The military is utilizing what appears to be a "soft" or "back-door" draft, under the name of Individual Ready Reserve. Soldiers are being called back to duty mainly because voluntary recruits have become so hard to come by.

"All that happy talk about getting down to 100,000 by the end of this year, that's not on the cards for this year," said John Pike, the director of GlobalSecurity.org, a military thinktank in Washington.

"Instead, they might bump up the numbers even further ... They are going to do whatever it takes to keep a lid on this damn thing in Baghdad, because if there's anywhere it's going to fly off the handle it's in Baghdad. And if ethnic cleansing takes on a life of its own, people in this town are going to say it's time to leave."

In addition, Colonel Guy Stratton is quoted as saying "this is going to be a long war."

If that's true, that this war is going to be a long one, then doesn't it logically follow that a mandatory draft is just around the corner? If not, then the shorthanded U.S. forces will continue to be in harms way with less than adequate support. But if so, then imagine what will happen to poll numbers when this already unpopular war necessitates a draft.