A National Draft in the Future?
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| Tue, 09-21-2004 - 12:19pm |
Published on Sep 20, 2004, 07:08 A key issue for young Americans and their families to consider as they prepare to cast their votes in the upcoming presidential election is the real likelihood of a military draft being reinstated if President Bush is re-elected. President Bush should tell us now whether he supports a military draft.
Here is the evidence that makes a draft likely:
The U.S. Army has acknowledged that they are stretched thin and that finding new recruits is challenging. They recently placed 300 new recruiters in the field. Bonuses for new recruits to the Army have risen by 67 percent to a maximum of $10,000 and $15,000 for hard-to-fill specialties.
The extended tours of duty have made service less attractive for both the regular armed forces, and particularly for the National Guard and Reserves. To meet this year's quota for enlistees, the Army has sped up the induction of "delayed entry" recruits, meaning they are already borrowing from next year's quotas in order to meet this year's numbers.
Reservists are now being called away for longer periods. In 2003, President Bush dramatically extended the length of time for the Guard and Reserves deployment in Iraq. Extended tours of up to a year have become common.
In a further sign of a lack of adequate staffing, the armed forces are now in the process of calling up members of the Individual Ready Reserves. These are often older reservists usually waiting retirement. They are typically in their mid-to-late forties, and have not been on active duty and have not trained for some time. Traditionally, they are only supposed to be called up during a time of national emergency. In 2001, President Bush authorized their call up but never rescinded this order even after he declared "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq in May of 2003.
The Armed Forces are already chronically understaffed. In 2003, General Eric Shinseki testified before Congress that an additional 50,000 troops would be needed beyond what the Bush administration said would be necessary to stabilize Iraq after the invasion. The President ignored him. We do not have enough troops in Afghanistan to be able to stabilize the country, as shown by the continual putting off of elections well past their announced date. In an effort to free up yet more troops in the coming years, we are moving troops away from the Demilitarized Zone in Korea and reducing the number of troops on the Korean Peninsula at a time when North Korea poses more of a danger to the U.S. - not less. Because of the President's military adventurism, our Armed Forces are under enormous pressure. The only place to go for more troops is a draft.
Selective service boards have already been notified that 20-year-olds and medical personnel will be called up first.
President Bush will be forced to decide whether we can continue the current course in Iraq, which will clearly require the reinstatement of the draft. The Pentagon has objected to a draft but, the President has ignored other Pentagon recommendations in the past.
American families and young people are owed an explanation about the President's plans. Will the President withdraw from some of our military commitments or will he reinstate the draft? We need to know that before we vote, not afterwards.

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Another article that addresses that.....
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US runs low on soldiers
19.09.2004 By PETER HUCK
A radio is playing Marvin Gaye's What's Going On as the Veterans for Peace create a memorial known as Arlington West on the beach beside Santa Monica Pier. They are placing 1008 white crosses in the sand - one for each US soldier killed in Iraq as of September 12.
Pictures of the dead are displayed in front of a coffin draped with the US flag and topped with a military helmet. Later, their names will be read out. It is a sobering ceremony on this late summer's day.
With the war locked into a bloody stalemate, the veterans are wondering how the military might find replacements to fill the gaps starkly spelled out by their symbolic cemetery. For despite the Pentagon's boast that it can fight and win two conventional wars, US forces are seriously overstretched.
"We don't have the manpower to sustain the war in Iraq," says Eric Ellis, a Vietnam veteran who helped to start Arlington West. "In Vietnam we had 550,000 troops. We rotated them every year. We had to do one combat tour. Now we have 130,000-odd troops in Iraq. They do a tour, come home, then go back."
Where to find the extra troops to fight a seemingly intractable insurgency that echoes Vietnam has become a pressing question. And although you wouldn't hear it from the Bush Administration, the prospect of deploying a draft for the first time in a generation may be edging towards reality.
Since Vietnam the US has fielded a volunteer military. But after a year of bloody combat in Iraq, and to a lesser degree in Afghanistan, its limitations are becoming apparent.
Many US soldiers in Iraq are fighting for a second year. The Pentagon has also deployed about 45 per cent of the 1.2 million-strong National Guard (as against 1.4 million in the regular armed forces), the highest call-up of "weekend warriors" since World War II. Arguably, the move could leave the US more vulnerable to attack.
Other men have been drawn from the Individual Ready Reserve, troops on call for eight years after leaving the military.
The Pentagon has bumped the number of recruiters from 6000 to 7000, and inductees are offered bonuses, scholarships, and various enticements - cosmetic surgery at Government expense is one.
Meanwhile, the war in Iraq bleeds on. Besides the dead, 6690 soldiers had been wounded by September 12.
"We're seeing new types of people going AWOL ," says Steve Morse from the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors. "They've returned from Iraq and are extremely stressed by the war."
Calls to the GI Rights Hotline, run by the committee, have shot up. And a handful of soldiers have deserted, fleeing to Canada.
Can the Pentagon hold the line using volunteers? Or will it to have to resurrect conscription?
"If Bush gets in I think a draft is a distinct possibility," says Ellis. He isn't alone.
Officially, the draft is a non-starter. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has ruled it out. The Selective Service Agency, the federal body that would run a draft (which has to be authorised by Congress and the president), doesn't "foresee anything on the horizon". Neither Bush nor his presidential rival, Senator John Kerry, have mentioned it.
But this could change quickly. Should Washington give the go-ahead, America's 1980 draft boards, staffed by 11,000 volunteers, are "ready to do business", says Selective Service Agency spokesman Pat Schuback.
Certainly, the agency has enough names. Registration with the agency at 18 is mandatory, tied to voter registration, federal loans and jobs, or acquiring a driver's licence. A draft would apply to all males between 19 and 25.
Recruits would be chosen by a national lottery, starting with 19-year-olds and working up. Following a 1981 Supreme Court decision women are exempt, although this could change.
Despite official claims that a draft isn't contemplated, there is growing concern at the grassroots.
"We're getting a lot of calls from people who are worried," says Morse. "Especially from young men. Even from young women."
The last point is possibly prescient. Since the Supreme Court exempted women from any draft, female volunteers have expanded from 3 per cent to 15 per cent of the armed forces. In Iraq, where frontlines are non-existent, everyone is at risk, and women are coming home in body bags.
Currently, there are two private members' bills in Congress, one in the House and one in the Senate, to re-enact the draft.
Democrat congressman Charles Rangel, a Korean War veteran, wants two years of mandatory military or civilian service for all young Americans. A similar bill has been sponsored by Democrat Senator Ernest Hollings, a World War II veteran.
So far, their calls have meet with a tepid response from lawmakers. But this could change quickly in the New Year.
"Once the presidential election is done I think there will be strong pressure on Congress to look at the draft," says Professor Don Zillman, a expert on the subject at the University of Maine in Portland.
"We are not getting the new enlistments. And the need for additional forces is there. If we are simply running out of soldiers where do we find them?"
Ultimately, any decision is political. The Vietnam-era draft, which conscripted disproportionate numbers of poor Americans, attracted widespread odium. Since then, any tradition of public service in the US has atrophied.
But Zillman believes a draft that was levied fairly could win public approval in an emergency. "I think at this stage it would be unpopular. But if we have another terrorist attack closer to home, all bets are off."
dablacksox
Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.
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Selective Service eyes women's draft
The proposal would also require registration of critical skills
Saturday, May 1, 2004
By ERIC ROSENBERG SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The chief of the Selective Service System has proposed registering women for the military draft and requiring that young Americans regularly inform the government about whether they have training in niche specialties needed in the armed services.
The proposal, which the agency's acting Director Lewis Brodsky presented to senior Pentagon officials just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, also seeks to extend the age of draft registration to 34 years old, up from 25.
The Selective Service System plan, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, highlights the extent to which agency officials have planned for an expanded military draft in case the administration and Congress would authorize one in the future.
"In line with today's needs, the Selective Service System's structure, programs and activities should be re-engineered toward maintaining a national inventory of American men and, for the first time, women, ages 18 through 34, with an added focus on identifying individuals with critical skills," the agency said in a Feb. 11, 2003, proposal presented to senior Pentagon officials.
Brodsky and Richard Flahavan, the agency's director of public and congressional affairs, reviewed the six-page proposal with Pentagon officials responsible for personnel issues. They included Charles Abell, principal deputy undersecretary for personnel and readiness, and William Carr, deputy undersecretary for military personnel policy.
The agency officials acknowledged that they would have "to market the concept" of a female draft to Congress, which ultimately would have to authorize such a step.
Dan Amon, a spokesman for the Selective Service System, based in Arlington, Va., said that the Pentagon has taken no action on the proposal to expand draft registration.
"These ideas were only being floated for Department of Defense consideration," Amon said. He described the proposal as "food for thought" for contingency planning.
Navy Lt. Cmdr. Jane Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Defense Department, said the Pentagon "has not agreed to, nor even suggested, a change to Selective Service's current missions."
Nonetheless, Flahavan said the agency has begun designing procedures for a targeted registration and draft of people with computer and language skills, in case military officials and Congress authorize it.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, say they oppose a revival of the military draft, last used in 1973 as the American commitment in Vietnam waned, beginning the era of the all-volunteer force.
Mandatory registration for the draft was suspended in 1975 but was resumed in 1980 by President Carter after the Soviets invaded Afghanistan. About 13.5 million men, ages 18 to 25, currently are registered with the Selective Service.
"I don't know anyone in the executive branch of the government who believes that it would be appropriate or necessary to reinstitute the draft," Rumsfeld said last month.
At present, the Selective Service is authorized to register only young men and they are not required to inform the government about any professional skills. Separately, the agency has in place a special registration system to draft health care personnel in more than 60 specialties into the military if necessary in a crisis.
Some of the skill areas where the armed forces are facing "critical shortages" include linguists and computer specialists, the agency said. Americans would then be required to regularly update the agency on their skills until they reach age 35.
Individuals proficient in more than one critical skill would list the skill in which they have the greatest degree of competency.
© 1998-2004 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
dablacksox
Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.
From my article.
"The chief of the Selective Service System has proposed registering women for the military draft and requiring that young Americans regularly inform the government about whether they have training in niche specialties needed in the armed services."
Perhaps you will enlighten us as to how you know that the chief of the Selective Service System is a "typical Dem".
"The fact is, if we end up needing a draft it isn't going to matter who is president at the time. We'll either need it or we won't, (unless Kerry decides that total failure in Iraq and Afganistan is a viable option.)"
Or unless Bush is re-elected and the rest of the world continues to tell us to piss off. Then the 1037 Americans Bush has sent to his death may triple or even worse, the same for the 7,032 Americans Bush has sent to be maimed.
"Right now no one is saying we will need it, but there is no candidate who can (honestly) promise that we won't."
And I'll bet a box of cigars that there is one candidate who will need it and is lying about the fact that he will. Just like he lied about the Iraqi WMD, before he sent 1,037 Americans off to their deaths.
dablacksox
Cynic: a blackguard whose faulty vision sees things as they are, not as they ought to be.---Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary.
Preparations for a reinstitution of the draft are being talked about within the defense Department
The writing was on the web as well for a short time.
A notice was posted on a defense department website in September 2003
asking for volunteers for local draft boards.
After news media discovered the posting and started writing articles on it, it was promptly pulled down.
The Memory Hole is a site that logs the web and they’ve reposted the original message from the department of defense.
There are also links on the original page to the news media articles that prompted the notice’s removal.
This issue is sure to drive up youth voters and they are going to be voting in record numbers this November.
Be prepared to give up yourself or your children to Bush's occupation in Iraq if he manages to hang onto his job in November.
>>> On 23 Sept 2003, the Defense Department Website called "Defend America" posted a notice for people to join local draft boards. "If a military draft becomes necessary," the notice explained, "approximately 2,000 Local and Appeal Boards throughout America would decide which young men, who submit a claim, receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service, based on Federal guidelines."
In early November, that notice started to receive media attention, with articles from the Associated Press, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer , the Oregonian, the Toronto Star, the BBC, and London Guardian (unsurprisingly, none of the major papers or networks in the US covered it).
In a familiar turn of events, the notice suddenly disappeared from the Website.<<<
http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/draft-boards.htm
Like I said, I don't rule out the possibility that the draft may be needed sometime in the future, but it will be because there are a lot of fanatical Islamic terrorists out there who attacked our country and want to kill us, not because George Bush wants to draft people.
Do you really believe the rest of the world is the answer to our troop shortages, if we encounter any? Do you think France or Germany are going to pony up 50 or 100,000 troops to fight Islamic terrorists? Do you really believe that John Kerry is going to be able to get the UN to share a lot of the burden with us of fighting the war on terror, the same UN who was making millions taking food and medicine out of the mouths of Iraqi children while Saddam defied their resolutions with impunity? I think not.
Yawn. It's late but I'll bite and ask for the umpteenth time, where's the proof that Bush has lied about anything, and if he did why is that in your view he is the only liar in the world when everyone, including John Kerry, John Edwards, and our potential saviors France Germany and Russia saw the exact same intelligence and drew the exact same conclusions that Bush did? I won't even wait up for it as I know it's not forthcoming. Good night.
You are leaping to conclusions.
Saying they saw the exact same intelligence that Bush did does not preclude Bush from seeing intelligence others didn't. Intelligence for instance which would point to the proper conclusion Iraq had no wmds.
It's highly unlikely that they would be privy to all the resources at the President's disposal. Unfortunately we'll have to wait until after the election to read the report on the inquiry into the intelligence failure or massaging or whatever occured at the time.(at Bush's insistence btw he didn't want the report delivered until March 05.)
Anyway back to the draft.
For non military associated families:
Are you prepared for Bush to send yourself or your loved ones into the line of fire in Iraq?
Edited 9/22/2004 12:57 am ET ET by blueishxx
He thinks Iraq's going great as well.
He didn't think a cabinet level Department of Homeland Security was necessary, then he did.
He didn't think a 911 commission was necessary, then he did.
"Now where is Kerry going to find these 40,000 more troops he keeps speaking of?"
Americans have always been willing to enlist in the armed services for just causes with a clear purpose and direction.
An unnecessary occupation with no exit strategy is a different story.
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