The Draft

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

This will be the path to third rate nation status. The police for the 
world. Our best will get killed .



Begin forwarded message:

From: Shannon McElyea <shannon () swisscreek com>
Date: September 12, 2004 12:39:49 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: FW: The Draft
Reply-To: Shannon () auntieshannon com

better

-----Original Message-----
From: Severo Ornstein [mailto:severo () poonhill com]
Sent: Saturday, September 11, 2004 10:02 AM
To: Recipient List Suppressed:
Subject: The Draft


I have mixed feelings about this. I don't like the fact that a
proposal for a draft is creeping quietly forward while the election
takes place, but on the other hand I tend to agree with N.Y. Rep.
Charles Rangell that at present it's the underprivileged (often
blacks) who for lack of better opportunities get pushed and pulled
into the army to do America's fighting. Of course the very privileged
will always find a way out (although note that the proposed bill
would eliminate education deferments and make it difficult to escape
to Canada). But a more or less universal draft would put the case for
war more clearly before the general public and perhaps breed greater
circumspection than we've seen of late.

S.
______________________________________________________
   http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5146.htm
There is pending legislation in the House and Senate  (twin bills: S
89 and HR 163) which call for mandatory drafting for boys and  girls
(age 18-26) starting June 15 2005. It will time the program's
initiation so the draft can begin just after the 2004  presidential
election. The administration is quietly trying to get these  bills
passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections. Details
and links follow. Even those  voters who currently support  US
actions abroad may still object to this move, knowing their own
children or grandchildren will not have a say about whether to fight.

Please write to your  representatives to ask them why they are not
telling their constituents  about these bills -- and write to
newspapers and other media outlets to ask why they are not covering
this important story. $28 million has been added to the 2004
selective service system (sss) budget to prepare for a  military
draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. Selective Service
must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain
dormant for decades, is ready for activation.

See  http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html  to view the sss annual
performance plan - fiscal year 2004. The pentagon has  quietly begun
a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and
11,070 appeals board slots nationwide. Though this is an unpopular
election  year topic, military experts and influential members of
congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld's prediction of a "long,
hard slog" in Iraq and  Afghanistan [and a permanent state of war on
"terrorism"] proves accurate,  the U.S. may have no choice but to
draft.

http://www.hslda.org/legislation/national/2003/s89/default.asp
Congress brought twin bills, S. 89 and HR 163 forward this year,
entitled the  Universal National Service Act of 2003, "to provide for
the common defense  by requiring that all young persons [age 18--26]
in the United States,  including women, perform a period of military
service or a period of  civilian service in furtherance of the
national defense and homeland  security, and for other purposes."
These active bills currently sit in the  committee on armed services.
Dodging the draft will be more difficult than  those from the Vietnam
era. College and Canada will not be options. In  December 2001,
Canada and the U.S. signed a "smart border declaration,"  which could
be used to keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada's
minister of foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security
director, Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30-point plan which
implements, among other things, a "pre-clearance  agreement" of
people entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at  making
the draft more equitable along gender and class lines also eliminates
higher education as a shelter. Underclassmen would only be able to
postpone  service until the end of their current semester. Seniors
would have until the end of the academic year.
--
A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you
may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates,
powder-monkeys, and all, marching in admirable order over hill and
dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense
and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and
produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a
damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably
inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and
magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?
        Thoreau - Civil Disobedience

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