Editorial: U.S. should use outside help, not draft, in war

Few words echo as ominously as “military draft,” but
the Iraq war is stumbling toward the 24-month mark, and U.S. troops
are in desperate need of relief. The Bush administration is running
out of options, and begging Europe for military assistance is the
best ““ and perhaps only ““ way to save both Iraqi and
U.S. lives.

Few Americans believe a draft is imminent, and thus far, no
serious attempts have appeared before Congress. But after nearly
two years of engagement, it looks as though the United States
cannot hope to rebuild Iraq without more troops.

Currently, there are about 150,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, yet
even this massive force has not been a guarantee for security. In a
horrific confirmation of this reality, 125 people were killed in
Iraq on Tuesday ““ victims of an insurgent’s car
bomb.

Because of such incidents, it has become an item of faith in the
American mind that pulling out of Iraq would plunge the country
into an apocalyptic civil war.

It is impossible to predict exactly what would happen in Iraq
after a U.S. withdrawal, but historical examples ranging from
Afghanistan in the 1980s to Somalia in 1994 suggest the outcome
could be catastrophic ““ in the short and long term.

And indeed, many people in the United States want U.S. troops to
stay in Iraq until the job of reconstruction is done. (At least 49
percent of Americans polled by the Los Angeles Times said they
supported keeping troops in Iraq for over one year.)

The Center for Strategic Studies and military officials have
both cited late 2006 as the earliest a pull-out could begin.

But in that scenario, the question then becomes, how can America
maintain its current troop deployment in Iraq without having its
military implode?

The short answer is military leaders know that current
deployment levels cannot be maintained much longer without
increasing the size of the military.

The Army and Marines have upped their recruitment goals, and
incentives to sign up have increased substantially, but 2004 was
the first year the Army failed to meet recruitment goals in 10
years. Army National Guard recruitment is down 24 percent in the
last four months.

There has also been a 75 percent drop in the number of active
duty personnel who chose to go into the National Guard or
Reserves.

These numbers may leave the Bush administration with two
options: impose a draft, or find a way to involve European powers
in a war they opposed.

For obvious reasons, a draft is unpalatable ““ Americans
must not be forced to fight and die for a war that was based on
half-truths and irrational militarism.

Which leaves the option of securing European assistance.
Unfortunately, Bush’s second term is hardly the ideal time
for building international coalitions. His ego will make it
difficult for him to admit mistakes while simultaneously bribing
and cajoling those leaders to help.

A draft won’t solve the Iraq war. International investment
in an international problem is the only solution.