STAY THE COURSE MEANS A RETURN TO THE DRAFT - SECRET GUARD PLAN!

[Dems Will Win]

There can no longer be doubt in anyone's mind. If the Republicans keep the House and Senate and Bush "Stays the Course", there is not only a secret plan to drain the last drop of blood from the Guard and the Reserves, from the WaPo:

The Washington Post has now reported that planning that is now classified, being kept secret from voters and military families until the election is over, could well include what the Post calls a policy change forcing a new wave of involuntary call ups.

With violence and chaos escalating in Iraq, with Iraqi police infiltrated by murderous pro-Iranian militia, with more than 20% of the Iraqi army on leave at any given time, the fact is: American troops are doing even more of the work that Iraqis should do and more will be sent to Iraq unless the policy changes.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/529

...you should know the apparatus has already been put in place to reinstate the draft--and all that is needed is passage of a 1-page Trigger Resolution. No new draft law is needed!

Even if the GOP loses, Bush still has 6 weeks to pass a mere 1-Page Trigger Resolution with the lame-duck Congress.

Stay the Course means Re-instating the Draft. Last month, not only were 105 troops killed in Iraq, there were over 850 wounded. We're up to a thousand soldiers being taken off the battlefield as casualties every month. That's 12,000 casualties a year right there.

Bushco, even with the 80,000 recruited for the Army this year by raising the age and lowering the standards, has burned through the IRR, 100,000 mercenaries, the National Guard and the Reserves. The Marines and the Army do not have the equipment nor the manpower to field more than what we have in Iraq and Afghanistan right now.

Not only are we about to lose Iraq, we've already lost most of it and most of Afghanistan as well. If Bush doesn't want to look like the biggest loser in US history by the end of next year, he needs at least 250,000 to 400,000 US troops in Iraq, and 20,000 in Afghanistan.

The only way Bush can get those kind of numbers, or even keep the troop level in Iraq at 145,000, is to reinstate the draft.

Stay the Course means Re-instating the Draft. There is no longer any doubt.

Iran could be used as an excuse--but I think Bush could just go to the lame-duck Congress and say the "generals told me we need the draft, so I need this 1-page Trigger Resolution passed tonight."

Passage of that little piece of paper would activate the Selective Service System and draft lotteries would be held for the Combat Draft (male only, 20 year-olds first, then 21-year olds, up to 25), the Medical Draft (male/female ANY medical job or specialty, NO DEFERMENTS, Age 20-44) and the Skills Draft (hundreds of thousands to be drafted in MOS list of several hundred occupations, age 18-34, MALE OR FEMALE, NO DEFERMENTS). Everyone under 45 (Medical Draft) or 35 (Skills Draft) would have to register at the Post Office within 30 days on their occupation or be in violation of Selective Service Law.

Here is a PDF of a secret Skills Draft Memo.

http://blatanttruth.org/selective_service091304.pdf

Although Congress would have to approve new legislation to create a Skills Draft or reinstate the combat draft, Family Circle reported in its July 13 issue that Karl Rove has polled GOP members of Congress in September 2002 to see if they would support the President if he requests reinstatement. The Republicans said they would vote for the draft.

In addition, the SSS itself has said that it is “designing procedures” (Seattle PI, May 1, 2004) to implement the skills draft, meaning designing the compliance cards and the data fields needed to keep track of “virtually every young American” and their skills. Acting Director of the SSS Brodsky has also said the Skills Draft is the “top priority” of the Selective Service for 2004. The Issue Paper options include:

- Allow a non-combat draft for shortages in critical skills, without calling a combat draft.

- Fill labor shortages of all kinds throughout not only DoD but the Dept. of Homeland Security and other agencies, especially high-paying professionals like computer networking specialist or linguist.

- Create a single-point, all-inclusive database, in which every young person would be forced to send in a “self-declaration” of all of their critical skills, chosen from a long list of occupations like the Armed Forces Specialty Code. The usual penalties of imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine would apply to all non-registrants.

In the secret planning meeting document, the next steps strongly recommended by SSS Acting Director Brodsky were:

1. “Promptly” redefine the SSS Mission to draft men and women up to age 34 for skills, and deliver them within 90 days or sooner to the Department of Defense. Program a massive database to be ready to enter millions of names of those registering their critical skills.

2. Expand mission to deliver personnel in skills draft to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, including FEMA, NSC, Border Patrol, INS, Customs, Corporation for National Service, Public Health Service and other agencies.

3. Form interagency task force to provide Administration with recommendation on this skills draft for the entire government.

4. Obtain White House Statement of Administration Policy on the future of the SSS.

5. Be prepared to market the skills draft, raising the non-combat age to 34 and the drafting of women to the Armed Services and Appropriations Committee.

All of this agenda has already been carried out and they have a Skills Draft Compliance Card all ready to be printed. In additon they have updated and beefed up the Alternative Service system for Concientious Objectors.

Selective Service is ready to rock your world!

If you thought Bush has been bad so far, he might just be getting started...

TELL EVERYONE YOU SEE ABOUT THESE FACTS. PUSH HAS FINALLY COME TO SHOVE.

Oh and if you want the GOP to win on Nov. 7th, DO NOT REMEMBER TO RECOMMEND THIS THREAD BECAUSE THIS IS A VERY POWERFUL GOP-KILLER ON THE CANVASSING TRAIL -

DWW

[sce56]

1. I hope you are wrong! But the truth is the Army is devestated by the endless

rotations to Iraq. Of course we heard the same thing before the 04 election and it did not happen then either.

http://web.archive.org/web/20030602211200/



Fascism Accomplished!

[Dems Will Win]

6. This is way different than '04

We're on 4th Deployments, there are no more mercenaries to hire (too dangerous), the Guard and Reserve are decimated, the Marines are really hurting, and the recruitment of 80,000 this year burned up the backlog of older, less qualified men and women. That backlog WON'T BE THERE IN 2007 TO RECRUIT.

Bush now is truly scraping the bottom of the barrel just as full scale civil war and the breakdown of the Iraqi police is about to occur.

[Dems Will Win]

2. k

[Blackhatjack]

3. Logic Dictates This Scenario Is Possible.....

... it does not take a genius to read the tea leaves that you cannot keep redeploying soldiers on 3rd and 4th rotations, raid the National Guard and Reserves, raise the enlistment age to 42, call up non-soldiers who have been out of touch with the military for years as part of the IRR, to realize that a Draft is in the works.

If Repubs in a lame duck Congress were to pass this for Bush, there will be a heavy price to pay when Dems regain the majority and reverse this action.

THere is one consistent message the people are communicating at polls this year, they do not support more troops being sent to Iraq.

[roamer65]

8. If Bush signs it, he'll veto attempts to reverse it.

I wonder if this could be the final "screw you" from a Rethug Congress. Hmmm...

[Dems Will Win]

10. That's what I'm predicting.

[TahitiNut]

4. A Draft should be AUTOMATIC whenever we engage in a war. Period.

I think it's abominable that some 'Americans' can sit back and sneer at those either "too stupid" or "too deluded" or "too poor" to stay out of a military service which is taxpayer-funded and (supposedly) in 'service' to the entire nation.

I think an 'all-volunteer' military or 'professional' military is an abomination in a democracy.

This might just get people off their dead asses and into the streets. "Skin in the game" is what democracy is all about.

[TheBaldyMan]

13. not necessarily, here in the UK there is a tradition of public service in the

Royal Family, Princes William and Harry are both junior grade officers in the British Army and they will deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan when it's their turn. The only consideration is both being deployed to combat theatres simultaneously, this will be avoided if possible.

That's the difference, Bush comes from a blue-blooded family that dodges military service for their country either by assignment to a champagne squadron or endless deferments.

Neither of the Bush twins or Pierce Bush will be attending Westpoint any time soon.

[shanti]

19. but see, this isn't a "war", except in little george's head

and i refuse to send any of my four sons to fight for him! :grr: :mad:

[4bucksagallon]

5. I believe the age has already been raised to 41 for enlistment so why not the draft?

[Dems Will Win]

7. Because Bush and Cheney with a Draft is the Roman Empire

all over again. They will draft MILLIONS of men for combat, 80,000 for Medical jobs and probably about 300,000 for skills shortages.

How old are you? What is your occupation?

Are you a programmer, a nurse or doctor or medical clerk, mechanic or cook, data entry or musician? Those are some of the skills they will be drafting.

[Stephanie]

12. musician?

please explain

[Dems Will Win]

16. Musician, like graphic artist, is on the MOS list

(Military Occupation List). It is one of several hundred skills that will be drafted if the DoD declares them to be in shortage.

Musicians are in great demand by DoD because every service member is due a 4-member live band at their funeral and the millions of WWII vets are dying in droves.

No shit.

So musicians are high on the list, especially bass and bugle players!

[Stephanie]

22. it's the Iraq War casualties

we should make that our sole talking point for tomorrow. that's enough reason to vote them out.

[Dems Will Win]

9. I believe this has been their goal all along

They certainly got their paperwork straight.

[happyslug]

17. If you can draft you do NOT need 30-41 years olds

You have plenty of 18-30 year olds to pick form (And probably stick with 18-25 years olds for the non-Skill Draft).

As to the Skilled draft, you should be able to get enough people with Computer and Language Skills between the ages of 18 and 35, so again no need to draft anyone over 35. As to Doctors, that may be an exception, but I do not think so.

Remember the reason the Army raised the ENLISTMENT age to 42 is to be able to get a wider pool of recruits, you do NOT need that if the Army can take ANYONE over 18.

[TheBaldyMan]

11. I agree apart from the numbers, I'd say at least 1/2 million troops extra just to stabilize Iraq.

more like 3/4 million extra and even those numbers might not be enough, it takes time to raise and train an army that size and it won't necessarily be as good as a professional volunteer army, although you did alright in WWII and Korea.

After 5 years in Afghanistan and 3 in Iraq there have been a lot of experienced servicemen getting out of the army, a lot of troops who joined up in 2001 and who wanted to get out but were stop-lossed will be eligible to leave in 2007. (4 years term and 2 stop-lossed)

The loss of NCOs and middle ranking officers can only degrade the effectiveness of the armed services, although I hate to say this the Bushies should have brought back the draft back in 2003/2004. They didn't have the political will and have crippled the armed services as a consequence. A strategic redeployment back into Saudi Arabia will look more like the only option as time passes.

[Dems Will Win]

15. They are not going to let the Muslims have the oil.

They could sabotage the fields. That would be their only other option besides a draft.

[TheBaldyMan]

21. the 'muslims' will sell their oil to the US - it's no big deal - US money is as good as anyone else

If Greg Palast is to be believed, Saddam wasn't playing nice with OPEC, that's why Iraq was invaded. As soon as the 'coalition of the clueless' leave Iraq a civil war may kill hundreds of thousands but the victors will sell the oil to anybody with enough money.

[Blackhatjack]

14. After Dems Take Majority, Repubs Will Join Us To Avoid This...

... if you think people are upset voting Repubs out at the polls this time, just wait till they get wind of the WH pretender activating a Draft. I predict people will be in the streets protesting, and telling Repubs they are out if they go along with this.

Without a plan to win, there is no way the public will support this.

However, I would expect Bush/Cheney to try this if he finds himself as a lame duck President.

[happyslug]

20. I do NOT think Bush will try this after the election.

If the GOP lose the mid-term election, the GOP will want to be able to win in 2008, and a draft after THIS election will be the kiss of Death in 2008 for any GOP candidate.

Remember the comment about this administration, EVERYTHING they do is Political, thus they will NOT go for a draft if they believe it will hurt them in 2008. All the polls I have read said a draft will be the kiss of Death for the GOP, thus no draft UNLESS you have something REAL bad happens (and an attack by Iran or Korea is NOT bad enough, a Terrorist attack is NOT bad enough, it would have to be similar in scope to a Soviet Invasion of Western Europe during the Cold War for the American people to support a draft. I just can NOT see anyone doing anything on that scale for at least 10-20 years and even then why would China or Europe attack the US? China and Europe are the only countries capable of threatening the US to the extant that the US people will support a draft. Neither wants to, and neither does the US want to fight either country. Thus they is NO SUPPORT FOR A DRAFT IN TODAY'S POLITICAL CLIMATE.

[earth mom]

28. People in the streets protesting the draft and the war....

so that's what the camps are for! :scared:

[shanti]

18. he will have nothing, NOTHING to lose

so i believe he will do it.

[AntiFascist]

23. To all the young people who might be affected by a draft....

this is your cue to go out and do something about it by voting.

[rainbow4321]

24. Medical draft info

In 2004, I had brought this all up to my co-workers at the hospital I worked at ..til I was blue in the face. They were/are all early to mid 20's, a few early 30's. No kids, half of them single. It all fell on deaf ears. Using the "special skills and medical draft" snippit of the SS page could keep chimp's bases' kids from being sent..they'd go after the skills done by middle to lower class and bedside healthcare workers.
Guess tomorrow would be a good time to mention to them once again.

http://hasbrouck.org/draft/health.html
-----------------

From the SS webpage: "mass registration of male and female healthcare workers between ages 20 and 45"...they would register at their local post office.

http://www.sss.gov/FactSheets/FSmedical.pdf

===========

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/164693_draft13.html

"Talking to the manpower folks at the Department of Defense and others, what came up was that nobody foresees a need for a large conventional draft such as we had in Vietnam," said Richard Flahavan, a spokesman for the Selective Service System. "But they thought that if we have any kind of a draft, it will probably be a special skills draft."

------------

http://www.usmedicine.com/article.cfm?articleID=872&issueID=63

Although the Secretary of Defense has stated the department does not intend to reinstate a military draft, the Selective Service System has a plan specifically drawn up to induct about 73,000 civilian health care personnel from about 60 medical specialties in the event Congress and the President decided to change the law to reinstate a draft.

The personnel would be selected through a lottery system from a pool of about 3.4 million civilian health care professionals who would be required to register with the Selective Service beginning a week following a Presidential Proclamation to instate a health care draft. The registration would likely include all male and female civilian health care personnel aged 20 to 44 who are not currently in military service and fall under one of the specialties DoD outlines as having a need at the time. The age range could be extended to 55 if necessary.

The plan aims to have the first draftees cleared and ready to mobilize for DoD about six months following the proclamation.

[Dems Will Win]

25. The Skills Draft will take many, manymore than the Medical Draft

Hundreds of thousands.

[Taxloss]

26. Wow. Just had a flashback to October/November 2004.

I remember that DU was filled with "Bush is ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN to reinstate that draft/impose martial law/unleash the flying monkeys the moment he wins!" back then.

Presumably things are completely different now.

Incidentally, weren't we meant to be invading Iran about now? What happened to that?

:hide:

[Dems Will Win]

27. Tune in next week!

[Ezlivin]

30. Reliving the end of the world does make one weary

I know what you're saying. We've heard these things before and they didn't come to pass.

But the paranoid in me thinks that they are simply preparing the way. They leak this a few times, it doesn't happen and we just ignore any further warnings. When it happens people will be in a state of disbelief.

[sarcasmo]

29. This is why all of the laptops have been stolen.

Kick and Nom.