Pay no attention to the man behind the screen...

While Bush is busy insisting that there will be no draft, the Selective Service is drawing up plans to, um, draft medical personnel as needed in case of emergency.

Richard S. Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, said Monday: "We have been routinely updating the entire plan for a health care draft. The plan is on the shelf and will remain there unless Congress and the president decide that it's needed and direct us to carry it out."

But all that military activity, and the plan to extend maximum reserve mobilization tours from 2 to 5 years, shouldn't make you think that any of this means anything. No siree, we just like keepin' busy!

Update: Also being sent to Iraq are the troops we usually use to train our other guys (they play the "enemy" in field exercises and the like). As Intel Dump puts it, "deploying the OPFOR is like eating your seed corn." These are the guys who make it possible to get other troops battle-ready.

Lessee, we already called guys out of retirement, wouldn't let current troops take leave, are extending commitments of volunteer forces, and are pillaging our training forces for pure numbers of bodies to deploy. But we're not desperate enough to consider a draft! Of course not!