A Draft By Any Other Name
House of Representatives - May 20, 2004

Mr. Speaker, the President came to Capitol Hill today to rally his Republican troops. Why did he need to do that? Well, a District Work Period is about to begin, that is why. Members of Congress are going home to face questions from their constituents. Here are some of the questions the Republicans are going to have to answer:

Why did a Republican President send our soldiers off to war without a plan? Almost 800 brave American soldiers have died and several thousand soldiers have been injured in Iraq. Well over half the casualties have occurred since the President's PR stunt on the deck of the Abraham Lincoln to announce that combat was over. If combat ended months ago, what exactly is going on in Iraq today?

Here is another question on the minds of Americans: How did the President's team in the Pentagon allow the worst atrocities in our history to occur in Iraq? New abuse revelations surface every day, but the administration keeps looking the other way as if hoping the crisis will go away is an effective strategy. It is the President's favorite tactic.

There is another question just beginning to emerge that the President and Republicans will consider radioactive, that means deny, deny, deny. The question is: Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, why did the President not tell the American people we were going to reinstitute a military draft? Why did the Congress not have an opportunity to debate the issue?

Why did you reinstitute a draft without considering the bill that the gentleman from New York (Mr. Rangel) and I cosponsored? At least, under our bill, young Americans would have a choice about whether they fight in Iraq or perform public service.

America needs to understand the President is not calling it a military draft. That is the White House way, call it something else and hope you get away with it. But as the saying goes, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck. It is a silent draft.

Here are some of the headlines and news stories that America should know about before the Republicans arrive home to say they are doing a great job. In Seattle, "Military Says It Might Return Some Former Soldiers to Duty." Here is the lead sentence. "Hundreds of Washington residents who thought they might be done with their days in the Army may be pulled back into service in the weeks ahead."

The Oregonian newspaper says, "Army Does About-Face on Call-Up Readiness." The story says, "Thousands of recent U.S. Army veterans nationwide were told to choose by Monday a new assignment in the Army Reserve or National Guard, meaning a potential return to active duty, or the military would decide for them."

Rumsfeld blind-sided the Congress and the American people and the Supreme Court on the prisoner atrocities in Iraq. The Vice President and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz did it this time. They never mentioned the new order when they briefed the Senate Committee on Armed Services the other day. Maybe they can update the Congress and comment on something else the Pentagon has ginned up.

UPI reports today that the Pentagon may use the IRS to find the Reservists. Imagine, soon American men and women can get a tax refund and orders to report for duty in one envelope. That is real government efficiency.

Thousands of soldiers were recently denied what President and the Defense Secretary promised, a one-way ticket home after a year of combat in Iraq. They were not asked, they were ordered to stay. That is no choice. That is a de facto military draft.

The President has reinstituted a military draft, but he will not tell the American people he needs more soldiers to fight his war in Iraq because he has no plan and the fighting gets bloodier every day. The President is keeping soldiers in combat for over a year. That is more than twice as long a stretch as was expected of people in the Second World War.

The United States today has a draft. No wonder the President was on Capitol Hill today trying to rally Republicans. Maybe he should draft them. At least they would see real shared sacrifice and shared risk.

Today, America's minorities bear an unfair share of the consequences of this war. The President and the Republicans will not tell us that, they will say the war is going well, the department of war is doing perfectly. Watch the evening news, read the newspaper, decide for yourself whether the President's war is going well.

Make no mistake about it, they need more soldiers and they are taking the steps to get them, whether they volunteer or not. That is the definition of a draft, Mr. Speaker. You ought to tell the President that he ought to just come right out and say it, he is going to draft people any way he can to avoid talking about it before the election.