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The Draft
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 13:41:46 -0400
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 ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as interesting-people () lists elistx com To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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