House closes window on draft rumor

Oh, what a tangled Web we weave.... If anyone needed evidence of the power of the Internet, not only to inform but to disinform, they might refer to what happened in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday night. Bill HR163, legislation to reinstate the military draft, a mischief-making proposal introduced last year by Rep. Charles Rangel, a Democrat, was rushed to the floor by its opponents in the Republican Party. And was put out of its 18-month misery by an overwhelming vote of 402 to 2. Even Rangel voted "no," hiding behind the fig leaf that he opposed the GOP's procedural maneuver.

The congressional urgency was fueled primarily by an Internet E-mail campaign that spread rumors of a secret plan to begin a draft wildfire, inflaming students and their parents into falsely believing that the White House was conspiring to send young American conscripts off to Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever against their will.

It was, and is, nonsense. But even outright denials from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush himself could not quell the fears, or stop the disinformation effort. Just Tuesday morning, one of the culprit E-mails arrived at the Voice of the People. Sent by a mother, it began: "Mandatory draft for boys and girls (ages 18-26) starting June 15, 2005, is something that everyone should know about."

"There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (companion bills: 389 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin as early as spring 2005, just after the 2004 presidential election. The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately."

Leaving aside the inconvenient facts that the bills were sponsored by Democrats and had no hope of passage, the writer also urged that the message be forwarded to "all the parents and teachers you know, and all the aunts and uncles, grandparents, godparents..."

And so fears of a draft made their way to Congress, terrifying Republicans in the midst of the hard-fought presidential campaign and no doubt gladdening the hearts of Democrats. Tuesday night's vote was an effort to lay the rumors to rest and minimize wholly unjustified political damage. The Republicans did the right thing. But whether they've stanched the Internet rumor-mongering remains to be seen.


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