I, being a cynical beast, just assumed the draft bills were introduced to beat the republicans to it. “Yeah, draft is fine, but dammit you need women in there”.
However, I have been hearing that draft boards are being filled, though I am still looking for a cite.
Zoe: I was responding to DDG, who stated tha the war was foisted “on us”. I assume he means the United States. Such a statement does not take into account the years of build up and public debate. Of course, many individuals like yourself felt it was foisted on you personally, but I was not referring to individual, personal experience but rather political process.
My post said nothing about your friend’s death, or your having to accept it, nor did I claim that our (Democratic) gov’t. then didn’t lie.
And this thread is about two bills in Congress now, both are written by Democrats. No, not all Democrats, just the two that wrote them, as far as I know.
But not George Bush or the Republicans. That seems to be the point here; it is a factual one.
There has not been a draft since 1972 – that is 32 years now.
Regarding Iraq and reenlistment. When one reenlists, one is often transferred to a new duty station for permanent assignment, sent to a new school, etc. Oftentimes, a person who has finished a tour some time ago, has a year or so in left, and no plans for upping skills, etc., is a likely candidate to go back for some time. Reenlisting is one way to get out of that pool of people who are available to go back. It is most likley not, “reenlist or you’ll go back,” but rather, “if you want to avoid going back, reenlisting is one option.”
There is nothing in the military that says you can’t be sent back to Iraq. My son, a serving Marine, was in Afghanistan, the Iraq war (came home in September) and just left back for Iraq – but he volunteered to go back (since he had been overseas twice already, he was exempted).
Even if the Bush-Cheney administration initiates more adventures after Afghanistan and Iraq, there may not be a need for a draft. More and more functions of the military are being contracted out, mostly to the ubiquitous Halliburton companies. There are no official figures on how many private-contract folks are in Iraq, but there are thousands. When contractors are killed or wounded, they are not counted in the official count (805) of US servicepeople who have made the supreme sacrifice in the Iraq war. There were even private-sector interrogators (from CACI company) in the Abu Ghraib prison.
Dick Duck Goose I totally agree with you.
Thank you. 
I don’t remember any real constructive “public debate” about Vietnam, Lynwood, along the lines of “Let’s all sit down and talk about what we should do” All I remember is being told by my elected officials, “this is what we’re gonna do”. And then, dammit, they went ahead and did it. Without really consulting anybody, let alone opening the issue to “public debate”.
Or are you considering all the anti-war protests as “public debate”?
I don’t remember any “years of political process”, either. You make it sound like the American people made a collective, conscious decision, arrived at after many years of public debate, to send American troops to solve an internecine problem in Southeast Asia, but I don’t remember it that way, any more than the American people made a collective, conscious decision, arrived at after many years of public debate, to send American troops to solve an internecine problem in Iraq.
Actually, this movie illustrates about as close as we got to any “public debate.” I remember these protests very, very well. Ironically, I would find myself assisting the editors of the movie years later.