More draft speculation. Ted Rall ponders the possibility of forced conscription should Bush get re-elected. The context: 60,000 of the 130,000 troops stationed in Iraq come from the National Guard or reserves. 90,000 more are serving in Kuwait, Afghanistan, South Korea, Kosovo and Macedonia. According to Stars & Stripes, 49 percent of soldiers won't re-enlist. Rall writes:

In early November, the Pentagon website DefendAmerica.mil put out a call for applicants willing to serve on Selective Service System draft boards. "Serve Your Community and the Nation--Become a Selective Service System Local Board Member," the ad read. "If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2,000 local and appeal boards throughout America would decide which young men who submit a claim receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service, based on federal guidelines." Noting that the SSS hopes to fill its 8,000 draft board slots by spring 2005, many journalists are wondering aloud whether the Bush Administration plans to reinstate forced conscription of 18-to-26-year-olds after the election, just on time for invasions of Iran, Syria and/or North Korea.

Drafted for what? On the eve of Rumsfeld's visit to Iraq, three more US soldiers are killed. In Afghanistan, US troops, working on intelligence that Taleban fighters were "preparing an attack from a house," bombed a home in Ghazni, killing ten people, including nine children.