05:40 PM PDT on Tuesday, September 28, 2004

By DAVE CASSIDY / BELO

AP A U.S. Army soldier fights from a rooftop stronghold during a battle with insurgents in the Sadr City section of Baghdad, Iraq.

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Both President Bush and Senator Kerry say they oppose reinstating the draft. But you'd never know from surfing the Internet.

The candidates could be asked about the draft at Thursday's foreign policy debate or at the town-hall debate in a couple of weeks.

Or maybe this will just remain hot talk on the Internet.

America hasn't had a military draft in 30 years - since the war in VIetnam. But the idea of bringing it back is talked about all the time on Internet sites.

Last year, New York Democrat Charles Rangel introduced a bill to bring back the draft. The bill went nowhere. But for the first time in 10 years, the Army reserve has fallen short of its yearly goal and some Democrats say the U.S. military is stretched too thin.

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld said one way to increase military manpower is to get more soldiers in the field by hiring civilians to do desk work some troops do now.

"The department has identified over 50,000 positions to begin conversion and we plan to carry this conversion out at a rate of about 10,000 positions a year," Rumsfeld said.

But Rumsfeld said Internet rumors that President Bush plans to reinstitute the draft are "nonsense."

John Kerry says he's not so sure.

"Given the way he had gone about this war and given his avoidance of responsibility in North Korea and Iran and other places, it is possible, I can't tell you," he said.

Both President Bush and Senator Kerry say they see no need for a draft, and the Pentagon says it doesn't want one.

As a practical matter, a draft would be a huge headache for any president. The draft fueled a lot of the anti-war feelings during the Vietnam war.

And if we had a draft now, opposition to the war in Iraq would probably increase.

In addition, the Pentagon says a volunteer force is much easier to deal with.

But all that won't stop people from reading about the draft on the Internet.