"In this war, the draft won't be militarily or politically feasible," says retired Rear Adm. Eugene J. Carroll, Jr., an analyst with the military watchdog group Center for Defense Information.

Carroll says he expects the U.S. to achieve victory quickly and decisively. And with 475,000 men and women already in the Persian Gulf, the military still has 1.6 million reservists that can be called upon to serve.

Other analysts say that an overall reduction of international tensions in recent years has freed up American military resources. The need for a huge military, even in the time of war, is therefore greatly reduced.

"Our global responsibilities are greatly reduced now," says Joshua. M. Epstein, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington D.C. think-tank. "Europe used to be 60 percent of our defense spending. By comparison to the Warsaw Pact, Iraq is not that big."

In the Vietnam era, "we always had the concern that the Soviet Union could come screaming across the folding gap. We have more of a relaxed atmosphere in Europe now," says one military analyst with the American Enterprise Institute.

In Six Months, Maybe

And while chances of the draft were called slim by almost every expert contacted, several spelled out scenarios in which it could become a reality.

President Bush is committed to a volunteer army, but if the war were to last six months or more with heavy casualties, the draft would necessarily become a viable option, says Jay Kosminsky, deputy director of defense policy studies at the Heritage Foundation.

Kosminsky says that the length of the war, rather than the number of combat injuries or deaths, will be the most important factor in deciding whether to institute a draft, because troops need to be rotated out of combat after a certain length of duty.

If the U.S. sticks to its stated goals--driving Iraqi forces out of Kuwait and restoring the border--the operation could be fairly quick, says Epstein of the Brookings Institute.

"But if, contrary to the original statement, this thing escalates into an invasion of Iraq, with the U.S. establishing a new government and subduing resistance, then the matter would be far different," Epstein says.

"My trepidation is that ['liberating' Kuwait] will not suffice for President Bush," Epstein says.

But if Bush or lawmakers on Capital Hill are considering the draft as an option, most of them certainly aren't letting on.

The House Armed Services Committee put off hearings scheduled for last week on the "sustainability of an all-volunteer force." The Committee maintains that there is "no intention" of reinstating the draft.

U.S. Rep. Les Aspin (D-Wis.), chair of the committee, is "opposed to the draft," an aide said. "No event in the foreseeable future could change his opinion."