It was a story that went largely unreported in the British media this week, but theU.S. Marine Corps will soon start orderinghundredsof inactive service members to return to duty - a move which was led some commentators to suggest that the draft (or conscription) is on its way back.
On Tuesday, President Bush authorised the issuing of involuntary recall orders tothe Individual Ready Reserve, part of the non-active force.
Thiswill be the Marine Corps' first involuntary recall since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and it's allbecause the number of former Marinesoffering to re-enter combat of their own accord has steadily declined.
Surprise, surprise.
The head ofthemobilization plans Colonel Guy Stratton saidthe service is short of some 1,200 volunteers over the next 18 months to fill roles in the war on terror.
The authorization limits the number of Marines who can be activated
involuntarily to no more 2,500 at any one time, out of a pool of about 35,000.
Tours of duty arecapped at 24 months but will probably last 12 to 18 months.
Under a general contract, a Marine serves four years on active duty and four more in reserve, when they canvolunteer to return to active duty to fill needed roles - but Strattoncould not explain why their numbers were falling.
There's no expiry date on the new authorisation, and it's justifiedby the"Global War on Terror" - a war whose parameters remain largely undefined.
"The authority is until GWOT is over with," Stratton said. "Until we're told
to do otherwise, we'll use it."
The Marine Corps' move comes almost five years after the September 11 attacks that led the United States to declare a war on global terrorism and more than three years after the Iraq war began. In the current conflict, theU.S. Army has provided most of the ground forces fighting the insurgency.
And it's theMarines who've carried the heaviest load - many have performed three tours of duty in Iraq since March 2003, and they've beendeployed in one of the most dangerous parts of Iraq, Anbar province.
Defense officials say that the wider war on terrorism is expected to last many years.
The Marines and Army have been meeting monthly recruiting goals, butsome
analysts have questioned the military's ability to sustain long-term operations with its all-volunteer force.
Involuntary recalls and other steps taken to stop the loss of personnel have
been criticized by some asback-door conscription and a threat to the
volunteer nature of the force.
"What's really worrisome about involuntary recalls is they put even more of
the burden on the handful of people who voluntarily join the military, and
thus undermine the long-term viability of the whole volunteer force," said
Lexington Institute defense analyst Loren Thompson.
"In some ways this is worse than a back-door draft because it penalizes the
handful of people who had the inclination and the courage to volunteer in the
first place," he said.
Stratton, however, said the Marines' involuntary recall was not a back-door
draft and that Marines on nonactive status should always expect that they may be called when needed.
John P Mellor.
