There has been all this talk about increasing the size of the U.S. military, but with recruitment levels so low, where is Bush going to get these new bodies? One thought is the “stop-loss” program the military has been using in Iraq. Of course that is very damaging to the moral of our troops and results in a higher change of PTSD. The other talk has been a draft. When Democrat Charlie Rangel brought up that idea last month, he was quickly chastised. Now it looks like the government is taking steps closer to Rangel’s plan:

The Selective Service System is making plans to test its draft machinery in case Congress and President Bush need it, even though the White House says it doesn’t want to bring back the draft.

The agency is planning a comprehensive test – not run since 1998 – of its military draft systems, a Selective Service official said. The test itself would not likely occur until 2009.

Scott Campbell, the service’s director for operations and chief information officer, cautioned that the “readiness exercise” does not mean the agency is gearing up to resume the draft.

Of course if they can not test the system until 2009, what would we do before then? What would we do if something major happened that resulted in needing the draft right now? I guess if that were the case, they would do the “head  to the poor towns” draft system.