The Coming Draft By Connor Freff Cochran, AlterNet March 25, 2004 In 1973, forced conscription ended in favor of an all-volunteer military. As the gap between the capacity of America's armed forces and the demands of current deployment widens, the likelihood of a reinstated draft grows. Reports were recently circulated that a "special skills" draft was on the table specifically for people skilled in computers and foreign languages. The Selective Service countered the allegations with a statement on their website, stating that the Selective Service is merely fulfilling its role and hasn't ramped up in anticipation of a coming draft: "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." However, the Bush Administration's military goals cannot be met without forced conscription. Consider these facts: Twenty-one of the US Army's 33 regular combat brigades are now on active duty in the "hot" zones of Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, and the Balkans. That's 63 percent of the Army's fighting force ... all without factoring in additional troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere around the globe. This is a huge overextension. History has proven that long-term military operations can only be sustained if you have twice as many soldiers waiting in the pipeline as are stationed out in the field. By that rule of thumb, the regular military is now 125,000 soldiers short – a gap the Bush administration has temporarily plugged by calling more than 150,000 Army Reserve and National Guard troops into active service.. There are 135,000 troops stationed in Iraq, just under half of them guardsmen and reservists. But to maintain that number another 22,000 have already been sent there and brought home dead, wounded, or medically unfit for service. Since the invasion of Iraq there have been more military casualties than in all the years since the end of the Viet Nam war combined. The human well is drying up. Enlistment rates in the regular armed forces and the National Guard have dropped precipitously, and according to a poll conducted by the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, a whopping 49 percent of soldiers stationed in Iraq say they don't intend to reenlist – even with the Army offering a $10,000 bonus. In January 2004, Vice-President Dick Cheney gave a speech in San Francisco outlining a further expansion of the military. In no uncertain terms he announced that our armed forces would be set up in more overseas bases, so the United States could wage war quickly around the globe. "One of the legacies of this administration," he said, "will be some of the most sweeping changes in our military, and our national security strategy as it relates to the military and force structure, and how we're based, and how we used it in the last 50 or 60 years, probably since World War II. I think the changes are that dramatic." Despite statements to the contrary, quiet preparations for the return of the draft have been under way for some time. The Selective Service System's Annual Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2004 – despite a ton of obfuscatory jargon, acronyms, and bureaucrat-speak – can't quite manage to bury all of its bombshells. Strategic Objective 1.2 of the 2004 plan commits the Selective Service System to being fully operational within 75 days of "an authorized return to conscription." Strategic Objective 1.3 then commits them to "be operationally ready to furnish untrained manpower within DOD timelines." By next year the government intends to turn the ignition key on a mobilization infrastructure of 56 State Headquarters, 442 Area Offices, and 1,980 Local Boards. There's even a big chunk of funding this year to run what's called an "Area Office Prototype Exercise" which will "test the activation process from SSS Lottery input to the issuance of First Armed Forces Examination Orders." Strategic Objective 2.2 is all about bumping up the Selective Service System's High School Registrar Program. What's that? It's a plan to put volunteer Registrars in at least 85% of the nation's high schools, up from 65% in 1998. Consider these the SSS's "troops on the ground," making sure that the smallest possible number of eligible draftees manages to slip through the net. (In the school arena, by the way, the Bush administration has already pulled a fast one. Buried deep in the 670 pages of the No Child Left Behind Act there is a provision which requires that public high schools give military recruiters access to facilities and also contact information for every student – or else face a cutoff of federal aid.) The 2004 plan commits the SSS to report to the president on March 31st, 2005, that the system is ready for activation with 75 days. If they manage the task, then the first lottery could happen as early as June 15th, 2005. The job of approving a draft officially belongs to both the President and Congress, working together to pass new legislation, and officially it can only happen if the country is at war. But given the examples of the last three years, these safeguards are hard to call firm and reassuring. First, as far as the Bush administration is concerned we are at war in every respect. On the basis of this position the President has skated around the strict language of the Constitution and launched the invasion of two different countries, despite the fact that only Congress is supposed to have the power to declare war. Second, the White House is supported by Republican majorities in both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court. While it is certain that any Presidential decision to reactivate the draft would be hotly debated in Congress, and resisted by a majority of the public, it is by no means clear that it could be effectively blocked – especially with prominent Democrats such as Representative Charlie Rangel and Senator Hillary Clinton on record as supporting the possibility of some kind of conscription. Of course, the Selective Service System doesn't call it a "draft." In their lexicon of acronyms it's a "Registrant Integrated Processing System": RIPS, for short. The acronym's horrible irony – Rest In Peace, anyone? – seems to have been lost on the bureaucrats. Connor Freff Cochran is a film producer and former magazine/television journalist. He spent four years as an American on-air correspondent for the BBC.
Fewer gays being dismised from military The number of gays dismissed from the military under the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy has dropped to its lowest level in nine years as U.S. forces continue to fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a report issued by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, an advocacy group for gay and lesbian service personnel. The military discharged 787 gays and lesbians last year, according to SLDN, which attributed the decline to the importance of U.S. operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. The figure marks a 17% decrease from 2002 and a 39% drop from 2001. "You have to ask yourself--and you have to ask the Pentagon--why are the discharges going down?" said C. Dixon Osburn, executive director of SLDN and one of the report's authors. "When they need people, they keep them. When they don't, they implement their policy of discrimination with greater force." A Pentagon spokeswoman said Tuesday that Defense Department officials could not comment on the report because they had not yet seen it. The "don't ask, don't tell" policy has been in place since 1994. It allows gays to serve in uniform as long as they don't reveal their sexual orientation. The military has discharged nearly 10,000 people for violations of the policy since it first took effect, according to the report. The number of gays discharged increased steadily from 1994 to 1998. Dismissals decreased slightly in 1999 but then increased again, peaking in 2001 with 1,273 discharges. The U.S. armed services currently have different troop requirements. The Army, the largest of the services, is so stretched by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and missions elsewhere that it is using its "stop-loss" authority to prevent soldiers from retiring or otherwise leaving when their service obligation ends. The Air Force, on the other hand, is trying to reduce its ranks through attrition, and the Navy also is shedding personnel. All the branches of the military except for the Air Force dismissed fewer gays last year than the year before. The Air Force dismissed 142 people for violating "don't ask, don't tell," up from 121 in 2002. Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens said the service is "unaware of specific factors that would account for the slight increase for this past year." Military officials have said that allowing openly gay people to serve in the armed forces could interfere with unit cohesion, but Osburn said the latest statistics contradict that. "It just shows that the underlying rationale for 'don't ask, don't tell' is completely irrational," he said. "When do you need unit cohesion more than during war?" Capt. Austin Rooke, a member of the Army reserves, was called to duty following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He served at Fort Lewis, Wash., and in Qatar, returning home about a year ago. He said that while serving, he didn't talk about the fact that he was gay, but he said some officials probably suspected it since he works as a civilian for the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, a gay rights group in Washington, D.C. He said in an interview Tuesday that he was not surprised military officials appear to be slower to dismiss gay troops during times of conflict, but he wasn't happy about that. "It's offensive, I think," Rooke said, adding that he hopes gays will someday be able to serve openly. He noted that it was expensive for the military to lose troops after training them and that the people who are leaving are "people that we desperately need."
Well that's just really annoying to me that we'd have to go back to conscription at this day and age. I love my country and support my president, but I'm about to go to college. I want to get an education, not have to think about joining the armed forces.
So, when I registered to vote recently, and they asked me to turn my head and cough, that's normal, right?
you're welcome... agreed...it's so off the wall...there's that momentary pause after he says it like, "huh??" i love that. i use that line regularly, whether it fits in context or not.
That's really strange, because I do to. People often don't know what I'm talking about when I come of left field with that line. I don't know who wrote that line, but it's brilliant. He was just talking about and then he busts that line out... Truly classic. kpsta, thanks for the pic, too.
Ah yes, so glad that I am 31 and married. All you 20 year olds better register to vote pretty quickly... Sequence of Events Here is a brief overview of what would occur if the United States returned to a draft: 1. CONGRESS AND THE PRESIDENT AUTHORIZE A DRAFT A crisis occurs which requires more troops than the volunteer military can supply. Congress passes and the President signs legislation which starts a draft. 2. THE LOTTERY A lottery based on birthdays determines the order in which registered men are called up by Selective Service. The first to be called, in a sequence determined by the lottery, will be men whose 20th birthday falls during that year, followed, if needed, by those aged 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25. 18-year-olds and those turning 19 would probably not be drafted. 3. ALL PARTS OF SELECTIVE SERVICE ARE ACTIVATED The Agency activates and orders its State Directors and Reserve Forces Officers to report for duty. See also Agency Structure. 4. PHYSICAL, MENTAL, AND MORAL EVALUATION OF REGISTRANTS Registrants with low lottery numbers are ordered to report for a physical, mental, and moral evaluation at a Military Entrance Processing Station to determine whether they are fit for military service. Once he is notified of the results of the evaluation, a registrant will be given 10 days to file a claim for exemption, postponement, or deferment. See also Classifications. 5. LOCAL AND APPEAL BOARDS ACTIVATED AND INDUCTION NOTICES SENT Local and Appeal Boards will process registrant claims. Those who pass the military evaluation will receive induction orders. An inductee will have 10 days to report to a local Military Entrance Processing Station for induction. 6. FIRST DRAFTEES ARE INDUCTED According to current plans, Selective Service must deliver the first inductees to the military within 193 days from the onset of a crisis.
with the amount of money we spend on the military, we should have cybernetic AI androids doing the fighting for us. dammit you lazy scientists at skynet, do something!
I think it was Glynch who started a thread on this awhile back (the draft, not Stripes). I was initially quite skeptical, but since then have had an opportunity to make a few inquiries and am now reasonably convinced that we will see at least a major attempt to get the draft back should Bush get a second term. Even if W v.2 fights hard for the draft, it will be hard to get approval, but they are definitely taking the steps necessary to put it in place ASAP after the election.
will they have a check box if draftees are willing to go to Iraq or not? I think this could be a major issue against Bush if promoted right. Less than 30% of young people voted in the 2000 race. This is one issue that affects them directly.
I am totally against the Draft. If we didn't have a President who would have made a poor president of A&M, much less our country, we wouldn't be having to discuss it. Bush's decision to lie to the American people about Iraq, his decision to invade that country when we had unfinished business in Afghanistan and the Tribal Regions of Pakistan, his cavalier use of our armed forces is the only reason it would even come up today. Get rid of this idiot in November, increase salaries and benefits for our service men and women and veterans instead of giving the rich more tax cuts, have a sane foreign policy, and we won't need a draft short of a true national emergency. Bush is the worst President of my lifetime, and I was born in the early '50's. The guy is far past needing to go.
I have to admit that on a certain level it would be poetic justice for young Rice U. grads and others who support frequent wars to be required to fight in the wars they advocate. The working class military guys are going to start saying no. They are having a hard time with reenlistments despiter $10,000 bonuses, which often times looks like a lot of money to poor working class soldiers. A vote for Bush is a vote for a draft.
