Stop the Draft before it starts:
http://www.NoDraftNoWay.org (http://www.nodraftnoway.org)
On March 31, the Selective Service System will report to President Bush that it is ready to implement a draft within 75 days. We have to organize now to stop the draft before it starts.
Despite what politicians say, there is a high probability that the Bush Administration will attempt to reinstate the draft.
The U.S. military is in a quagmire in Iraq, facing a national popular uprising against the occupation. Soldiers are dying every day. A report issued in January 2004 by Jeffrey Record, a visiting professor at the Air War College, said the Army is "near the breaking point." The Pentagon has been forced to issue repeated "stop loss" orders and recall soldiers who
had retired or otherwise returned to civilian life.
Out of 10 Army Divisions, part or all of 9 of them are either deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Twenty-one out of 33 regular combat brigades are on active duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, or the Balkans. That's 63% of the Army's combat strength. This means the Army is extremely overextended. The Bush Administration has been trying to fill the gap with Reserve and National Guard troops, but this is a temporary fix at best. The head of the Army Reserves has recently written a memo saying that the readiness of his forces has been drastically reduced through over-deployment and is "degenerating into a broken force.â€
Meanwhile, official U.S. foreign policy is now the doctrine of "pre-emptive war" and "regime change" wherever a leader runs afoul of U.S. corporate interests. An invasion of Iran, Syria, Korea, or Cuba -- all of whom are on Washington and Wall Street's list of targets -- would require tens or hundreds of thousands of new soldiers.
Enlistment rates not even able to maintain current force levels, much less provide troops for new invasions and occupations. All four services missed their enlistment quotas last year, and enlistments in the Reserves, National Guard, and regular military are at a 30-year low. Many current members of the armed forces plan to get out as soon as their current enlistment ends. According to a poll conducted by the military newspaper Stars & Stripes, 49% of soldiers stationed in Iraq do not plan to re-enlist.
The President has given the Selective Service System a set of readiness goals to be implemented by March 31, 2005. As part of these performance goals, the System must be ready to be fully operational within 75 days. This means we can look for the Draft to be in operation as early as June 15, 2005.
March 19 is the second anniversary of the war. On the weekend of March 19-20, activists all over the globe will take to the streets to demand and end to the war and occupation. No Draft No Way will be mobilizing to take part in these demonstrations, which will take place just a few days before the Selective Service System reports to President Bush that it is ready to go. We must be in the streets to let them know that we oppose the draft and will not be used as cannon fodder in Iraq or in any new war.
Let's Organize NOW to Stop the Draft:
1) Come to NYC for the March 19 Troops Out Now demonstration. Join the No Draft No Way! contingent in the march. http://www.troopsoutnow.org (http://www.troopsoutnow.org). Or join the march and rally in Fayetteville, NC, outside Fort Bragg--for more information, see http://www.ncpeacejustice.org (http://www.ncpeacejustice.org).
2) Organize an anti-draft meeting at your school, church or mosque, union hall, etc. Contact us at 212-633-6646 for help and speakers.
3) Organize protests outside the selective service office in your area.
4) Donate to help build a network of educators, activists, and resisters to fight the draft--before it returns. http://nodraftnoway.org/donate-new.shtml (http://nodraftnoway.org/donate-new.shtml)
5) Sign the No Draft Petition. http://nodraftnoway.org/petition.shtml (http://nodraftnoway.org/petition.shtml)
http://www.NoDraftNoWay.org (http://www.nodraftnoway.org)
March 19
Troops Out Now!
March on Central Park in NYC!
Regional Demonstrations Across the U.S. & Worldwide
I looked for a while and the only source of information regarding anything bush has told the selective service admin is from that web site...
does anybody have any real sources for that info?
This article mentions a FOIA reqest from the Seattle Post Intelligencer, but I don't find the March 31st date.
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http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/War_P ... Draft.html (http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/War_Peace/Military_Draft.html)
A Military Draft
from blatanttruth.org
The Progressive magazine, November 2004
In May 2004, the Seattle Post Intelligencer published an article about a document they received through the Freedom of Information Act. The paper learned that the Social Security Service (SSS) is currently "designing procedures" for the implementation of a "Skills Draft" and had held a top-level meeting on the subject with deputy undersecretaries at the Defense Department. This draft would change the essential mission of the Selective Service and require "virtually every young American," male and female ages 18-34, to register for the skills draft and list all the occupations they are proficient in to fill labor shortages throughout nearly the entire government.
The Pentagon is suffering from immediate labor shortages. Recently, the Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR) had to be called up for the first time since the Gulf War to fill 5,600 job shortages in the Armed Forces. The Department of Defense (DoD) said in the recent IRR call-up "20 percent of the call-ups are truck drivers, 12 percent are supply specialists who can use a computer to track supplies, 10 percent are Humvee mechanics, 7 percent are administrative specialists and 6 percent are combat engineers" (USA Today, August 8, 2004). Although Congress would have to approve new legislation to create a skills draft or reinstate the combat draft, Family Circle reported in its July 13 issue that Karl Rove had polled GOP members of Congress in September 2002 to see if they would support the president if he requests reinstatement. Republicans said they would vote for the draft and would likely support the new legislation needed to create the skills draft. While Bush and the Republicans are of course keeping the issue of the draft as quiet as possible, many anti-draft organizations have recently begun warning of a "coming new draft."
The "Issue Paper" document was revealed through the Freedom of Information Act by Seattle Post Intelligencer reporter Eric Rosenberg, who wrote a partial explanation of it that was printed May 1, 2004. Rosenberg's article was edited, however, and some key points about this document were omitted in the published article. What follows is a more complete explanation of the document.
This document is real, having been acknowledged by the DoD and the SSS when they said no action is being taken on it at the present time. However, given the current shortages for certain skills and nurses, if Bush is reelected, it is reasonable to expect some of the options outlined in the "Issue Paper" to be implemented by December and, at the least, preparations for a non-combat skills and medical draft to be readied next year.
Although official word is that this secret list of options is not being implemented, the "Issue Paper" options have not been formally rejected and the six-page proposal is sitting in the Pentagon, waiting. In addition, the SSS has said that it is "designing procedures" (Seattle P1, May 1, 2004) to implement the skills draft, meaning designing the compliance cards and the data fields needed to keep track of "virtually every young American" and their skills. Acting Director of the SSS Brodsky has also said the skills draft is the "top priority" of the Selective Service for 2004.
From the FOl document, we now know that on February 11, 2003, Charles Abell, the deputy undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, and William Carr, deputy undersecretary for Military Personnel Policy, met with Lewis Brodsky, the acting director of the Selective Service and some other officials. This is the highest-level meeting you could have about the Selective Service, outside of Rumsfeld and his inner circle. They were there to discuss the urgent Issue Paper now revealed, which starts: "With known shortages of military personnel with certain critical skills, and with the need for the nation to be capable of responding to domestic emergencies as a part of Homeland Security Planning, changes should be made in the Selective Service System's registration program and primary mission." Although it would require changes in current draft law, the proposal shows how far the government is going in order to prepare for an expansion of the draft. The Issue Paper options include:
* Change the very mission of the SSS to become a massive conscription service in the War on Terror for the entire government.
* Conscript men and women in a critical skills non-combat draft up to age 34 with no deferments of any kind, except "essential community service."
* Fill labor shortages of all kinds throughout not only DoD, but the whole government, especially targeting high-paying professionals like computer networking specialists or linguists.
* Create a massive database of "virtually every young American" ages 18 to 34. This database would be used to draft in war and to recruit in peacetime. State and even local governments would be given access to the names for recruitment and help in emergencies.
* Create a single-point, all-inclusive database, in which every young person would be forced to send in a "self-declaration" of all of their critical skills, chosen from a long list of occupations like those in the Armed Forces Specialty Code. The self-declaration would be similar to IRS compliance and the filling out and signing of tax forms. All young people would be required to keep the government updated if they acquired a new skill. SSS Compliance forms will be available at every Post Office. The usual penalties of imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine would apply to all non-registrants.
* Bring the Medical Draft (HCPDS) up to speed and fully test it through readiness exercises. Reduce induction time from being able to deliver all inductees in 193 days down to just 90 days for skills inductees.
This paper urges the mission be changed "promptly," to a draft for the Pentagon, as well as the enormous Homeland Security branches and other government agencies, even state and local. The "Next Steps" section of the document, strongly recommended by SSS Acting Director Brodsky, included:
1. Promptly redefine the SSS Mission to draft men and women up to age 34 for skills and deliver them within 90 days or sooner to the Department of Defense. Program a massive database to be ready to enter millions of names of those registering their critical skills.
2. Expand mission to deliver personnel in skills draft to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, including FEMA, NSC, Border Patrol, INS, Customs, Corporation for National Service, Public Health Service, and other federal, state, and local government agencies.
3. Form interagency task force to provide Administration with recommendation on this Skills Draft for the entire DHS and the rest of the government.
4. Obtain White House Statement of Administration Policy on the future of the SSS.
5. Be prepared to market the Skills Draft-raising the non-combat age to 34 and the drafting of women-to the Armed Services and Appropriations Committee.
This expansion is primarily proposed, according to the document, because the cost of providing contract professionals, like computer network specialists, would be "prohibitive." That's the new skills draft and the document behind it. But what about the Combat Draft?
Selective Service has been registering young men for over 20 years and at any moment the president can go to Congress and ask them to reauthorize conscription for a male combat draft for ages 18-25. All that is needed is a short, "trigger" resolution and the draft for men 18 to 25 is back.
The SSS has for decades operated at a low level of readiness. Readiness exercises are conducted on a multi-year cycle but historically these have been little more than training new members every summer and getting draft board volunteers together and going over the procedures of what would happen under reinstatement. The draft boards have become 80 percent vacant over the decades.
In the current five-year cycle of exercises, however, the SSS is clearly ramping up the draft machinery to an unprecedented level. The following information is from the "SSS Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2004":
* Ensure a mobilization infrastructure of 56 State Headquarters, 442 Area Offices and 1,980 Local Boards are operational within 75 days of an authorized return to conscription."
* Submit an annual report providing the results of the implementation of these performance measures by March 31, 2005.
According to the 2004 plan, the draft boards will be "operational" then, meaning that they will be set up in 1,980 local offices around the country. If the Administration asks for reinstatement on April 1, Congress could pass it that night and the first batch of more than one million 20-year-olds would face the national lottery as soon as June 15, 2005.
Although the Senate rejected the funding request to bump up the SSS budget to another $28 million, the SSS says in one paragraph of the Performance Plan that budgets will be "adjusted" to cover the additional cost for 2004. Here is how the money is to be spent:
STRATEGIC GOAL 1: Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the Manpower Delivery Systems (Projected allocation for FY 2004: $7,942,000)
STRATEGIC GOAL 2: Improve overall Registration Compliance and Service to the Public (Projected allocation FY 2004: $8,769,000)
STRATEGIC GOAL 3: Enhance external and internal customer service (Projected allocation for FY 2004: $10,624,000)
STRATEGIC GOAL 4: Enhance the system which guarantees that each conscientious objector is properly classified, placed, and monitored. (Projected allocation for FY 2004: $955,000)
In analyzing each of the 2004 goals in detail it is obvious that there are hidden "activation bombshells" in this so-called Performance Plan. Goal number one in particular brings the combat induction process up to 95 percent operational readiness, going so far as to actually hold a mock lottery drawing this year and to issue sample orders to report for the famous medical exam. The document does not reveal the day in 2004 the mock lottery is to be held.
In addition, the Medical Draft, or Health Care Personnel Delivery System (HCPDS), is for the first time brought up to full readiness by next year. This draft would take men and women up to age 44 if they are doctors, nurses, or someone with 60-some medical specialties-with no medical deferments allowed.
Previous readiness exercises merely went over what would happen with HCPDS and updated the guide. The 2004 plan actually develops a readiness exercise for the Medical Draft that would be conducted next year. Plus HCPDS must be ready to conscript by June, as part of the system. Goal number four is particularly ominous:
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 4.1: Ensure a mobilization infrastructure of 48 Alternative Service Offices and 48 Civilian Review Boards are operational within 96 days after notification of a return to induction.
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVE 4.2: Develop a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Alternative Service Employer Network to specifically identify organizations and associations who can, by law, participate in the Alternative Service Program. This network will provide jobs for ASWs at the local level. Prior to activation, SSS will develop a draft MOU for use when obtaining agreements with qualified employers at the local and national level.
For 31 years, the Conscientious Objector system, called Alternative Service, has been dormant. The 2004 plan calls for this to be brought up to speed and to be ready to decide cases and place COs in the Alternative Service (AS) by July 6, 2005 (96 days after March 31, 2005). The SSS is drawing up the Standard Operating Procedures, which identifies local employers eligible to receive cheap AS workers, and is also drawing up the actual Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), in which the employer must sign to get their CO workers and allow their mandatory attendance to be monitored. This is the last obstacle to be hurdled before the draft could actually be ready for quick activation under the law.
From the American Friends Service Committee website, reprinted from www. blatanttruth. org.
wha? who will do the silly lil wars then?
I support the draft.
Because that will galvanize young people to organize in protest and hiopefully we can put an end to Hallibutiraq.
About time we have a counter-culture again
Three words: Not gonna happen
Just what is it that won't happen?
#1. The new counter-culture
True, the majority of Americans are against the draft, but what will happen when the gov't puts it's foot down? Will we fall in line, or fight back? I tend to think the former will occur, mainly because of the last election. The voter registration effort was supposed to galavanize my generation (18-25'ers) to change the system, and only 11% of them voted. What makes you think those same people will fight the draft if it goes into effect?
Secondly, protesting a possibility is one thing, participating in the illegal act of harboring a draft dodger is another. How many people have the cojones to do this? If I asked my friends or my bosses to harbor me, would they? In the face of fines or imprisonment? Somehow I doubt it. It seems that the number of serious brave dissenters is small, though I could be wrong. I hope I am.
#2 The Draft
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not naive enough to think that there's no possibility of the draft happening. However, with the implementation of Bush's horrific 'No Child Left Behind' the DOD has their pick of America's high school seniors to recruit from.
Also, if the draft did happen, there is the distinct possibility of mass panic and riots, something that would be so forceful, I don't think it could be contained or controlled. Bush isn't ready for that, though he may think he is (he's quite the over confident dullard).
Three more words: What will happen
Aneurysm and all those in his age group get desperate.
In other words, I'm wondering if I would qualify NOT to be drafted.
I have no special skills that could be considered of military interest, being an artist and filmmaker in my spare time and a barista by day. Medically, I might be unfit due to recurring spots of psoraisis. As for the CO option, I hear that's really hard to get these days. What do you guys think?
Also, I believe I'm supposed to notify the SSS when I move. Well I've moved twice in the past year and don't plan on saying a damned thing. Does this mean I'm screwed if the draft starts up?
Had to post again, as I found this of interest at the sss.gov website:
***
On October 5, 2004, the House of Representatives voted 402 - 2 to defeat H.R. 163, the bill cited as proof that the Selective Service was preparing to reinstate a military draft. The vote made official what has been a reality since January 7, 2003, when H.R. 163 was introduced despite nearly total opposition in Congress to restoring the draft. Without Congressional support, the draft cannot be reinstated. A similar bill languishes in the Senate.
Both President George W. Bush and Senator John F. Kerry have stated for the record that they oppose a draft. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also has opposed the draft on numerous occasions.
Since 1980, the Selective Service System has discharged its mission of preparing to manage a draft if and when Congress and the President so direct. The House action proves that the Selective Service has gotten no such direction. That being the case, the Agency will maintain its readiness as required by law, and to register young men between the ages of 18 and 25. That mission has been reaffirmed frequently by successive Administrations and by Congress under the leadership of both parties.
***
I know, I know...the 'official' story isn't always the whole story. Taking the above into consideration, what have you all heard that they are leaving out?
As an interesting aside, I find the graphics on front page of the SSS website to be an obvious marketing ploy. Line the top of your page with hip looking teens and everyone will think it's cool to signup for the SSS. What BS...
Actually, what I have gleamed, was that the draft thing was sponsored by a few democrats who were opposed to the war in Iraq... the rational for the draft is that the volunteer army draws from the more, how shall I say it, "dumber" segment of young people and/or those with linited opportunities.
therefore if the "smarter" and more "savvy" kids get drafted they will be more likely to organize against the war.
The powers that be know this... that's why they are against the draft... they wanna be in Iraq cause Halleyburton and their ilk get billions from the gov... didja see the report that last year Dick Cheney received $34 million from halliburton...?
they don't want to kill young people to make money... they only want to kill the young people who are willing to be killed to make money...
...an' dat's da truth....