VOLCANIC ASH

By David Shapiro

As the war in Iraq grinds on with no end in sight, the military draft has emerged as a contentious issue in Hawai'i's congressional races.

The subject is worthy of thoughtful consideration, but it's generating more posturing than perception as accusations fly.

Republican House candidate Dalton Tanonaka charges that his Democratic opponent, U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, and Sen. Daniel Inouye are sending contradictory signals on the draft to scare voters away from voting for President Bush and GOP congressional candidates.

Tanonaka has a point.

Inouye warns ominously that Bush's re-election would lead to reinstatement of the draft. While he doesn't say so explicitly, the clear implication is that this is bad and Inouye opposes it.

At the same time, Abercrombie is one of 15 House sponsors of a bill to restore the draft, which was abolished in favor of an all-volunteer military at the end of the Vietnam War.

The two Democrats can't have it both ways, especially when running joint television ads stressing their agreement on military matters.

Tanonaka contends Abercrombie's bill is not a sincere effort to restore the draft, but just another way to frighten voters.

Abercrombie claims his bill to require two years of mandatory military or civilian service for men and women between 18 and 26 has bipartisan support among members of the Armed Services Committee on which he serves, but it's primarily a Democratic bill that has gone nowhere in the Republican Congress.

If Tanonaka is going to raise the issue, however, he owes it to voters to go beyond playing "gotcha" with the Democrats to offer insightful solutions of his own. He's a long way from making clear whether he thinks more troops will be needed to resolve the war in Iraq and protect American interests elsewhere in the world — and if so, where a draft would fit into the equation.

Inouye and Abercrombie argue that Bush will need more troops to finish up in Iraq, and existing forces are stretched beyond their limits with regular units pulling extended tours as more Reserve and National Guard units are called up.

Some 10,000 Hawai'i-based soldiers are already in Iraq and Afghanistan, with 2,500 guardsmen leaving to join them this week.

Abercrombie sees the draft as a matter of fairness to prevent exploitation of economically disadvantaged Americans who are the most likely to be enticed to volunteer for military service.

"I don't think it is right in a democracy to expect a certain portion of the population to make the sacrifices while we stand on the sidelines and cheer," he says. "It's not fair."

It's more complex than that, however. As in Vietnam near the end, this war and the draft are unpopular not only among draft-age young people who don't want to die for something they don't understand, but also among many parents who are unwilling to sacrifice their children to a war that makes no sense to them.

But what of national obligation? It's difficult to defend the sense of entitlement expressed by the local college student interviewed on TV who said a draft is unfair because "this is the time we're supposed to be having fun."

There's also the question of whether raw draftees would be of much use in a high-tech military that needs personnel with advanced training and skills.

A wiser course than the draft might be to increase inducements to attract the kinds of volunteers needed in today's armed forces.

There are no easy answers, but we are ill-served by a campaign of easy political shots with little effort to explore the deeper issues.

David Shapiro, a veteran Hawai'i journalist, can be reached at dave@volcanicash.net.