A member of Congress who last year introduced legislation reinstating the military draft says the bill could gain support as the United States continues in war mode, but Maine’s representatives vow they will continue to back only a voluntary force.

Last year, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., introduced a bill that would require all Americans – men and women – between 18 and 26 years of age to do two years of mandatory service with the U.S. armed forces. A parallel bill was introduced in the Senate by Sen. Charles Schumer, also a Democrat from New York.

A spokesman for Rangel said passage of the bill appears a “bigger possibility” given the war in Iraq. “How long can we sustain the military when fewer people enlist?” asked Emile Milne. “There is clearly a shortage of active-duty personnel. … Every poll you see says current members will not re-enlist. Reservists are being kept in Iraq for a year or more.”

Rangel’s bill was introduced last January, and both this and the Senate version are now in committee. Rangel said after introducing it last year that military service should be a “shared sacrifice” asked of all able young Americans. He said a draft would give pause for thought to those who were calling for the war against Iraq, and encourage them to work with the international community.

He also had cited the “disproportionate” number of minorities in the military as one of his reasons for introducing the bill. Minorities make up 34.4 percent of the military, although they are only about 25 percent of the population.

But Maine representatives in Congress say they still see strong benefits to having a volunteer army and will not support a bill reinstating the draft.

“Our military is the best-trained and best-equipped in the world,” said Rep. Michael Michaud, adding that those who enter the military wanted to make it their career and as a result were fully devoted to it.

He said forcing people to enlist went against fundamental freedoms. “We in the United States are free to chose what life we would like to live. … Individuals do not need to put on the uniform to show their love of country or to serve the greater good.”

Rep. Tom Allen said that even when a draft was in place in the past, people who did not want to enlist found ways to avoid it.

During the Vietnam War hundreds of Americans moved to Canada to escape the draft, and others found medical or educational reasons to avoid being sent to war.

“A lot of people in the Pentagon also believe that when you have people who serve longer than two years you get a higher quality of worker,” Allen said, discussing the drawbacks of forcing people to enlist for two years.

However, he also agreed with the possibility that the continuing war could increase the need for a military draft in the future. “It could certainly be the case … although I don’t think it is likely to be brought up right away,” he said.

The draft, created in 1948, was removed in 1973 when the United States switched to an all-volunteer army, as the war in Vietnam drew to a close. Now, men ages 18 to 25 are required to register with the Selective Service System, which would be activated during a national emergency.

Milne said a draft was a “hard thing to support,” but added that it might become a necessity given the Bush administration’s foreign policy. “If we continue with the expansion of our pre-emptive [strike] policy, if we continue the war on terrorism and if we have troops stationed all around the world, how can we manage without a draft?” he asked.

The Bush administration, however, has not indicated an expansion of troops in Iraq for the near future. The president also has said he will not revive a military draft.

Instead, he recently called for enlarging the size of the active-duty army in his latest $2.4 trillion budget for fiscal 2005 that includes a 7 percent increase in defense spending.

Sen. Susan Collins said this was with the intention of relieving the National Guard, which is now stretched thin in Iraq. She added there was little chance for a military draft bill to succeed. “I do not sense any momentum at all behind it,” she said.

But while the military draft continues to be – for now – just letters on a cold bill, the Department of Defense, post-Sept. 11, already has prepared a plan that would draft medical personnel to serve in cases of chemical or biological attacks.

The “health care personnel delivery system” was authorized by Congress in 1987 to deal with large-scale casualties. Under the plan, the president can issue a proclamation ordering 13.5 million health care workers between the ages of 20 and 44, men and women, to register for the draft within 13 days.

“It is a backup, secondary plan that Selective Service has, and it would require Congress to pass legislation,” said Averill Black, state director of Selective Service for Maine.