Pssst, hey you, Marine Reservist. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck -- then DUCK -- because you may be dodging bullets in some foreign land by the end of the year.

A call-up announced this week affects Marines in the Individual Ready Reserve. The Bush administration is terming this an involuntary recall, but what it is, by any name, is a kind of draft.

Even though he promised that there'd be no military draft on his watch, President Bush in July quietly authorized the Marines to recall up to 2,500 reservists at a time to make up for the shortage of specialists volunteering to be sent back to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Hard to believe, isn't it, that military personnel who've already done one or more tours of combat aren't clamoring to re-up for more fighting in open-ended, ill-defined conflicts.

Marines with specific skills who left active duty and returned to civilian lives are the ones who may have to dust off their uniforms and return to the battlefield. They'll have five months to report to duty .

The authorization for the Individual Ready Reserves -- IRR's -- is in effect until the war on terror ends. Since there is no foreseeable end to either terror or the war on it, that means men and women who ordinarily would have completed their service to our country must now dread, at least until their eight-year commitment expires, the knock on the door telling them to suit up once again.

Americans, even those who oppose the wars, probably would be more accepting of our involvement if our leaders told us the truth -- they need more troops -- instead of treating us like a nation of Sammy Sausageheads who don't recognize a snow job.

The president says he won't implement a draft and he doesn't have to -- not when he can keep sending the same troops back to the same combat zones.

When I called Camp Lejeune, and then Washington, to find out who was most likely to be called up and why -- and if this was indeed a draft -- the Marines to whom I spoke were as respectful and courteous as if I'd been Gen. Colin Powell himself -- before he got on the adminstration's bad side by telling the truth about the Iraq war.

Their respectful treatment of me only increased my respect for them and made me wish even more that they had the type of military and political leaders they deserve.

Anyone familiar with miliary culture knows that euphemisms -- those phrases meant to obscure one's the real meaning -- have long been used. For instance, whenever you hear that soldiers are going to be "vertically inserted" into a combat area, you know they'll be dropping into a dangerous area. If you hear that an enemy must be "neutralized," chances are someone will be attending a funeral.

Likewise, when you hear that the government is implementing an involuntary activation program, you may want to learn the words to the Bo Donaldson & the Heywoods' 1970s-era antiwar anthem "Billy, Don't Be Hero." It includes the line "And as he started to go, she said 'Billy, keep your head low.'"

In other words, DUCK!