***** The Coming Draft By Connor Freff Cochran, AlterNet March 25, 2004
. . . 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 <http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html> 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. . . .
<http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18225> *****
***** "This is significant," said Ned Lebow, a presidential scholar at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and former professor of strategy at the National War College in Washington.
"What the department of Defense is doing is creating the infrastructure to make the draft a viable option should the administration wish to go this route."
He said it is the first public call to reconstitute draft boards since the compulsory draft was abolished in 1973.
(Tim Harper, "Will U.S. Bring Back the Draft?" _Toronto Star_, November 5, 2003, <http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1105-01.htm>) *****
Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com, Sun Apr 11 09:10:38 PDT 2004:
>There are serious morale and retention problems now with a
>professional army. After Vietnam, the ruling class realized that
>fighting imperial wars with conscripts was a route to disaster. The
>present war's political support isn't very deep. Why ever would they
>take the suicidal route of bringing back the draft under those circs?
Because neither Kerry nor Bush will withdraw US troops and end the occupation of Iraq, and the occupation, especially when it is actively resisted, needs more boots on the ground than Washington has now:
***** Thursday, April 08, 2004 Iraqi scholar offers insight into crisis By Joyce Tang DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR jtang at media.ucla.edu
Recent insurgent activities in Iraq were discussed as Iraqi scholar Dr. Juan Cole gave a talk entitled "Shiite Islam and Politics in Post-Baathist Iraq" in Bunche Hall on Wednesday. . . .
The Iraqi crisis has had a turn for the worse in the last week.
Cole is "increasingly pessimistic" about the situation in Iraq. He does not think the planned June 30 handover of sovereignty will change anything. . . .
There are currently 10 U.S. fighting divisions in Iraq. Cole surmises that half of the United States' fighting troops are in Iraq.
"People say 'just send more troops.' Well, we don't have any troops to send," Cole said.
It is likely that a draft of American citizens will be implemented in the future to resolve the problem in Iraq, Cole said.
If the president wants to implement the draft and has a majority in Congress, a draft can become reality.
He added that a draft can't be brought up until after the presidential elections this November. . . .
Cole warns that this generation of American young adults could be known as the Iraqi generation. . . .
<http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/news/articles.asp?id=28243> *****
***** Newsweek Poll conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates. April 8-9, 2004. N=1,005 adults nationwide. MoE ± 3. . ..
"Would you support increasing the number of U.S. military personnel in Iraq, if necessary, in response to the recent attacks on coalition forces by Iraqi militants?"
Would Would Don't
Support Not Know
Support
4/8-9/04 63% 31% 6%
<http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm> ***** -- Yoshie
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/> * Calendars of Events in Columbus: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>