Draft update:Amerikan occupation keeps looking to the future for reliefby MC5 and MC17 May 4--Amerikan Pentagon officials announced their plan to keep Amerikan troops in Iraq at the current level (about 135,000) through at least the end of 2005.(1) Originally the United $tates had claimed its intention was to reduce Amerikan occupation forces by 20,000 as Uncle $am believed the transition to a pseudo-autonomous Iraqi government on June 30th, 2004 would allow. Amerikan troops are needed to keep the Iraqi population from rising up and taking back their country. And Amerika is willing to use whatever force is necessary to achieve domination of Iraq. The increased U.$. "force structure" in Iraq is an accomplishment of the Iraqi proletariat and oppressed launching armed struggle without so much as the benefit of a Maoist vanguard party that we have heard of yet. As we reported in MIM Notes 296, "The United States has 1.4 million people in military services, but many of those are office and technical back-up personnel." Since the time we have written articles on the draft, "Secretary of Defense" and nutcase Donald Rumsfeld has reiterated opposition to the draft and said again that he will find a way to rotate around the 1.4 million to find 135,000 soldiers for combat in Iraq.(2) MIM reiterates that there is some truth to that and the United $tates is not in England's position yet, which is why this will be a protracted war against U.$. imperialism best handled by Pan-Arab nationalism and proletarian internationalism over a long haul. We must steer away from seeing u.$. imperialism as about to fall, but also we must fully credit the damage already done by the Iraqi fighters fighting consciously and unconsciously against exploitation and oppression. Afraid that the public and youth in particular will awaken against the war, the Bush administration has thrown out a new bone of hope, which is that after elections in 2005, Iraqis will simmer down and u.$. troops can scale back somewhat. MIM is counselling the youth to ignore the illusions spread by Democrats about the UN and the Republicans about elections. The time to fight this war is now. Donald Rumsfeld's analysis of the Vietnam War has offended many Vietnam veterans, because according to Rumsfeld, draftees did not contribute much in the Vietnam War, despite 20,000 deaths by draftees who: "'added no value, no advantage, really, to the United States armed services over any sustained period of time, because (of) the churning that took place. It took (an) enormous amount of effort in terms of training - and then they were gone.'"(3) Addressing these criticisms is Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who is also the Republican Senator most critical of Rumsfeld over the Iraqi torture matter. According to Hagel, the united $tates should fight a protracted war against the world and draft everyone in their late teenage years for two years, perhaps with one year for training as some suggest: "this is a generational --probably 25-year -- war."(2) To be sure, Rumsfeld's position is popular among Republicans, as it is merely an extreme statement of Reagan's position. It won't be effortless for the Bush administration to turn to the draft, but we can expect that loving sympathy for a senile ex-president will not prevent them from forwarding their sinister plans for world domination through a massive draft. There is no doubt that the prison debacle in Iraq has strengthened Senator Hagel's hand and thus sped up the possibility of a draft: "'What is our policy? What are we doing? What is the possibility of us winning? That's all still in question,' said Hagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."(4) Republicans and military media are starting to get in on the act of criticizing Rumsfeld. That's not to mention the unity of the Democrats and New York Times in calling for Rumsfeld to step down. There is even a leak from the Bush administration that Rumsfeld is not a personal friend of Bush who he will keep at any campaign cost.(4) All this means that Rumsfeld will be politically weaker and the chances for a draft increased just by that. 76% of Amerikans polled in October 2001 favored the draft to get tough in the "war on terrorism." Only 18% opposed. Now 52% of registered voters oppose the draft, which is why MIM said in its MIM Notes 301 article that both Bush and Kerry will sidestep the draft this year, with ample lee-way through the reshuffling of 1.4 million troops that Rumsfeld is talking about. The fact that support for the draft is now down to 41% proves that it is important to link the draft to Iraq. On the other hand, it also shows that the rulers may adjust tactics or come up with another war to whip up u.$. public opinion. The question of the draft is political--whether one believes that the rulers of the united $tates will settle down at the current level of its military aspirations. Even if u.$. imperialism stands still, the oppressed nations learn to fight better each year, so we see the draft coming.
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