And somebody will call them volunteers

One thing about the US not having a draft is that that country gets a totally volunteer army and marine corps.

Well... sort of.

The Marine Corps is recalling 1,800 reservists to active duty, citing a shortage of volunteers to fill some jobs in Iraq.

Members of the branch's Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) will get letters this week notifying them of plans to mobilize them involuntarily for a year, said Lt. Col. Jeff Riehl of Marine manpower and reserve affairs.

The Individual Ready Reserve being the people who have completed their active duty obligation.

From the 1,800 called, officials hope to get 1,200 Marines for aviation maintenance, logistics support, combat arms and several other skills needed for the early 2008 rotation into Iraq.

As Moderate Man says: Isn't that special.

Way back when, when the US was in a different war, in a different time, people could be in the a branch of the US military and avoid being deployed to combat because they had an arrangement.

Amazing, isn't it?

The rich kids either found a way around the draft during Vietnam, or they actually volunteered to join a branch of the US military which wasn't committed to deployment. The draftees took the hit for them.

Now, the kids who have volunteered once keep getting called back to active duty by the same people who deliberately avoided that kind of service. And the kids of those rich kids? They don't have to go because they don't have to volunteer.

No matter what mode of recruitment and induction exists, the rich kids, and their kids, have always had somebody else do the dirty stuff.

Helluva system.