Military And Civilian Draft Expected In 2005 For 18-26 Year Olds

[SoCalDem]

Don't forget.... THIS is another thing that this election is about.. Don't expect the "mainstream media" to keep pounding this issue..

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link


July, 2004



Military And Civilian Draft Expected In 2005 For 18-26 Year Olds

There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the initiation of a military and civilian service draft which will allow the program to begin as early as Spring 2005-just after the 2004 presidential election. The Bush Administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately. Some $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. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. Please see website: 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 proves accurate, the US may have no choice but to draft.

snip...

Dodging the draft will be more difficult than those from the Vietnam era. 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, 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.


snip.....

[LittleApple81]

1. Question: What is Kerry's opinion on this? He is opposed to the "backdoor

draft". But where is he going to get the extra forces he has mentioned he wants to send to Iraq? AND THIS IS AN HONEST QUESTION, NOT FLAMEBAIT.

[Blue Wally]

2. Volunteer Army

has worked for thirty-plus years only because deployments were either to overseas garrisons (Germany, Italy, Japan, korea) were to peacetime garrison stations or ofvery short duration (Grenada, Panama, Haiti, Gulf War One). A protracted conflict (as this one is turning out to be) will deplete the volunteers and the reserve components. A draft might be the only option for either Bush or Kerry unless they just pull an overnight exit from Iraq and let things go to hell there.

[ugarte]

3. To say he supports a draft would be political suicide

And if he really thinks we need MORE troops in Iraq, I may stay home in Nov.

[democratreformed]

6. 40,000 more troops

That's the figure he used. BUT, to clarify, he said we need that many more- just not necessarily in Iraq. Supposedly, they would be used to relieve those already there. That's my understanding anyways.

[SoCalDem]

4. I agree,...This MUST be discussed..sooner..not later

s am so distressed by all the IMPORTANT stuff that *must not be talked of* BEFORE an election, and yet it's what is MOST importnat to us all..

Do most people lay awake at night worrying about the "sanctity of marriage"?..NOPE

People lay awake at night because of....


job loss (actual or the fear of)
their kids being sent to Iraq/Afghanistan
their health insurance (or lack of)
the fact that they are broke, and getting "broker"
their poor, elderly relatives who are struggling to stay afloat
their kids who cannot afford college
the fact that they may be still "working" at age 85


you know... stuff like that...

[Dems Will Win]

8. Kerry has a NO-DRAFT PLAN. Here it is:

The major media are not talking about any of these things, nor do they cover hardly anything that John Kerry says, especially if it is about the draft. So you would never know it, but John Kerry has a No-Draft Plan, a plan to strengthen the military in key areas yet draw down U.S. troop levels in Iraq by internationalizing the situation and then getting out as soon as possible.

Here are the five main points of Kerry’s No-Draft Plan:

1. Move some paper-pushers to combat (lots of potential there)

2. Increase enlistment with real scholarships, benefits and pay raises

3. Let troops know Special Ops will hunt al-Queda, no more invasions needed, so re-up rate goes up. "Primarily a law enforcement effort, not a full military effort", said John Kerry on Meet The Press.

4. Start a "Civilian Stability Corps" that would help in reconstructing Afghanistan and Iraq and relieve military pressure.

5. GET FOREIGN TROOPS TO COME INTO INSTEAD OF LEAVE IRAQ.

Kerry gave some details about the proposed Civilian Stability Corps, made up of volunteers:

"...I propose that we enlist thousands of them in a Civilian Stability Corps, a reserve organization of volunteers ready to help win the peace in troubled places. Like military reservists, they will have peacetime jobs; but in times of national need, they will be called into service to restore roads, renovate schools, open hospitals, repair power systems, draft a constitution, or build a police force. A Civilian Stability Corps can bring the best of America to the worst of the world—and reduce pressure on the military."

- Source: Kerry, John. "Protecting Our Military Families in Times of War: A Military Family Bill of Rights." March 17, 2004. http://johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0317.html

In April, on a conference call with 130 College Newspaper Editors, Kerry said “No Draft”, that he would have a sensible foreign policy that would not require reinstatement. And in June, Kerry told a Wisconsin high school that if elected, a draft would be "absolutely unnecessary".

Kerry’s plan calls for increasing active-duty troop levels by 40,000 people. He also doubles the number of Special Ops troops. Half the 40,000 being added are civil engineering and half are combat, costing an extra $7 billion, but it relieves the pressure on the Guard and Reserves for overseas deployments and essentially saves the Volunteer Army.

Kerry charges that Bush is ruining the Volunteer approach with long Guard and Reserve deployments and numerous stop-loss orders, which Kerry says is a “Back-door Draft”. Since Kerry will increase pay, benefits, scholarships and reduce long deployments of regular troops and the reserves, if he is elected the re-enlistment rates and recruitment rates will return to normal. Recently, troops returning from Iraq are reportedly leaving the Service in huge numbers, although denied by DoD (see David Hackworth, Voting With their Feet http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38644).

With this No-Draft Plan, Kerry will not have to resort to conscription, even after Bush has made such a mess of it in Iraq. Kerry has also pledged that he will push renewable energy development and true energy independence, “so that we never again have soldiers dying for oil”.

Kerry in April told 130 college newspaper editors "No Draft." And he told a Wisconsin high school audience in June that with a sensible foreign policy and the end of unilateral pre-emptive war, the draft "would be absolutely unnecessary". In the past, Kerry has criticized the inequality of the draft, that the poor and minorities are inducted in higher numbers than their fair share and that the draft is a source of conflict.

John Kerry will not reinstate the draft—outside of the invasion of the United States by China or something like that.

The choice is thus clear to all voters. Vote for Bush and you are also voting for the resumption of the draft—to man his hidden agenda of invading more countries and staying in Iraq forever.

Or vote for Kerry and you are voting PNAC out of the White House, and with it Bush’s hidden agenda to bring back the draft so U.S. companies can dominate the world’s remaining oil supply.

BUSH 04 = DRAFT '05

[LittleApple81]

9. Thanks. I had never seen a comprehensive essay like this about his

statements.

[Dems Will Win]

10. Thanks, I know all about it. ASK ME ANYTHING ABOUT THE DRAFT

The NO-DRAFT PLAN will cost $7 billion.

By the way this email mentioned above has some serious flaws. The Dem bills are just protest bills and Hollings even said he wouldn't vote for his own bill if it ever came to the floor--which it won't.

There already is a DRAFT law in place and a mere trigger resolution is needed to activate it. The Dem bills change the current law to include women in combat, something they know by the way the GOP would never allow.

The Selective Service System, or 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 getting draft board volunteers together and going over the procedures of what would happen under reinstatement and training new members every summer. And the draft boards themselves have become 80% vacant over the decades.

In the current 5-year cycle of exercises, however, the SSS is clearly ramping up the draft machinery to an unprecedented level. In fact, the mission of the Selective Service is to be ready to conscript within 193 days of reauthorization, over 6 months before any lottery could be held and report orders issued. The 2004 plan reduces that time to 75 days.

By March 31, 2005, a report must be issued by the Director of the SSS to the Pentagon that the system will be ready to hold the first draft lottery within 75 days, rather than the usual 193 days.

“Strategic Objective 1.2: 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.”
Tie that to this objective:

“An annual report providing the results of the implementation of these performance
measures will be submitted by March 31, 2005.”

75 days from March 31, 2005 is about June 15, 2005. If Bush asks for reinstatement on April 1, Congress could pass it that night and the first batch of over one million 20 year-olds would face the lottery as soon as that date.

Here is how the $28 million is being spent according to the official document:

“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)”

It should be noted the $28 million is not a huge increase, as the 2003 SSS budget was around $26 million. Yet reducing activation time from 193 to 75 days is clearly laid out in the document. The SSS also began a crash recruitment drive last summer and fall to fill those 10,000 plus board vacancies by Spring 2005. That has been noted by the press.

But the following has not.

In analyzing each of the 2004 goals in detail it is painfully obvious that there are hidden “activation bombshells” in this so-called “Performance Plan”. Goal number 1 in particular brings the combat induction process up to 95% 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, but it likely to be any day or week now.

In addition, the Medical Draft, or Health Care Personnel Delivery System (HCPDS in the document), 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 one of 60-some medical specialties. 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.

“Develop an Area Office Prototype Exercise which will test the HCPDS work flows and its automated support programs. FY 2004.

Prepare, conduct, and evaluate an Area Office Prototype Exercise for health care in FY 2005.”

Goal number two increase registration compliance and actually tries to assign Registrars to nearly every high school, the goal being 85% of the schools. This could very well indicate that Bush plans to have a very large draft indeed. Several hundred thousand men from each year could be inducted, while the Medical draft is designed to induct up to 80,000 per year. At first, the system probably could not stand to draft more than 200,000 to 300,000 per year but after that it could go much higher.

Goal number three makes ready the administration of the draft, down to making sure the system can answer all correspondence within 10 days and that new tracking software is implemented as quickly as possible.

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.”

For 31 years, the Conscientious Objector system, called the Alternative Service, has lain dormant. The 2004 plan also calls for this to be brought up to speed and to be ready to decide cases and place COs in the Alternative Service by July 6, 2005 (96 days after March 31, 2005). The SSS is even going so far as to draw up the SOPs, the Standard Operating Procedures which identify local employers eligible to receive cheap AS workers and to also draw up the actual MOU, the Memorandum of Understanding 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 activation under the law.
So Bush is filling the draft board seats, testing the entire combat draft this year and the medical draft next year (early next year?) and making sure the Alternative Service is geared up—all by March 31 of 2005.

But that’s not all going on quietly behind the scenes.

It turns out that the SSS has presented a secret 6-page proposal to the Pentagon and given to the Congress that calls for the creation of a “Skills Draft”, conscripting men and women up to age 34 for non-combat jobs such as linguist, computer specialist or engineer—the first three occupations the DoD has already identified as being in short supply. Modeled after the Medical Draft, the secret document was obtained only through the FOI Act by a reporter from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

BUSH '04 = DRAFT '05

[Hubert Flottz]

5. It's going to happen if Bush wins!

Make no mistake about it! I wish I could tell you in words about the hopeless sinking feeling a kid gets, when he gets his "Greeting" from Uncle Sugar letter! * Been there! It's either show up or become a criminal! If the kids think taking orders from Mom and Pop is bad, wait until the meet the Drill Instructor! The Army will spank your mind until they turn it into, "Your Military Mind"! The trouble with that program is this, even if your body does makes it back home, your mind, that was issued to you by Mom and Pop, might not ever make it back home!

[Dems Will Win]

11. Family Circle just reported that ROVE surveyed the GOP on the DRAFT!!!

The GOP CAUCUSES told him they WOULD REINSTATE THE DRAFT IF THE PRESIDENT SAID HE NEEDED IT.

BUSH '04 = DRAFT '05

[ugarte]

7. I agree, it's a no-brainer

This should be a winning issue for Kerry. He needs to state very firmly that he opposes a draft except in cases of declared war, and we're not in one.


It dioesn't even require political courage. Last I looked, the majority of Americans think the war in Iraq is a mistake.