3-23-05, 10:18 am

President Bush created the back-door draft in Executive Order 13223 on September 14, 2001, three days after 9/11. It implemented the stop loss program, granting the Defense Department the authority to keep military personnel on active duty 'involuntarily' during times of war or national emergency. As a result, thousands of reservists have been forced in active duty beyond the 24 month maximum that policy states Reserves can be used. And about 20,000 troops – regular, Reserves, National Guard, most of them in the Middle East – have seen their retirement dates extended, thus involuntarily drafted beyond their enlistment. Thousands more troops in the Middle East could be effected by this very soon. On the back-door draft, Luke Hiken of the Military Law Task Force said, 'To say to these people, ‘we’ve gotcha, and now you’re in indefinitely, and you signed up voluntarily,’ they know that’s outrageous.' Bob Herbert in the New York Times wrote, 'That’s not a back-door draft. It’s a brutal, in-your-face draft that’s unfairly limited to a small segment of the population.' The veterans based Operation Truth stated the back-door draft remains 'yet another indication that the original plan for war was flawed.' The backdoor draft has also been exploited for coerced re-enlistment. At Fort Carson, Colorado, soldiers nearing the end of their commitment were told if they refused to re-enlist they would be deployed to Iraq and have their duty involuntarily extended in a war zone. One of the multiple soldiers at Fort Carson who testified to this said, 'Why not just let me finish what I signed up for? It’s a shame a policy like this exists. We’re supposed to be a volunteer army.' Also having heard from other Congress members that this type of extortion has occurred at other military bases, Colorado Representative Diana DeGette stated, 'This is an outrage. Soldiers who served honorably, fought in Iraq and are near the end of their service should not be threatened with impressment.... The question remains: How widespread is this? How deep does it go into the Pentagon? How far does it go up to the Oval Office?'

Another example of the exploitation of the back-door draft is best illustrated in the case of oral surgeon Dr. John Caulfield. Though he retired from the Army in 1980, the Army contacted him last year asking him to volunteer to 'backfill' for a military doctor on the East Coast, Hawaii or Europe who could then be deployed to the Middle East. Caulfield agreed to backfill, but when his orders arrived, he was sent to a field hospital in Afghanistan instead. Caulfield is 70 years old, and is one of around 200 over the age of 60 known to be serving in the US military, many likely to be victims of backfill deception.

The back-door draft also exploits the National Guard’s 'Try One' program, open to veterans who want to test-drive the Guard for a year before making a longer commitment, as Try One Guardsmen have been called up to active duty and seen their enlistment extended indefinitely in Iraq. David Qualls, a Try One Guardsman home on leave from Iraq, filed suit against the back-door draft, but a US District Judge ordered Qualls back to Iraq, ruling the contract Qualls signed stated his duty could be lengthened in times of war or national emergency – despite the fact (1) there is no declared war and (2) Iraq is not America’s national emergency; America is Iraq’s national emergency. Representing Qualls, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) had to ask the court to issue an order requiring the Army not to retaliate against him. CCR Legal Director Jeffrey Fogel stated, 'enlistment contracts servicemen sign are not worth the paper they are written on,' and that the judge’s decision 'reinforces the myth that we have an all-volunteer army.' CCR Vice President Jules Lobel said, 'Qualls was the victim of a fraud.'
Several soldiers have filed restraining orders against the Pentagon regarding the back-door draft. Oregon National Guardsman Sgt. Emiliano Santiago, with three months remaining at the end of an eight-year enlistment, saw his unit mobilized for Afghanistan and the termination date of his enlistment extended by 27 years! That should constitute slavery. A district court judge ruled against Santiago stating the military would endure 'hardship' if he ruled in Santiago’s favor. Capt. Jay Ferriola and David Miyasato both had their honorable discharges reinstated after they agreed to drop their lawsuits against the Army for violating their constitutional right to be free of 'involuntary servitude.' Some soldiers have gone openly AWOL instead, including Texas Army National Guardsman Carl Webb, a leader in the Austin, Texas peace movement. For information on one’s legal options in avoiding compulsory military service, try the GI Rights Hotline (1-800-394-9544); they handle about 3,000 calls a month.

The government’s blatant disrespect for its own military has helped cause (re-) enlistment numbers to plummet, and the back-door draft will likely cost the military more soldiers than it adds. It is a typical corporate move: penny-wise but dollar-dumb. The Army has lowered recruitment quotas to make it look like people are still enlisting at the same rate. The Guardian reported re-enlistment collapsed by 30 percent last year, and the Army Research Institute projects only 27 percent of National Guard and Reserves intend to re-up, an all-time low. As stated by retired army colonel and Boston University Professor Andrew Bacevich, 'to change the rules will almost certainly backfire and accelerate the deterioration of the reserves.' Back-door draftees in Iraq have also begun Vietnam-like refusal of orders.

The Pentagon’s defrauding of servicemen’s contracts should be considered a form of corporate crime. It proves that if one is militaristic it does not automatically mean one is pro-military (actually, if one is militaristic, one is most likely anti-military). Since the government has institutionalized indentured servitude into the ranks, not to mention the continued crass treatment of America’s disabled veterans, the military remains the industry that most needs to unionize.

The military should go on strike.