Returning "The Draft" to America?

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Just something to ponder...

Pentagon calls up more troops (Associated Press, published Sep 26 2001)

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon on Tuesday called to active duty an additional 1,940 members of the Reserves and National Guard from 16 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

They are in addition to more than 10,000 Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard members already called up since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The Pentagon has said it expects to call up as many as 35,500 reservists to help with recovery efforts in New York and the Pentagon and to bolster U.S. air defenses.

Tuesday's call-up included 835 members of the Naval Reserve and 300 from the Army Reserve and Army National Guard. The rest are from Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard units across the country.

On Monday, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said the U.S. campaign against terrorism will not completely eradicate it.

Although President Bush has vowed repeatedly to "rid the world of evildoers" Rumsfeld said Monday that U.S. goals were more modest.

"The only way we can defend the way of life of Americans, free people, is to not think you can defend against every conceivable terrorist everywhere in the world" Rumsfeld said. Eliminating terrorism, he added, is "setting a threshold that is too high."

Bush has said repeatedly that his intention was to "rout out and whip terrorism."

Rumsfeld spoke at a news conference Monday announcing home mortgage interest rate cuts for National Guard and Reserve soldiers called to active duty. It was part of a package of measures aimed at easing the burden on the home front for troops joining the anti-terrorism battle.

The Education Department ordered lenders to postpone the student loan payments of troops called to active duty since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It also encouraged schools to refund tuition or give comparable credit to students forced to withdraw from school because of military obligations.

Bush on Monday formally notified Congress that he had ordered "various combat equipped" and combat support forces to the Middle East and Southwest Asia in response to the terrorist attacks.

"It is likely that the American campaign against terrorism will be a lengthy one," Bush wrote in a report to satisfy the War Powers Resolution that obliges a president to notify lawmakers when military force is used.

Bush added that he may have to send other military forces to other countries during the campaign.

Rumsfeld stressed that the administration still was considering a range of options in response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He said the aim was "to create a situation where it becomes in people's interest to not support terrorists or terrorist networks and, where they exist, to attempt to make life uncomfortable for them, and expel them or turn them in."

Rumsfeld did not comment on a weekend report by the Russian Interfax news agency that three U.S. Air Force transport planes had arrived in Uzbekistan carrying about 200 U.S. troops and reconnaissance equipment. Uzbekistan shares a border with northern Afghanistan, where Osama bin Laden, the Bush administration's leading suspect in the terror attacks, is believed to be hiding.

An official in Pakistan said the United States probably would be granted access to at least four airfields in Pakistan. Three were in the southwestern part of the country and one in the northwest, and all were near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan.

Rumsfeld declined to say whether the administration planned to overthrow the Taliban religious militia that rules most of Afghanistan.

"We're intent on altering behavior," he said.

As the U.S. military buildup continued, the Air Force said it would prevent any member from retiring or otherwise leaving the service for at least 30 days.

The Navy said it would prevent about 10,500 people in 11 critical specialties from leaving the service. The Army has no immediate plans to halt departures and the Marine Corps has yet to decide whether to use it.

Rumsfeld and Mel Martinez, the secretary of housing and urban development, said Reserves and National Guardsmen who are called up and who have home mortgages with Federal Housing Authority-approved lenders will have their rates cut to a maximum of 6 percent for one year. It also gives these military members more protection against foreclosure on their home loans, and renters more protection against eviction.

© Copyright 2001 Star Trib

Senate backs additional military base closings (Associated Press Published Sep 26 2001)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Bush's base-closings initiative was endorsed by the Senate on Tuesday with strong support from Democrats. It faces a rocky future in the House.

The 53-47 vote killed an amendment to remove the base-closings provision from the $343 billion defense bill that authorizes money for the military efforts of the Defense and Energy departments for the next fiscal year, which begins Monday.

"This vote is really all about whether we're going to do business as usual, and preserve our bases in our states whether they're necessary or not, or whether we're going to have ... the most efficient military machine to fight this long, protracted struggle" against terrorism, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said during debate before the vote.

The bill calls for one round of closings in 2003, with an independent panel deciding which bases would be affected, and the Congress and president approving or rejecting the entire list. Four rounds of base-closings -- in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995 -- led to the closing or realignment of 451 installations, including 97 major facilities.

Star Trib

It appears that your chances of serving in any future combat zone seem to be about the same whether you're doing an active duty stint or you're in the Reserves or the National Guard (even Inactive Ready Reserve and "former" National Guard), I'd say. Keep your gear in the garage, and be prepared to assemble at your nearest local Holiday Inn...just like the Minutemen did!

When, does anyone suppose, are we going to switch to a national system like the Israeli's and the Swiss (to name a few) use? Universal military conscription and service required of all able bodied citizens of both sexes? Or don't we need to? Or won't that work here; ever? Or will we always have enough "volunteers"?

-- Zzzzz (asleep@the.wheel), September 26, 2001

Answers

The draft will not be reinstated, because there is now absolutely no justification for discrimination between sexes. Who wants to see their 18 year old daughter going off to learn to be a human barbed wire bridge?

-- TheyMadeTheBedTheyMustLieIn (NotNow@Cant.TooLate), September 26, 2001.

I've been meaning to ask about this so I guess this would be the thread.

Does anybody remember how they picked draft numbers back in the 1960's and early 1970's. The draft ended just before I turned 18 but I seem to remember watching the selection on T.V. when I was in high school. I recall a big drum (like bingo numbers would be drawn from) and a person drawing out dates of the year. If the first date was September 26 and if that was the date that you turned 18, your draft number was 1, next date drawn was number 2, etc. etc.

I was watching this when I was 15 or 16 and I think I remember that my birthdate that year was the third one drawn which really freaked me out. Does anybody remember this or is my memory distorted after all these years?

-- Jack Booted Thug (governmentconspiracy@NWO.com), September 26, 2001.


JBT:

Don't remember a thing about it. I was IIS through a part of the war. Then I graduated with a PhD. I was drafted. I took the tests and all of that stuff [did quite well; they insured me that I would become an officer and go into military research]. My board re-classified me as IIA since I worked for the AEC [now part of the DOE]. I find it interesting that my father was classified as IIA during the first half of the real War [WWII]. Worked on radar. He was drafted near the end and spent a lot of time in the south pacific. He liked the analogy.

I didn't do well in the lottery. By then my board had said I woudn't be drafted anyway. So long ago that I don't remember the details. I do remember the friends that went to Nam and didn't return.

Best Wishes,,,,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), September 26, 2001.


Is it just me, or is anyone else getting a flashback from Animal House when Neidermeyer is out on the lawn smoking a pipe, and Boone and Pinto walk by on the sidewalk?

-- J (Y2J@home.comm), September 26, 2001.

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