Kevin Drum illustrates Nick Confessore on the subject of the Inactive Reserves being called into service.
Confessore's description:
A friend of mine who is currently an inactive Army reservist forwarded me some memos he received regarding future mobilizations -- memos that indicate that we are not far from some kind of conscription in the next few years. According to my friend, recruiters are telling inactive reservists that they're going to be called up one way or another eventually, so they might as well sign up now and get into non-Iraq-deploying units while they still can. There's also a "warning order" -- i.e., a heads-up -- from the Army's personnel command that talks about the involuntary transfer of inactive reservists to the active reserves, and thus into units that are on deck for the next few Iraq rotations.
I doubt we're really anywhere near an actual draft situation, but they certainly seem to be getting down to the last options short of some kind of draft.
My brother, a former Army Captain, may be in the Inactive Reserves, I have to call him. Incidentally, the last time we spoke, I asked him if he had any friends in Iraq. He said he did, and that they say things are going much worse than we think. Hard to imagine.
