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| Muhammed Ali - He fought with his fists --and his words | ||
| His greatest accomplishment, he believes, is having challenged the legitimacy of the war in Vietnam and forced Americans to think more deeply about the issue. | ||
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| Hey, guys, feel a draft in your future? | ||
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The public must be aware of the draft and the possibility of its being reinstated. Our military forces are edging toward the margin where more and more of our troops in the field would be reserves. In past wars, men no older than 16 have had military experience, a scenario that our nation's government does not want to be in. Contrary to popular belief, young men who are only sons and the last male in a family to carry the family name would not be exempt from the draft. |
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| Possibility of a draft remains hot topic among potential draftees | ||
| "When you're talking about a military draft, a lot of people listen to what others have to say," said Darata, 18. | ||
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| Draft-resistant mom has courage | ||
| ll males are required to register for Selective Service when they turn 18 so that if the draft is reinstated there will be a ready pool of draftees. So why is a 15-year-old facing this issue at the DMV? Why is the parent of a 15-year-old involved in something that the young man will be required by law to do when he turns 18? And, most disturbing, why does a 15-year-old lose the privilege to drive when the beliefs of the parent are contrary to Virginia law? | ||
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| How to Pitch the Military When a War Drags On? | ||
| With the brutal realities of the ground war in Iraq contributing to a well-publicized drop-off in recruitment, the federal government will roll out a sophisticated and expansive marketing campaign on Oct. 17 that will rely on advertisements like this one to convince parents - mothers in particular - that military service remains a wise choice for their children. | ||
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| Army lowers recruiting bar - Move aimed at reversing dip in enlistments | ||
| The Army's top official has authorized the service to lower its entrance requirements for new recruits, a move he says is not aimed at sacrificing standards but instead meant to reduce chronic enlistment shortfalls. | ||
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| UNCLE SAM’S ROLODEX | ||
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Local activists and military officials vie for hearts and minds of potential cannon fodder |
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| Bill Makes It Easier For Oklahomans To Register For The Draft | ||
| Governor Brad Henry held a ceremonial bill signing yesterday for a measure that allows 18- to 26-year-old men to register with Selective Service System when they apply for a driver's license. | ||
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| Blacksburg Couple Sues Over Teen Draft Requirement | ||
| An anti-war couple from Blacksburg is challenging a Virginia law they say unfairly denies their son a driver's license unless they sign him up for the military draft. | ||
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| Oregon poised for unlikely military draft | ||
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The Pentagon says there isn't and won't be the need for conscription, but Selective Service boards could respond quickly |
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| Parents fight Selective Service | ||
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They say law denying son's driver's license is unconstitutional |
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| Draft fears rise despite official assurances | ||
| There is a ``perfect storm'' of conditions that could lead to conscription, she said: low recruiting numbers and the strain that Iraq has placed on the all-volunteer military, especially the National Guard and reserves. So conscientious objectors must be ready, she warned, noting that the key to convincing a draft board is to document the objections before conscription is ever reinstated. | ||
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| Military database violates students’ privacy | ||
| Precursor to draft? | ||
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| US will 'have to face' military draft dilemma: senator | ||
| The United States will "have to face" a painful dilemma on restoring the military draft as rising casualties result in persistent shortfalls in US army recruitment, a top US senator warned. | ||
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| Peace churches gear for draft | ||
| For the first time since the Vietnam War, pacifist churches are thinking of how to prepare young men to become conscientious objectors in the event the draft is resumed. | ||
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| Despite official reassurances, young men starting to feel a draft | ||
| That question - Will there be a draft? - emerged repeatedly in interviews with young men facing the Selective Service sign-up rules. Their parents said registration conjures images of draft boards, the Vietnam War and the false promises that the war would soon be over while raising fears that their sons could be forced to go to war. | ||
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| Oh Baby, It's Drafty Out There | ||
| J.E. McNeil, executive director of the Center on Conscience and War, is preparing for the worst. She sees a "perfect storm" of conditions brewing a return to the draft. So far, more than one million U.S. military personnel have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. An estimated 341,000 soldiers have done double deployments (and many are now entering their third deployment). And they are not just serving, they are dying. More than 1,700 have been killed, and an average of two more soldiers die each day. | ||
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| Draft Dodgers | ||
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If a military draft is really out of the question, why is the Bush administration spending so much time planning one? |
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| After 30 Years, Draft Fears Rise | ||
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Some Youths and Parents Worry Despite Government's Assurances |
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| Pentagon Says It Wants Accurate Student Data | ||
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The Pentagon yesterday released additional details about a program to compile a database of personal information on U.S. students to help bolster recruitment, saying that 12 million names currently are on file and that collection efforts have been going on for some time. |
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| Finding Our Next Army | ||
| The Army's recruiting shortfalls have put the future of the all-volunteer armed forces in jeopardy. Pressure is mounting in the Pentagon -- and perhaps on the Pentagon -- to put a happy face on its failure to achieve the needed enlistments for the Army and, to a lesser extent, the Marine Corps. The Army fell short of April recruiting objectives by 42 percent | ||
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| Young men starting to feel a draft | ||
| Some anxious about registering; Pentagon denies plans for return | ||
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| Pentagon building youth database for recruitment | ||
| The US Defense Department has hired a contractor to build a database of information on 30 million 16-to-25-year-olds that could be used to profile them for possible recruitment into the military, US media reported on Friday. | ||
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| Uncle Sam Wants Them | ||
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Military recruiters are grabbing student info from local schools without parents' permission |
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| After 30 Years, Draft Fears Rise | ||
| Two years into the Iraq war, concern that the draft will be reinstated to supplement an overextended military persists -- no matter how often, or emphatically, President Bush and members of Congress say it won't. | ||
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| A Draft in the Air | ||
| There's a draft in the air. And the longer the Pentagon clings to the notion that the All-Volunteer Army can just soldier through, the more likely it's going to provoke a crisis that will only be solved through conscription. | ||
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| The Way Out of Iraq | ||
| It's clear that Pablo Paredes, Kevin Benderman and other GI resisters have the courage to resist. Do we? | ||
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| Army Recruiters Say They Feel Pressure to Bend Rules | ||
| He said that in the last year, he had seen recruiters falsify documents so that applicants could earn ranks they were not qualified to hold. When enlistees tested positive for marijuana, he said, recruiters coached them to drink gallons of water before visiting military doctors. | ||
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| US military misses recruiting goals amid Iraq war | ||
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The Iraq war marks the first test of the all-volunteer military in a protracted wartime environment. Some defense analysts have argued the United States may be forced to consider reviving the draft, abolished in 1973, if the military cannot attract sufficient numbers of volunteers. |
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| Few options left for a shrinking military | ||
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Unless this picture changes, the United States won't be able to sustain its current commitments abroad. The situation illustrates one of the big pitfalls of starting a war that many Americans oppose. The alternative could be a reinstatement of the draft. |
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| Is a military draft becoming a near certainty? | ||
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Yet despite denials top to bottom, it appears the government is quietly planning to introduce universal conscription in the not-so-distant future. According to the Religious News Service, Selective Service officials have been in contact with religious groups as far back as October. They have been working on the implementation of 'alternative service' plans for conscientious objectors to warfare who might be drafted. |
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| Army Orders Further Involuntary Troop Call-Up | ||
| The U.S. Army is ordering more people to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan involuntarily from a seldom-used personnel pool as part of a mobilization that began last summer. | ||
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| Army Expects Recruiting to Slump Further | ||
| The Army expects to miss its recruiting goals this month and next and is working on a revised sales pitch appealing to the patriotism of parents, Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey said Wednesday. | ||
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| What Better Time To Rise Than Now? | ||
| Here in the U.S., high school and college student activists all over the country can take up the fight for peace and democracy and organize to kick recruiters out of their schools. Like the lunch counter sit-ins in Greensboro 45 years ago that challenged segregation in dozens of communities across the nation, you can get started opposing the recruiters at your school with just a few friends. Getting the military out of our schools and replacing them with real educational opportunities is our generation’s fight. No one will do it for us. We owe it to ourselves, the Iraqis, and the American soldiers dying for a lie. | ||
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| Using Driver's Licenses to enforce Selective Service, monitor immigration, and crack down of alcohol sales | ||
| Gary Lockwood, the system's Oregon director, is pushing House Bill 2575, which would automatically register eligible men for the draft when they apply for a license or renewal. In 40 states with similar laws, the number of unregistered eligible men has dropped to as low as 1 percent, Lockwood says, compared with 10 percent in Oregon. | ||
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| Dodging The Word 'Draft' | ||
| If military recruiting doesn't pick up, Congress may have to consider a policy adamantly scorned by many lawmakers | ||
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| Some Experts Predict Military Draft | ||
| Military experts have said that if George W. Bush plans to stay in Iraq and follow through with threats to attack Iran, North Korea, and Syria, a draft is the only option for success. | ||
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| Cold Fusion: Liberals and Neocons for a Draft | ||
| Both the neo-conservative Project for a New American Century and the "progressive" Center for American Progress are calling for adding 100,000 new soldiers. During the presidential campaign Senator John Kerry also called for adding tens of thousand more troops to the military services. | ||
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| Support grows for beefing up U.S. forces--Some see situations where volunteers may not be enough | ||
| While just about all the proponents maintain they want to achieve the increase by offering recruits bigger financial incentives or through appeals to patriotism, lurking in the background is a possibility that for now remains anathema to all but a few. The military draft, which coughed up its last conscript in 1973, could make a comeback if recruiting doesn't pick up and if America's commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan turn into long-term occupations or if the Bush administration's tough-minded foreign policy means military action in places like Iran or North Korea. | ||
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| Even Homer Nods: Chomsky and Conscription | ||
| If any further example is needed, remember that the most vicious, brutal, murderous, and protracted colonial war in the world today is being fought -- at tremendous cost to military and domestic morale -- by draftees. I'm talking, of course, about Israel's war on the Palestinian people. Given Chomsky's tireless truth-telling about Palestine, it's an inexplicable oversight. Even Homer nods. | ||
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| Army Expects Recruiting to Slump Further | ||
| The Army expects to miss its recruiting goals this month and next and is working on a revised sales pitch appealing to the patriotism of parents, Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey said Wednesday. | ||
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| The Case for the Draft | ||
| This article appeared in The Washington Monthly, a pro-war Centrist journal. As the title indicates, it is a pro-draft article, but if offers some insight as to how the draft may work and how it might be sold... | ||
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| Draft may be needed in a year, military analysts warn | ||
| If American forces aren't pulling out of Iraq in a year, a draft will be needed to meet manpower requirements, military analysts warned Wednesday. | ||
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| Is a military draft becoming a near certainty? | ||
| ...Yet despite denials top to bottom, it appears the government is quietly planning to introduce universal conscription in the not-so-distant future. | ||
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| Ira, dolor y miedo a la leva | ||
| NUEVA YORK, 21 mar (IPS) - La ira, el dolor y el temor al reclutamiento forzoso crecen en Estados Unidos dos años después de la invasión a Iraq, mientras se fortalece la resistencia armada en ese país del Golfo y cada vez más aliados consideran retirar sus tropas. | ||
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| Churches unite against draft threat | ||
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Leaders of a dozen Mennonite, Quaker and Brethren churches that shun military service held a two-day meeting outside Chicago to plan for "alternative service" programs for conscientious objectors should a draft be reinstated. |
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| Declining to enlist, kids vote with their feet | ||
| Purportedly sophisticated adults bought the Bush administration's many falsehoods and wrong guesses about Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and the reception American troops would receive in Baghdad. Young Americans, who tend to believe the plain truth when it stares them in the face, are voting with their feet by giving the brushoff to military recruiters in schools, malls and video arcades from coast to coast. | ||
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| Army to Use 'Patriotic' Appeal After Missing Recruiting Goals Again | ||
| The Army has been struggling to fill its ranks as the war in Iraq, which has claimed the lives of more than 1,500 service members, enters its third year. It's increased enlistment bonuses, the number of recruiters and the maximum enlistment age for the Reserve and Guard. | ||
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| ‘Kill all you can see’ | ||
| Selective Service spends every hour of every day planning for the heinous crime of conscription. That is who they are. It is what they do. They are like the Terminator; they would draft your grandmother if the order came down. | ||
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| A Draft By Any Other Name...Is Still Wrong: Exposing the Coming Draft | ||
| Those who work for peace and social justice and against imperialism need to see that these three--the draft, empire and war--go together and need to be fought together as part of one coherent movement. | ||
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| Scott Ritter says get ready for the draft | ||
| “A breakdown of our military’s ability to handle these adventures. Congress will be confronted with that and congress will have to take action. So, the blame will be thrust on the shoulders of congress, and the Bush administration will say ‘Well, we didn’t want this’. But, it had to happen.” | ||
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| Experts see military draft as inevitable | ||
| "We have 12 [combat] divisions and 10 are locked down in Iraq, either coming or going," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del. "Our ability to have any flexibility with ground forces anywhere else is diminished. If we had to move into Iran, Syria, North Korea or anywhere else, we'd be in real difficulty." | ||
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| Country Bracing For Draft | ||
| We have absolutely spent, exhausted, and in some instances misled the National Guard and the reserves. I’ve been in Baghdad and Fallujah and I’ve spoken with them. When they enlisted in the Guard, they never anticipated being sent for two tours of duty in Iraq lasting a year or 18 months. We can’t keep asking citizen soldiers to do that.” | ||
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| Medical workers vulnerable if Congress reinstates the draft | ||
| Implementation of the Selective Service law may be imminent. A plan for the drafting of medical workers (doctors, nurses and technicians), only recently exposed, has been in place for several years. | ||
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| A lesson in conscientious objection | ||
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"The Selective Service System is prepared to begin drafting people on short notice," Farmer said. "That is not an opinion. That is a fact. "And people threatened by the draft should be prepared, too." |
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| African-American Youths Are Rejecting Army, Military Says | ||
| The number of African-American recruits, a cornerstone of the Army in recent years, has plummeted, the military says. And the Army is struggling to maintain a force large enough to wage a war on two fronts, Afghanistan and Iraq. | ||
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| Why fight for empire? | ||
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In the face of a brutal occupation that Washington isn't planning to end anytime soon, and the very real possibility of a draft--the Selective Service is set to report to the White House on March 31 that things are in order to implement the draft within 75 days--this resistance is only bound to grow. |
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Uncle Sam Really, Really Wants You... |
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A look at the Pentagon's growing desperation to counter dwindling recruitment numbers -- especially in the lower-income communities once viewed as fertile ground. |
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| Military strain prompts rumors of draft | ||
| It's the rumor that refuses to die. With the all-volunteer U.S. military stretched thin around the globe and showing signs of fatigue, whispers of a draft are surfacing again. | ||
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| Declaration of the War Resisters Support Campaign | ||
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The War Resisters Support Campaign, a broad-based coalition of community organizations, has launched a petition aimed at Canada's federal government to allow US war resisters who refuse to fight in Iraq to have refuge in Canada. http://www.resisters.ca/index.html |
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| Medical Draft in Standby Mode | ||
| http://www.sss.gov/FactSheets/FSmedical.pdf | ||
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| Neocons at PNAC Call for Troop Increase | ||
| "So we write to ask you and your colleagues in the legislative branch to take the steps necessary to increase substantially the size of the active duty Army and Marine Corps. While estimates vary about just how large an increase is required, and Congress will make its own determination as to size and structure, it is our judgment that we should aim for an increase in the active duty Army and Marine Corps, together, of at least 25,000 troops each year over the next several years. " | ||
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| All-Volunteer Army Shows Signs of Wear | ||
| President Bush stated flatly last fall that he would not reinstitute the draft under any circumstances. In his State of the Union address this month, Bush praised the volunteers of our military. But the president and his Defense Department are pursuing policies that threaten to destroy the all-volunteer military, particularly the Army, and force a return to the draft. | ||
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| 5 Units of Military Reserve Miss Recruiting Goals | ||
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In a sign of continued stress on the armed forces from operations in Iraq, five of the six military reserve components have failed to meet their recruiting goals for the first four months of the current fiscal year, the military's top officer said on Wednesday. |
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| Students should prepare for an imminent military draft | ||
| A military draft: ominous words of our collective collegiate destiny or merely conspiracy theory? Six months ago I felt draft rumors were the result of savvy political campaigning; scare the college kids to vote liberal. However, the election has now passed, the rumors remain, and an alarming amount of evidence is surfacing that points to Congress re-instituting a military draft. | ||
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| Group rallies to stop the draft | ||
| A new group called No Draft, No Way is leading the charge to stop what many say is an impending military draft in the U.S. The Bush administration has repeatedly denied a draft is coming, though some former high-ranking military officials say the current military is stretched beyond its limits. A panel hosted by California congresswoman Loretta Sanchez is meeting this week to discuss the issue. Below find out about actions taking place around the country to pre-empt the draft. | ||
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| The Coming Draft | ||
| With the military facing a dramatic overextension of troops and a rapidly declining enlistment, a draft could come as early as 2005. | ||
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| Government Looking at Military Draft Lists | ||
| The Selective Service System (SSS) and the U.S. Department of Education now are gearing up to compare their computer records, to make sure all men between the ages of 18 and 25 who are required to register for a military draft have done so. | ||
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| 'Special skills draft' on drawing board | ||
| Washington -- The government is taking the first steps toward a targeted military draft of Americans with special skills in computers and foreign languages. | ||
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| Draft 101: What it is and How it Would Work | ||
| Yes, that’s right. We’re talking about military conscription, otherwise known as The Draft. While many people may think of the draft as a relic of the Vietnam War era, in fact, a debate is brewing about whether or not conscription will become necessary in light of current and potential military commitments around the world. At the same time, the federal agency created in the 1940s to coordinate the draft remains in place today and is continually preparing to reinstate a conscription process. | ||
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| The Return of the Draft | ||
| Uncle Sam wants you. He needs you. He'll bribe you to sign up. He'll strong-arm you to re-enlist. And if that's not enough, he's got a plan to draft you. | ||
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| Experts see military draft as inevitable | ||
| "We have 12 [combat] divisions and 10 are locked down in Iraq, either coming or going," said Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del. "Our ability to have any flexibility with ground forces anywhere else is diminished. If we had to move into Iran, Syria, North Korea or anywhere else, we'd be in real difficulty." | ||
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| Medical workers vulnerable if Congress reinstates the draft | ||
| Implementation of the Selective Service law may be imminent. A plan for the drafting of medical workers (doctors, nurses and technicians), only recently exposed, has been in place for several years. It can be activated at any time by a decision of the president and the Congress. That decision is unlikely unless we face a national emergency, an emergency far from unlikely in view of the daily crises troubling the world and the policies of our current government, which have overextended our military's resources, especially its medical resources. | ||
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| Help Wanted: Staffing local draft board | ||
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New Jersey headquarters of the selective service system is in need of volunteers to serve on Local Boards throughout the State of New Jersey. Perhaps antidraft activists should start volunteering for their local boards? |
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| UCLA hosts panel to discuss likelihood of draft | ||
| "We have reached a point where we have a broken force and there's no way to fix it short of a draft. ... It is really the only option that has the capabilities of raising the forces we need, and while it has a lot of problems, it also has a lot of promise. If we do this properly, America will never be caught unprepared again." | ||
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| Gearing Up for the Draft | ||
| We’re hearing stories almost daily about how “stretched” the military is. A recent army survey discovered that only half the soldiers are planning to re-enlist. Elaine Monaghan reports from the Times of London that: “The US military is fighting desertion, recruitment shortfalls and legal challenges from its own troops.” She also notes that, “a further sign of strain can be seen in the Army's decision this year to mobilize 5,600 members of a pool of former soldiers that can be mobilized only in a national emergency,” and that, “Forty per cent of the 138,000 (National Guard) troops in Iraq are part-timers who never expected to be sent to the front line.” | ||
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| No draft! No way! | ||
| Another issue facing the Pentagon is that some soldiers and National Guardsmen are also fighting stop-loss orders that prevent them from leaving the military when their enlistment periods end. Many of the conference participants emphasized that the only avenue left to the Pentagon was to begin drafting people to serve in the military. | ||
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| NOT WHILE I’M PRESIDENT! | ||
| Given the relatively high rate of military volunteerism on the part of Texans, it is difficult to explain why, over the past five years, the state’s draft-age males have consistently scored lower than the national average with respect to SSS registration compliance. | ||
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| The Return of the Draft | ||
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With the army desperate for recruits, should college students be packing their bags for Canada? |
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| Will ‘imperial overreach' lead to the draft? | ||
| Fears of the draft's resurrection have been stoked by the “imperial overreach” being suffered by the US military because of the large-scale armed resistance it has encountered in its occupation of Iraq, requiring a counterinsurgency effort that was not anticipated by US war planners. | ||
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| Experts see military draft as inevitable | ||
| Anti-war activists fear revival of selective service | ||
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| Will there be a draft? | ||
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As military recruiting stumbles and needs grow, some say draft may be impossible to ignore. |
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| Draft agency files notice to request record matching with Department of Education | ||
| The Selective Service filed a notice in the federal register three days before the election to check the computer records of the Department of Education for compliance with a law that requires all students receiving federal financial aid to register for the draft | ||
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| Fear of Military Draft a Growing Factor | ||
| With the presidential election coming down to the wire, the possibility of a revived military draft is looming as a potentially decisive factor in the outcome. | ||
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| Feeling the Draft | ||
| The reality is that the Iraq war, which was intended to demonstrate the feasibility of the Bush doctrine, has pushed the U.S. military beyond its limits. Yet there is no sign that Mr. Bush has been chastened. By all accounts, in a second term the architects of that doctrine, like Paul Wolfowitz, would be promoted, not replaced. The only way this makes sense is if Mr. Bush is prepared to seek a much larger Army - and that means reviving the draft. | ||
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| Draft Chatter | ||
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Filling the ranks for a war without end generates buzz about universal service by Tod Ensign George W. Bush's decision to unilaterally invade Iraq in March 2003 has placed a severe strain on the US military. The Army currently has almost half of its 32 combat brigades deployed there, with two more assigned to Afghanistan. This means that three-quarters of its forces are either committed to combat zones or recuperating from recent combat. |
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| THE DRAFT CARD - The Option Nobody's Pushing. Yet. | ||
| A Pentagon-appointed panel recently concluded that the military would lack the forces to handle its current combat and stabilization operations if new crises emerged. The report, which has not been made public, apparently did not address the issue of a draft. But some policy makers have said it points to the potential need for one. | ||
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| Military draft discussed in U.S. House, Senate | ||
| Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb) stated, "Why shouldn't we ask all of our citizens to bear some of the responsibility and pay some price?" he said about the war in Iraq. | ||
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| Military draft alters lives of all concerned | ||
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A recent survey by the Horatio Alger Association shows that more than half - 55 percent - of high school students believe that the military draft is on the way back. Most of them don't like the idea, either. The same poll, reported in USA Today, shows that 70 percent are opposed to mandatory military service. |
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| Polls show the young fear return of draft | ||
| Another survey done for the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation of 1, 028 people found that 32 percent of young people said they wouldn't serve if the draft were reinstated, while 20 percent said they would seek deferments. Forty-three percent said they would serve. | ||
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| “Some Bodies That Matter: The Impending Draft as a Moral Crisis for White People” | ||
| But which draft are people talking about? There has been a draft going on in this country for a while, one that has been successful in maintaining military enlistment despite the progressive critique of war and militarization. This is the “poverty draft,” the draft that posits the military as one of the few options for people to get their basis needs met or lures people with the promise of $50,000 in college money or job training. | ||
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| U.S. War Objectors Seek Sanctuary In Canada: What Will Be Their Fate? by Gerry Condon | ||
| it is still possible for war objectors to come to Canada, as Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey are demonstrating. They each went AWOL from the U.S. Army after receiving orders for Iraq. Hinzman arrived in Canada in early January 2004 with his wife and 1-year-old son. Hughey arrived two months later, in March 2004. Both young men drove across the border as tourists, answering routine questions as to the purpose of their entry. Jeremy said he was visiting "friends," in part a reference to the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, with which Jeremy is associated. Brandon said he was coming to watch a professional basketball game. He watched it on TV after crossing the border. | ||
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| Selective Service eyes women's draft | ||
| 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. | ||
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| Resistance growing to military draft and service in unjust Iraq war | ||
| With tens of thousands of unprepared, poorly equipped and poorly trained reservists and National Guard members making up nearly half of the U.S. occupation force in Iraq, and in the face of the worsening military situation confronting the 140,000 U.S. troops there, the Pentagon has a major “force structure” problem on its hands. | ||
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| From Old Navy To The U.S. Navy: Youths fear they may find themselves in uniform soon | ||
| ...a growing number of the nation's youths fear a revival of the draft after the November election because of a shortage of troops to fight in Iraq, Afghanistan and wherever else the war on terrorism might take Americans. | ||
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| Sneaky politicians re-establishing draft | ||
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There is pending legislation (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program’s initiation so the draft can begin at early as Spring 2005. The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public’s attention is on the elections. |
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| A nation's long struggle to figure out who fights its wars | ||
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Support for a new draft comes from a handful of academics and a handful in Congress, acting, they say, in the name of fairness. In time of war, this democracy has often had a quandary in deciding how to raise its armies. In the Civil War, in World Wars I and II, in Korea, in the Cold War and in Vietnam, the answer has been conscription. |
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| Medical workers face military draft | ||
| Pentagon plan calls up medics, nurses, doctors in national emergencies | ||
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| The Coming Draft | ||
| In 1973, forced conscription ended in favor of an all-volunteer military. As the gap between the capacity of America's armed forces and the demands of current deployment widens, the likelihood of a reinstated draft grows. | ||
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| Is anyone feeling a draft? | ||
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Given that next year is an election year, it is probably unlikely that a serious effort to reinstitute conscription -- a military draft -- will happen anytime soon. |
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| Draft to give no deference to students | ||
| Although no draft is in effect thus far, college and Canada will not be escape options | ||
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| If draft does return, it'll be tougher to avoid this time | ||
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This time, enrolling in college won't get you off the hook for long. Neither will moving to Canada. If Congress decides to reinstate the draft, it will be a lot harder to avoid military service than it was during the height of the Vietnam War. |
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| Draft Rumors Won't Go Away | ||
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The Pentagon says no. The Selective Service System says no. And congressional leaders say absolutely not. Yet talk of reinstating the military draft persists around the country, driven by the Internet, high-profile moves by the military to shore up its forces and fears that all those solid reassurances about no need for conscription quickly could melt away if world events took a turn for the worse. |
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| Pentagon Tries to Squelch Rumors of a New Draft | ||
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Despite bills, officials deny plans for conscription. Top Pentagon officials have denied adamantly, despite persistent rumors to the contrary, that the Bush administration is planning to reinstate the military draft or increase the size of the U.S. force in Iraq from the current 140,000 after the November presidential election. |
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| An Involuntary Army | ||
| The draft is back, and this time it is more unfair than ever. The Pentagon's lingo for it is a "stop-loss order," but it is a form of conscription that requires soldiers to serve longer than the tours of duty to which they have committed. The Pentagon is stooping to this tactic as the only way to fill its units being deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the military does not quickly find a better way to meet its personnel needs, the occupation of Iraq could be as damaging to morale and retention rates in the "volunteer army" as the Vietnam War was in the conscription Army. | ||
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| No Draft, No Way | ||
| Public outrage forced the Nixon administration to end the draft in 1973. Soldiers returning from Vietnam, their families and the anti-war movement were outspoken about the draft's inherent injustice. They showed how young people from working-class families and communities of color were being sent to fight a war in the interests of the rich and powerful. | ||
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| Draft Creep | ||
| Say hello to "draft creep." Remember "bracket creep," AKA the "sneaky tax increase," whereby inflation and income growth forces people into progressively higher tax brackets? Bracket creep is a way for the government to raise taxes without seeming to be raising taxes. There is no congressional debate, and no new law is passed for the President to sign. Taxes just go up. Similarly, draft creep is a way for the government to initiate the draft without seeming to initiate the draft. | ||
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| Women, Pacifists Could Be Included in Military Draft | ||
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The U.S. Selective Service System (SSS) is ready to reinstate the draft if ordered by Congress and President Bush. But in this unconventional war against terrorism, pacifists and women may be surprised to learn of their potential to be called to the service by Uncle Sam. |
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