According to Mark Kassis’ letter to the editor of Ames, IA’s Tribune newspaper (12/9/04, print edition), the “economic draft” is gaining strength. Kassis writes that his son, a college student, recently received an offer from the US Army of “up to $20,000 enlistment bonus, up to $70,000 for college…and the choice of more than 150 careers.” This offer comes the same year that Kassis and his son have been notified that Pell student grants will be cut, causing as many as 1.2 million low-income students to have their grants reduced. There’s no cited proof of a correlation between these two events, but it’s difficult not to see the indications: As subsidies are moved from one low-income area to another, more and more potential students will see no better choice for their futures than to fight US wars, whether or not they agree with the reasons for these wars. Even when those in the US government insist a conventional draft will not be necessary, the system will find ways to fill the endless need for more bodies to fight its open-ended wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond – with or without public support.