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

[Laury]

The argument in this feature is pretty weak.  The "pending legislation" 
has been languishing in the House and Senate for over a year.  The 
House Bill was proposed by an opponent of the Iraqi war, Charles Rangel 
of NY (and co-sponsored by Seattle's own Jim McDermott) PRIOR to the 
invasion of Iraq:

http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d108:HR00163:@@@L&summ2=m&

The purpose of the bills was to freak out middle America -- to bring 
home the idea that their sons  **and daughters** could be drafted, it 
wouldn't be fault solely by an "all-volunteer" (read: poor, non-white) 
army.

The U.S. may or may not be planning for military draft in the Spring of 
2005, but the smoking gun isn't in any of the links given in the 
article. The link to the Selective Service performance plan includes 
primarily service level goals (e.g., respond to letters faster, etc.) 
-- no smoke, no gun, no secret plans in sight.

Other issues -- someone wrote this in 2003, and, if posted, the dates 
would need to be edited (this year --> last year) to reflect the 
passage of time.

On Feb 23, 2004, at 3:18 PM, sheri at speakeasy.org wrote:

> June 15,