From Salon: Oiling up the Draft Machine by Dave Lindorff

[flpoljunkie]

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/11/03/draft/index.html

Nov. 3, 2003  |  The community draft boards that became notorious for sending reluctant young men off to Vietnam have languished since the early 1970s, their membership ebbing and their purpose all but lost when the draft was ended. But a few weeks ago, on an obscure federal Web site devoted to the war on terrorism, the Bush administration quietly began a public campaign to bring the draft boards back to life.

"Serve Your Community and the Nation," the announcement urges. "If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2,000 Local and Appeal Boards throughout America would decide which young men ... receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service."

Local draft board volunteers, meanwhile, report that at training sessions last summer, they were unexpectedly asked to recommend people to fill some of the estimated 16 percent of board seats that are vacant nationwide.

Especially for those who were of age to fight in the Vietnam War, it is an ominous flashback of a message. Divisive military actions are ongoing in Iraq and Afghanistan. News accounts daily detail how the U.S. is stretched too thin there to be effective. And tensions are high with Syria and Iran and on the Korean Peninsula, with some in or close to the Bush White House suggesting that military action may someday be necessary in those spots, too.

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[Eloriel]

1. Better get ourselves some seats on those draft boards

Anybody got a link?

Edit: Yeah, I do -- http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/sss092203.html

Eloriel

[sable302]

2. yep

it's gonna happen, imho.

[La_Serpiente]

3. I'm very young and 19 years old

and can someone tell me the purpose of these boards? I am not sure.

And how can they hurt or how can they help?

[diamond14]

10. if you are drafted, and you have a medical/psychological/conscientious

objector issue or any other number of issues that MIGHT allow you to get out of the DRAFT (which is mandatory military service...to shoot and kill in defense of the USA)....then, you go down to your local DRAFT Board, called 'Selective Service Board' (in your neighborhood) and plead your case (sort of like a court)...and the DRAFT Board will then determine YOUR fate...the people on the Board will decide whether you get a deferrment (which is whether you can stay at home, rather than shoot and kill)...so the DRAFT Boards are very important to 19 year olds...

for example, suppose you get drafted, then go down and plead with the draft board that you cannot go because you are in college...the Board will look at your evidence and could STILL decide to send you to Iraqnam, even if you are in college because they might not like your study courses or the college itself (although they MIGHT let you stay in college if you know one of the DRAFT Board members personally, and they like you and believe you to be sincere)....so DRAFT Boards are VERY VERY important to every 19 year old in America right now...

[Nlighten1]

4. I applied but so far nothing.

[bluestateguy]

5. I would have an agenda

To rubber stamp all honest conscientious objectors and to DENY all Republican chickenhawks who come before the board will bullshit excuses: pimple on their ass, too fat, psorisus, Daddy gave $$ to the Bush campaign. I'd take these people and pack their big, fat, overprivileged white asses and send them off to the front lines of combat.

[alfredo]

7. That's why Democrats should sign up.

[Kinkistyle]

6. No plans on coming home from Japan anytime soon then.

Not for the War in Iraq, not for the thug usurper in the White House.

Though if I do "win" the draft lottery, I might consider flying back to New York just so I can wipe my ass with the draft ticket after taking a wet crap, then burning it, then getting the hell outta Dodge.

[diamond14]

8. (link) to Conscientious Objector application and other DRAFT papers

this is a 'Christian' site, but it is a very good site for all the DRAFT registration rules and especially those wishing to apply for consciencious objector....

http://www.peacehost.net/christianCO/

[Clark Can WIN]

11. If I were a 17 yo male right now I believe I'd become

VERY Christian right now. Probably a gay holy roller to boot.

[diamond14]

12. for most DRAFT Boards, you'd need to have a Christian affiliation

to gain a 'conscientious objector' deferrment....

that's just the nature of most 'local' DRAFT Boards....

unless some of us got on a few....

if I were a 17 year old male...I'd be going to every single non-military older person who didn't support shrub's perpetual wars, and who knew me personally and liked me, and hand them an application to serve on my 'local' draft board...it could save your life....

[Corgigal]

9. I applied

and finally got an answer last weekend. It takes them awhile to respond. While this "job" will tear me apart , if I'm needed, I fear not doing it and letting them good ole white boys take their picks.

[MattNC]

13. it's prudent

to fill the board, especially if 16% of the seats are empty, but I just don't see this happening.

[Silverhair]

14. Only the far left wants the draft back.

Conservatives are 100% against the draft coming back. The only people wanting the draft back are some of those on the far left.

[ShaneGR]

15. Then why is Bush requesting the boards get ready?

Is Bush on the far left? Or as you would say, Bush is not on the far left, Bush is not on the far left.

[Silverhair]

18. Please provide a link for that.

I read the news on several different sites daily. I haven't seen anything about Bush v.2 telling the draft boards to get ready. Please provide a link to a reputable news source to document that assertation. If I can be shown to be wrong, I will admit it. At this point all the calls for a draft that I have seen have come from the left.

Hollings & Rangel.

[hang a left]

16. Yeah whatever. Must be some kind of conspiracy, huh silver?

[diamond14]

17. no, many conservatives want the draft back.....they consider the

draft a way to solve the crime problems (taking young men off the streets, and disciplining them)...it's also the 'cheap labor conservative' approach to running a perpetual war (afterall troops cost money and bush* has already cut all military benefits down to bare bones)...and lastly, 'cheap labor conservatives' always view the military as some kind of training program for the poor...get's them off the streets, trains them in jobs, and then they can go into chump jobs upon finishing their military....

the 'cheap labor conservatives' here in DC really really want the DRAFT back...to solve all our social problems with a minimal amount of money (at least that's what they think in their 'little' minds, which are truly dissociated from reality)...it's just like Vietnam, the more unemployed, the more crime, the more poor...the more congress wants to solve it all with the DRAFT....