In the last few weeks of the campaign, the draft has finally come up as a real issue that the candidates are talking about. It started in the second presidential debate when Mr. Bush for the first time gave a straight answer as to whether or not he would reinstate the draft. Said Bush, “We’re not going to have a draft, period. The all-volunteer army works.” Yet given Bush’s excellent track record for honesty, there are those still questioning his intentions. Chief among those is his campaign rival Senator John Kerry, saying last Friday, “With George Bush, the plan for Iraq is more of the same and the great potential of a draft.” Bush so far has been dismissing such accusations as “scare tactics,” even saying that voting for him is the best way to prevent a draft. He made a bit of a Freudian slip on Saturday saying, “After standing on the stage, after the debates, I made it very plain: We will not have an all-volunteer army.” He soon realized what he had said and corrected himself. But the question of Bush’s plans for a draft remain.

As has been pointed out in a recent ad from Win Back Respect and in a statement from former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, Bush has overextended our military. He has alienated many of our allies who might have been able to help. And the military is having more difficulty finding recruits.

Governor Dean writes, “The truth is that a draft has already begun�it just hasn’t affected most of our families yet. Active duty soldiers who finish their commitments are being forced to stay in. And the flagrant misuse of the National Guard and Reserves has ripped apart families by sending unprecedented numbers of them to occupy a foreign country. Because of George Bush’s failure to lead the world, we are nearly alone in Iraq. If we ’stay the course’ with this president, he will face a choice: drastically reduce our commitments or reinstate the draft.” He continues, “One of the Joint Chiefs and his own administrator in Iraq have both said that we will need tens of thousands more troops to stabilize Iraq. Extreme measures are already being taken to meet the shortfall�and the president has an obligation to explain how he will meet our commitments without drafting young people into service.”

It is no secret that much of Bush’s foreign policy is based on the hawkish philosophy of the neoconservatives. Thus, it is unlikely that Bush would do much to reduce the American military’s commitments around the world.

Those young Americans who would be called to serve in the event of a draft are questioning Bush’s response as well. According to a recent poll, “51 percent of adults age 18 to 29 believe Bush wants to reinstate the draft.”

These people deserve to know your true intentions, Mr. Bush. You simply cannot continue extending our troops all over the world without a draft. So are you going to pull the military away from other international commitments? Or are you going to bring back the draft? Which promise do you intend to break?