CALLING UP THE RESERVES….From Nick Confessore at Tapped:
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.
We’re all about graphic evidence here at Political Animal, so here’s the memo Nick is talking about. Bottom line: starting today, 23,000 inactive reservists (IRR) will be called up into active units (TPUs) destined for the third rotation of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF3). On June 1st, another 5,400 will be called up.
Does this mean a draft is imminent? I’m still skeptical, but it’s easy to see how the inactive reservists who draw the short straw in this involuntarily callup might think it’s a step in that direction. Stay tuned.
