Russo Blasts GOP Call For Military Draft

In the first public display of bi-partisan congressional sentiment for conscription, US Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) today floated the idea of a draft to address the deteriorating military situation in Iraq. "Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some price?" Hagel asked the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He holds that conscription would force "our citizens to understand the intensity and depth of challenges we face."

The spectre of conscription has loomed over Washington for months, despite denials from the Bush administration that a draft was under consideration.

With re-enlistment rates plummeting and recruitment flat, the administration has quietly begun staffing Selective Service boards. US commanders in Iraq have called for an immediate deployment of 10,000 additional troops to bolster the American occupation, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has announced his intention to expand the Army by 30,000 next year, with no details as to how.

Democrats have been calling for conscription with a slightly louder voice for more than a year, receiving round condemnation from Republican legislators until now. US Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY) and US Senator Ernest F. Hollings (D-SC) introduced a draft bill in early 2003 which remains in committee. US Senator Hillary Clinton, in a March 25th speech at the Brookings Institution, referred to a volunteer military as "inadequate."

Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry (D-MA), called for "mandatory national service" on his campaign web site until last week, when Libertarian presidential candidate Aaron Russo's highlighting of the issue embarrassed him into removing the language.

"A Washington Times reporter called me, asking where Kerry's use of the word 'mandatory' existed on his web site. I looked and it was gone. We have collected a Google cache proving it once existed, and will be posting it on our web site soon," commented Russo spokesperson Stephen Gordon.

"This isn't speculative," Russo says. "The draft is coming. Republicans and Democrats have been trying to put off the public discussion until after the November elections, but there's no doubt that the American people will be threatened with conscription by the end of this year."

Independent candidate Ralph Nader joined Russo in opposing the draft last week in a press release aimed at American students. "Young Americans need to know that a train is coming," said Nader, "and it could run over their generation."

Russo greeted Hagel's trial balloon, and Nader's engagement of the issue with enthusiasm. "For six months now, I've been telling Americans about the coming draft, and the Republicans and Democrats have denied it out of one side of their mouths while talking around it with the other. It's coming, and it's time we had a real public discussion about it. If Bush and Kerry want this issue to go away, all they have to do is make clear, public pledges that there will be no draft."

Russo's campaign web site (www.russoforpresident.com)features an anti-draft petition which has collected thousands of signatures.

"The question is this simple," Russo says. "Should the government have the power to take our sons and daughters, against their will, in order to rescue themselves from the situation they themselves brought about with an immoral, unwinnable war? The answer is no. The war in Iraq was a mistake a year ago, and it's a mistake today. Not one more drop of American blood to save our politicians from their own wrong-headed policies."

"Americans have always responded in their country's time of need. If this war was justifiable, the recruiting offices would have lines around the block of young men and women eager to serve. The fact that they don't should tell our politicians that it's time to re-think what they're doing. But the draft? No. It's not right and it can't be allowed to happen."

And with both "major" parties now on record as supporting conscription? "That just shows how disconnected from reality the Democrats and Republicans are," says Russo. "And it demonstrates the clear necessity of electing a president to this November who will put the nation back on the path to peace and prosperity."

Source: Russo for President