Selective Service?!

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VLSmooth
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Post by VLSmooth »

Pending Draft Legislation Targeted for Spring 2005
The Draft will Start in June 2005
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/iss ... ongressorg

FUD? It IS congress.org...

quantus
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Post by quantus »

which is different than congress.gov or some such...
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Jonathan
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Post by Jonathan »

VLSmooth wrote:Pending Draft Legislation Targeted for Spring 2005
The Draft will Start in June 2005
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/iss ... ongressorg

FUD? It IS congress.org...
Sorry, meant to post this earlier.

The bill in question:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.00163:
H.R.163
Title: To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons 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.
It is most definitely a real bill before Congress. Also, you may have seen reports that vacant positions in draft boards are being filled. Some 80% of the positions on these local draft boards, which oversee the administration of the draft in a particular area, have been left vacant for some time. However, this past year, after the war in Iraq, the government has been staffing these draft boards once again.

For some more details, see the text of the bill. Moving to Canada, being female, or being a student will no longer be a means of exemption from the draft. Also, they've extended the special skills draft to include workers with technology skills.

The Bush administration is treading lightly so that no one will squawk, but rest assured that if George Bush is reelected as President, there will be a national military draft in the US.

VLSmooth
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Post by VLSmooth »

Hmm... more info from the Selective Service System:
http://www.sss.gov/

Notice:
Notwithstanding recent stories in the news media and on the Internet, Selective Service is not getting ready to conduct a draft for the U.S. Armed Forces -- either with a special skills or regular draft. Rather, the Agency remains prepared to manage a draft if and when the President and the Congress so direct. This responsibility has been ongoing since 1980 and is nothing new. Further, both the President and the Secretary of Defense have stated on more than one occasion that there is no need for a draft for the War on Terrorism or any likely contingency, such as Iraq. Additionally, the Congress has not acted on any proposed legislation to reinstate a draft. Therefore, Selective Service continues to refine its plans to be prepared as is required by law, and to register young men who are ages 18 through 25.

Jonathan
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Post by Jonathan »

The idea is not that they're going to have a draft. They idea is they're getting things in place for Bush's reelection. Then Bush can make an impassioned speech to the American people and Congress about supporting our soldiers overseas, and then Congress will authorize the draft. All this is the groundwork, essentially.

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Post by Jonathan »

The fact of the matter is our volunteer Army is not sufficient to tackle the problems Bush wants to use it for. If there's anything I'm confident about, it's that the Bush administration will not see this shortcoming and choose a different course, one that requires fewer infantry and wars, it's that they will see this shortcoming and realize we must institute a draft to make up the difference.

quantus
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Post by quantus »

A good question would be is if there is a terrorist attack before our elections, would this make it more or less likely to have Bush re-elected? If it makes it more likely, what would stop Bush from creating some cells to perform an attack? It's amoral, but we're in Iraq already, so that's not a concern for him. Really, it's this whole terrorism thing that made his approval rating so high in the first place. He basically got to ignore everything else because he was "focusing" on the war on terrorism.
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quantus
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Post by quantus »

Dwindlehop wrote:The idea is not that they're going to have a draft. They idea is they're getting things in place for Bush's reelection. Then Bush can make an impassioned speech to the American people and Congress about supporting our soldiers overseas, and then Congress will authorize the draft. All this is the groundwork, essentially.
Is Bush really capable of a good impassioned speech? He's really not a very good public speaker. Hell, he can't even pronounce things correctly all the time! Woo nukular war.
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quantus
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Post by quantus »

Anyone else notice that the people proposing the bills for a draft are Democrats? Just to keep with the topic finally, let's look at this link:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld ... -headlines

Basically, he seems to be arguing that it's unfair for the people that are in Iraq already to be fighting this long and that we need to spread the load.
[There was a recent] Army announcement on Wednesday to grow forces by some 30,000 troops by extending tours, delaying retirements and preventing enlisted personnel from leaving. "This has happened on the backs of the men and women who've already fulfilled their obligation to the armed forces and to our country - and it runs counter to the traditions of an all-volunteer Army," Kerry said.

Kerry proposed expanding active-duty forces by 40,000 troops, stressing they would ease the strain on today's forces, not go to Iraq. The blueprint called for doubling Special Forces for counterterrorism, reconnaissance and intelligence- gathering missions and for updating Pentagon technology. Kerry said the National Guard would be reassigned to homeland security.
Where's he gonna get the people for this?? It's begining to look like no matter who we elect, we might be hit with a draft. Also, from the looks of that other article on targetted drafts, the 18-25 age limits don't seem to apply! There was reference to healthcare workers between 20 and 44!!!
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Jonathan
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Post by Jonathan »

quantus wrote:Anyone else notice that the people proposing the bills for a draft are Democrats?
In a Congress that is more or less split between Republicans and Democrats, even if the Republicans hold a majority, the Democrats are complicit in most of the hanky-panky that's been going on up there.
quantus wrote:Where's he gonna get the people for this?? It's begining to look like no matter who we elect, we might be hit with a draft. Also, from the looks of that other article on targetted drafts, the 18-25 age limits don't seem to apply! There was reference to healthcare workers between 20 and 44!!!
Good question.
http://johnkerry.com wrote:He has called for a temporary increase of about 40,000 active-duty Army troops. This increase would be temporary but likely last the remainder of the decade. About 20,000 of the troops would be in such specialties as military police and civil affairs which are currently predominantly found in the reserves. The other 20,000 would be combat troops. Kerry’s proposal will be budget neutral because he will streamline some large weapons programs, putting more emphasis on electronics and advanced sensors and munitions and by reducing the total amount of money spent on missile defense.
I've seen elsewhere that Kerry wants to raise the pay for people in the military. He also has an extensive veterans' rights initiative.
http://www.johnkerry.com/issues/veterans/
I don't know if those will increase active-duty troops to the tune of 40,000, but it should result in some increase.
http://johnkerry.com wrote:“Those who seek to lead have a duty to offer a clear vision of how we can make Americans safer and America more trusted and respected in the world.”

“I come here today to make the case that we can do a better job of making our country safer and stronger,” Senator Kerry said in introducing his broad new vision for American foreign policy, a progressive internationalism designed to address the challenges we face in promoting America’s national security interests while leading the world in the 21st Century. “This is a time for new American leadership in the world” he said, “with a progressive internationalism, shaped by our bedrock values and quiet confidence in our strength and in our cause, we must once again demonstrate America’s resolve.” Rejecting the Administration’s “erratic unilateralism,” Senator Kerry called on America to engage diplomatically in creating alliances that enhance collective security. "America’s safety depends on rallying the forces of freedom,” he said, “engagement to shape a safer world is the urgent imperative of our time.”
Actively engaging the rest of the world ought to help, too. Still, it is a fair point. If the world's largest military force can't handle all the shit America has gotten into, perhaps we ought to rethink how we handle shit.

quantus
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Post by quantus »

Yeah, this is off topic, but I just wanted to point out my first bit of moderating :D
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