I received an application from the Selective Sevice today

[dflprincess]

Being a female, I had never received a letter with a return address of "Selective Service System" on it. Still, I nearly choked when I saw it.

I requested the application with the idea that I'd rather have people who think like me on a draft board that people who think Bush* is God. Now that I've received it and read through the little book they send, I just don't think I can fill it out and send it in.

This is from the "Mission Statement"

"While building further public trust and value for registration and sustaining a base in peacetime, the Selective Service System is ready to:

Furnish personnel to the DoD for military service in the event of a national emergency declared by the Congress or the President."

Then there were the Goals:

"Guarantee the optimal use of human, material and fiscal resources.

Support other government organizations in achieving their responsibilities."

The booklet constantly uses the term "national emergency". It also sounds like there could be a draft of just health care personnel.

I don't think I want to be associated with this organizaiton in anyway. Part of it's ego - I wouldn't want to be mistaken for someone who thought the way the people who wrote this booklet seem to think. The only people a member of a draft board might help protect from Bush* would be those who filed appeals if their original requests for exemptions were denied. There has to be a better way to fight the draft.

[neuvocat]

1. Hm.

With all this talk of keeping the ranks up to their current levels I wonder if I'm gonna get drafted.

[kalashnikov]

2. Look on the bright side:

If they installed the draft the army would have more democrats in it.

[snrfmaster]

3. Bushdraft.com

Visit my site - Bushdraft.com

SEND IT TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. If this gets out about how Bush is pro-draft and the moves he is making to reinstate the draft then it will end his career, send emails to all your friends with Bushdraft.com mentioned, send it to your coworkers, family...any college students you know. Bushdraft.com has no advertising so i dont profit from it I just want to get the word out and it will help stop bush if we can prove to people he is secretly planning to ship off our children! GET THE WORD OUT!! HELP STOP BUSH IN 2004! its our most important goal. we cant have another 4 years of war, terror and sacrifice..GET THE WORD OUT NOW

[foreigncorrespondent]

11. I visited your site...

...and you have nothing to back your claims up with.

I have read a lot of stuff on DU lately about the Bush draft for 2005, so I am pretty well informed.

You are obviously a republican voter (under "normal" circumstances), and us lefties are always telling republican voters to back their claims with facts, where are your articles and such?

The single page you have which is linking to AWOLBush.com and a photo isn't enough to wake people up.

You have a good idea, especially considering you are a republican, but unless you begin backing your claims up with facts, no one is going to listen.

Take this any way you want it, but it was merely a suggestion to best improve your site so it will work.

FC

[snrfmaster]

12. bushdraft.com

did you read the proof pages? click the proof pages, its on the main picture where bush is sayin i want your kids

and yeah, im a reformed republican but that doesnt make me a liar.

[HFishbine]

4. You could

apply, get appointed, then resign in protest should the draft be re-instated for reasons with which you disagree.

[Turbineguy]

5. You could be part and

make sure nobody goes. The county I lived in during the Vietnam War had a particularly bloodthirsty Draft Board.

[dflprincess]

6. That's just it.

You can't make sure nobody goes - otherwise I'd still be tempted to follow though on it.

It sounds like you only get to deal with people who apply for exemptions. It didn't say whether or not a majority of the board has to agree that someone gets there exemption or if just one member can grant it. I would bet it's a majority vote. There isn't anyway to stop the original letters from going out and suppose the damn letter goes out with the names of the local draft board members on it? I just don't want that reputation (unless one person can grant the exemption and word got around that I was the person to see.) After reading the material I think that, even if one goes into this with the best of intentions, you will just be a cog in the military machine.

I think I'll find out what the American Friends Service Committee is up to on this subject.

I am now going to take a brief break from DU to email snrfmaster’s website to nieces so they may spread the word to their friends.

[tritsofme]

10. I believe that if the vote is not unanimous,

then the draftee's exemption goes to a national review board.

[bluestateguy]

7. Depends

Being on a draft board is an awesome responsibility. You hold men's lives in their hands. The decision you will make could determine if somebody lives or dies. That's a lot to have on your conscience for the rest of your life. Still, if it were me I would use my position to grant all requests for defermits (except maybe for obvious chickenhawk conservatives)and try to slow the war machine down.

[dflprincess]

9. That was my original plan

I was even thinking about ordering my "EXEMPT" stamp. I even had the same criteria except I called them Dick-Cheney-I-Support-the-War-but-have-other-priorities types.

It's just that it doesn't sound that one voice crying in the wilderness is going to be able to grant that many exemptions. I suppose I could go ahead, as suggested above, and fill the application out. I could always resign if I found I couldn't do any good. I don't know though, even though my intentions were good, my consicence is bothering me that I even sent for the application. You know what road is paved with good intentions.

[Ksec]

8. support other countries militarily to me means soldier of fortune

How else would you characterize Americans being rented out to clean up the world?

[DUreader]

13. kick