political rambling
The text, as it appears at http://www.congress.org/congressorg/issues/alert/?alertid=5834001&content_dir=ua_congressorg
Pending Draft Legislation Targeted for Spring 2005
The Draft will Start in June 2005
There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin at early as Spring 2005 -- 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, so our action on this is needed immediately.
$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. Please see website: 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.
Congress brought twin bills, S. 89 and HR 163 forward this year, http://www.hslda.org/legislation/na...s89/default.asp 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.
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. Not that it should make a difference, but this plan, among other things, eliminates higher education as a
shelter and includes women in the draft.
The public has a right to air their opinions about such an important decision.
Please send this on to all the friends, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins that you know. Let your children know too -- it's their future, and they can be a powerful voice for change!
Please also contact your representatives to ask them why they aren't telling their constituents about these bills -- and contact newspapers and other media outlets to ask them why they're not covering this important story.
So it looks like there might be a draft.
I don't know what to say.
For starters, I'm completely opposed to this stupid war. Why is it even being fought... how is America in any way threatened? Additionally, the idea of a draft bothers me more than I can express. That the government wields the power to force people to fight their war has always scared me. When we first discussed the idea of a draft in 3rd grade, I was bothered immensely. I said something then about how I would try to avoid it as much as possible. I still have that view today. Criticize me, I don't care. I am vehemently opposed to the idea of military service. So many things about it bother me... killing other people, whom I have no reason to kill, having everything I have worked for pulled away from me and having my fate determined by others, like a marionette of the government... were there even a true need for this war to be fought, I think I would still oppose a draft.
On the one hand, I appreciate that this draft would potentially include women. Having a vagina should not make you immune from governmental seizure (a discussion about this last year in history included Catherine Lee declaring "it's different when women fight, because they have nicer hair, and stuff, and people worry more about their wives and daughters than their husbands and sons"--not an exact quote, but sort of close, I think; this made me incredibly angry and, in that same class period, I flipped over the desk reaching for a pencil). I resent the fact that it would pull people out of college. My views are a bit elitist, but I would think that people who are not in college and have unskilled jobs would be more replacable in society than those who are studying and/or have jobs that require skills/knowledge. There will always be someone else able to hold a position at McDonald's. Will there always be another medical student? Yes, for a draft to be equitable it should cull people from all classes, races, genders, etc... but I have worked so hard to be where I am today, and I refuse to let it be taken away from me.
If I am drafted, I will not go. I would rather spend time in prison than fight or aid the war effort in any way. Or, if Canada is ruled out, there is always England. And Sweden... and the Netherlands...