Gates looked at the documents briefly and then nodded in agreement. “Done. You have permission to get this equipment activated immediately. What else do you need?” he asked, genuinely wanting to get the warfighters whatever they needed to win.
“We need troops, Mr. President. We need a lot of soldiers to fill the new units we are creating.” He held up a hand for everyone to give him a chance to finish his thought. “I know General Hillman had authorized the activation of the entire military reserve and the National Guard, but they are not going to be enough. Even with 50,000 people volunteering to join the military in the past two weeks, it’s still not going to be adequate. I believe we need to reinstitute an immediate draft, and do it now so we can get their training started.”
There was a moment of silence after the mention of the word “draft.” Then he saw Stephen Saunders nod his head in agreement. Rosenblatt’s affect remained flat, almost dismissive. Admiral Meyer knew in that moment that he already had Saunders on board but would need to find a way to convince Jonathan that this had to happen.
“We have 460,000 troops on active duty, with another 530,000 personnel in the Reserves and National Guard. While that sounds like a lot of soldiers, it’s not nearly enough to accomplish the task of winning this new war. Most of these soldiers are not direct combat soldiers-they are largely support units. We badly need active ground forces. We also cannot have our entire armed forces deployed to Europe, nor can we leave the Pacific and our allies there unprotected. If hostilities do break out between North Korea or China, then we are certain to lose in our current state.” Admiral Meyer spoke passionately. He really wanted to persuade the President to agree to ramp up the military immediately, while they still had time.
Stephen Saunders jumped in before anyone else could speak. “Mr. President, while I do not like the sound of a draft, the Admiral is right. It takes time to train an army and time to equip one. Right now, we are still operating with the depleted military that existed when you took office; we can’t change that, but we can do what is needed to get the country ready to win this war. Remember, during World War II, it took the US nearly 18 months to raise and train an army before it was ready to start fighting. We don’t have that much time. This war with Russia is serious. They have nearly four times as many soldiers in Ukraine as we do. We cannot rely on NATO to step up to the plate on this. We need to institute a draft and a massive rebuilding of our military.”
Jonathan Rosenblatt then jumped in. “I am not sure a draft is the right call. I agree with the idea that we need to rapidly rebuild the military-that has to happen-but I think we can get enough people to volunteer without having to institute a draft. If we go that route, the press is going to eat us for lunch,” he said, disgusted at the options they appeared to be left with.
Steve snorted before retorting, “The press has never been on our side, so what difference would it make if they agreed with us on a draft or not? They are going to report whatever they are going to report. We need to focus on the business of the country and not what they are going to say or think. We have to assume they are going to be against us no matter what decision we make.”
The President’s left eyebrow went up. With his usual voices of reason at odds, he turned towards Admiral Meyer, NSA McMillan, and SecDef Castle. “Gentlemen, what is your recommendation for how many forces we should draft should we move in that direction?”
Castle nodded towards Admiral Meyer to continue. The two of them had briefly talked about how many soldiers they would need the night before. McMillan thought they could get by with a much lower number, but was willing to let the Admiral make the case for the larger number he wanted.
“Mr. President, I believe we should announce a draft of five million men and women. It is going to take us time to get them trained, and until we have the proper facilities up and running, we will have to draft people in stages.” As he finished his point, he pulled out a sheet of paper that outlined how many people he would like to draft into each of the military branches.
Rosenblatt gaffed at the number, almost laughing out loud. The President’s Chief of Staff did audibly chuckle at the number being proposed. McMillan leaned back in his chair, waiting to let the Admiral make his case for why he felt the US needed such a large number of draftees. However, before he could even begin, Stephen Saunders offered, “You know, Mr. President, this kind of Army would allow us to right a few wrongs and bring some true peace to the world.”
Ishaan jumped in at that comment, “Steve, this isn’t some crusade we are talking about. You can’t just build up a multi-million-man army and start invading countries you disagree with.”
Saunders bristled; he did not like it when people openly disagreed with him.
The Chief of Staff brushed off the obvious disdain that Stephen was dishing out with his deadly stare. He turned to the President. “Sir, I agree that we need to build up the military, and maybe drafting a few million people is what we need to do… but we need to be cautious with this. If we announce too large of a draft, it will send the wrong message overseas.”
This time the President interrupted, “-You mean it will tell the Chinese and Russians that we are not screwing around? That we mean business? Or that the mentally unstable little dictator in North Korea had better get in line or he may be next? That kind of message?” Sarcasm dripped from the President’s voice.
Gates was obviously irritated at that point. “Honestly, I’m tired of this crap. The Russians invaded Ukraine and attacked NATO because they believed us to be weak. The Chinese invaded Southeast Asia because we do not have the military capability to tell them to back off. North Korea has developed ICBMs because we lack the ability to stop them. Enough is enough. We are going to send a message loud and clear to the rest of the world that this kind of annexation of their neighbors is over. I do not want President Xi to think for even a second that he can invade and take Taiwan next because we lack the troops or resources to stop him.”
The President got up from his chair and began to pace back and forth while the others stayed seated. He signaled for everyone to stay seated. “I’m stepping outside for a minute. I want you all to stay here. Think this problem through for a minute-don’t talk to each other, just work your way through the problem quietly. Try to figure it out… if we do this draft, how would we use these forces? What would be our end state, and how do we message it? I’m going to walk outside for a minute to calm down and clear my head. When I come back, I will want some options from you guys.” Then Gates opened the side door to the portico and walked outside to get some air and think without distractions.
The others in the room sat there for a minute, not saying anything as they thought about what he had just said. Ishaan and Jonathan immediately began to write several things down on their notepads. Saunders got up and began to pace around the office himself, mulling over what the finer points of messaging. McMillan just smirked as he looked at Admiral Meyer and nodded his head in approval.
Less than five minutes later, the President walked back into the Oval Office with a determined look on his face. He looked at Saunders first and asked, “So, how do we present our new strategy and the draft to the public?”