[Seattle-editorial] FP: US Preparing for Military Draft in Spring 2005

[sheri at speakeasy.org]

-----Original Message-----
From: Rick Ingrasci M.D. [mailto:rick at bigmindmedia.com]
Sent: Monday, February 23, 2004 10:06 PM
To: 'Invitational', 'hnet', 'natcap'
Subject: [Invit] US Preparing for Military Draft in Spring 2005

From: Halim Dunsky

US Preparing for Military Draft in Spring 2005
by Adam Stutz 
Vancouver IndyMedia - Wednesday January 28, 2004 at 09:50 AM

http://www.vancouver.indymedia.org/news/2004/01/105146.php

The current agenda of the US federal government is to reinstate the
draft in 
order to staff up for a protracted war on "terrorism."

Pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills S 89 and HR163)
would 
time the program so the draft could begin at early as Spring 2005 -- 
conveniently just after the 2004 presidential election!

Reinstatement of the draft

If voters who currently support U.S. aggression abroad were confronted
with 
the possibility that their own children or grandchildren might not have
a say 
about whether to fight, many of these same voters might have a change of
mind. 
(Not that it should make a difference, but this plan would among other
things 
eliminate higher education as a shelter and would not exclude women --
and 
Canada is no longer an option.)
 
The Draft*

$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. 
SSS must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has
lain 
dormant for decades, is ready for activation. Please see website: 
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.informationclearinghouse.info/article5146.htm

Congress brought twin bills, S. 89 and H.R. 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

remember. College and Canada will not be options. In December 2001,
Canada and the 
US 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 US Homeland Security
Director, 
Gov. 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 cur-rent semester. Seniors would have until the
end of 
the academic year.


* This article by Adam Stutz is from the "What's Hot Off the Press"
column of 
the newsletter of Project Censored, a media research group at Sonoma
State 
University that tracks the news published in independent journals and 
newsletters. From these, Project Censored compiles an annual list (more
than 20 years 
running) of 25 news stories of social significance that have been
overlooked, 
under- reported, or self-censored by the country's major national news
media. 
The mission of Project Censored is "to educate people about the role of 
independent journalism in a democratic society and to tell The News That
Didn't Make 
the News and why."

"What's Hot Off the Press" includes student synopses of articles
currently 
being investigated for inclusion in the next Project Censored report.
For more 
info and/or to receive Project Censored's
newsletter, go to http://www.projectcensored.org 

*********

FYI...a Google search using S -89 indicates that Senator Hollings has 
introduced a bill to reinstate the draft.

Please send this on to all the parents and teachers you know, and all
the aunts and uncles, grandparents, godparents.... And let your children
know -- it's their future, and they can be a powerful voice for change! Please also
write to your representatives to ask them why they aren't telling their
constituents about these bills -- and write to newspapers and other media outlets to
ask them why they're not covering this important story.



Rick Ingrasci M.D., M.P.H.
Life Coaching from Falling Awake
(360) 221-5713
rick at bigmindmedia.com

"May 10,000 Flowers Bloom."
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