettysburg, and the voices of those whose names grace the Black Wall?

    If America is something so dear to you, then will you stand against the neocon—and the war profiteer—and the theocratic swine? Will you stand—for AMERICA?

    I will….

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