No place too small: While Pentagon officials swear that no draft is on the horizon (the horizon being, of course, November 2, 2004), a draft of sorts — it’s referred to as an “involuntary recall” — is underway; and that giant sucking sound you hear is Iraq sucking in American troops from garrisons as far away as South Korea (this is dubbed rearranging our “footprint” in the world), from Reserve and National Guard units being called up with increasing frequency, from soldiers being kept with their units in Iraq beyond their contracts, and from among the 5,674 Individual Ready Reservists, defined by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes as “former soldiers living as civilians and awaiting expiration of service obligations.” These — the involuntarily recalled in our all-volunteer military — are generally soldiers from combat-support units who had fulfilled their active-duty obligations and believed themselves done. They’re about to return because, as Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army’s vice chief of staff, testified recently, “The Army is having trouble getting civilians to fill such assignments.” I wonder why.

 

Calling this a “worst case” scenario, Cody “blamed a surprising level of violence in Iraq that forced changes in deployment requirements several times over the last year.” Could it be that Donald Rumsfeld’s military privatization program has a downside? Did he consider that hired civilian corporations might not be quite as willing to deploy into that “surprising level of violence” as military units under orders?

 

In the meantime, at the distant island fringes of empire, the Pentagon is scraping the barrel’s bottom. John Ravelo of the Saipan Tribune, reports (7/8/04) that island policemen in reserve units are being stripped from the local force in an Iraq-driven call-up of reserves. He writes, “[Press Secretary for the Governor] Callaghan refused to officially disclose the number of police officers headed to Hawaii [for training], but said it was ‘enough to be a matter of concern for the Governor and the [DPS] commissioner.’”

 

Your Congress quietly at work: According to Arnaud de Borchgrave of the Washington Times (Iran in bombsights?, 7/5/04), “A U.S. House of Representatives resolution last May 6 authorized ‘all appropriate means’ to end Iranian nuclear weapons development. The Senate is yet to vote on the resolution. But it leaves no doubt it is a green light for offensive military strikes against Iran‘s three nuclear facilities…. While an ‘October surprise’ of U.S. air strikes to rid the world of Iran’s looming nuclear threat might help President Bush Nov. 2, the blowback of unintended consequences would further destabilize the world’s most volatile region — the Middle East.” (Conservative critic William S. Lind also recently suggested that an attack on Iran might prove to be Bush’s “October surprise.”)

 

But here’s my question: Where has the Senate been when it comes to giving carte blanche to the President to make war, not — forget the Clinton administration — love? If, even in a second Bush term, we — with or supporting the Israelis — attacked Iran, we might manage to create a completely police-less Saipan. That would be an accomplishment.

 

Notes from a lost November: Hand it to the Bush administration. Is there a paranoid fantasy or conspiracy theory in America that they’re not rushing to fulfill? Just when you think it’s too wild to take seriously — Poof! There’s Tom Ridge or John Ashcroft ready to carve your fantasies in stone. The latest thing to set the political Internet abuzz — and it’s vintage Bushiana — came from Michael Isikoff of Newsweek magazine whose piece began:

 

“American counterterrorism officials, citing what they call ‘alarming’ intelligence about a possible Qaeda strike inside the United States this fall, are reviewing a proposal that could allow for the postponement of the November presidential election in the event of such an attack, Newsweek has learned… sources tell Newsweek, Ridge’s department last week asked the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel to analyze what legal steps would be needed to permit the postponement of the election were an attack to take place.”

 

Given the latest splendidly vague terror warnings from Ridge, this was a genuine whopper and by last night it had morphed into a full-fledged news story and leaped onto network prime-time TV news shows. Well done, Bush officials!

 

And since we’re at it — why should everyone else have all the fun? — let me offer my own paranoid leap. There have been many suggestions for possible July-November surprises (one of the latest and most sobering being in a New Republic piece that reported top Bush officials pressuring Pakistan’s leadership to deliver HVTs — high-value targets or high al-Qaeda officials — dead or alive on July 26, 27, or 28, which just happen to be the first three days of the Democratic convention), or election theft (those dang computer touch screens and Florida felon lists), and now postponed elections. Not a soul seems to have given a thought to the period from November 3, 2004 to late January, 2005, should none of this round’s paranoid fantasies come true and Kerry be elected. Consider that for a moment. But do it quickly,

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