http://congress.org/congressorg/issues/ale...=ua_congressorg QUOTE Pending Draft Legislation Targeted for Spring 2005 The Draft will Start in June 2005 There is pending legislation in the House and Senate (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can begin at early as Spring 2005 -- just after the 2004 presidential election. The administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections, so our action on this is needed immediately. $28 million has been added to the 2004 Selective Service System (SSS) budget to prepare for a military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system, which has lain dormant for decades, is ready for activation. Please see website: www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html to view the sss annual performance plan - fiscal year 2004. The pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide.. Though this is an unpopular election year topic, military experts and influential members of congress are suggesting that if Rumsfeld's prediction of a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan [and a permanent state of war on "terrorism"] proves accurate, the U.S. may have no choice but to draft. Congress brought twin bills, S. 89 and HR 163 forward this year, http://www.hslda.org/legislation/na...s89/default.asp entitled the Universal National Service Act of 2003, "to provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons [age 18--26] in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes." These active bills currently sit in the committee on armed services. Dodging the draft will be more difficult than those from the Vietnam era. College and Canada will not be options. In December 2001, Canada and the U.S. signed a "smart border declaration," which could be used to keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by Canada's minister of foreign affairs, John Manley, and U.S. Homeland Security director, Tom Ridge, the declaration involves a 30-point plan which implements, among other things, a "pre-clearance agreement" of people entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at making the draft more equitable along gender and class lines also eliminates higher education as a shelter. Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year. Even those voters who currently support US actions abroad may still object to this move, knowing their own children or grandchildren will not have a say about whether to fight. Not that it should make a difference, but this plan, among other things, eliminates higher education as a shelter and includes women in the draft. The public has a right to air their opinions about such an important decision. Please send this on to all the friends, parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents, and cousins that you know. Let your children know too -- it's their future, and they can be a powerful voice for change! Please also contact your representatives to ask them why they aren't telling their constituents about these bills -- and contact newspapers and other media outlets to ask them why they're not covering this important story.
#### that man. I'm sorry, but I'm gonna be truthful. ... ... ... I'm not dying for 2.7 billion people that I don't even know. There are a very few select people I would die for, and Bush...he's not one of them.
my brother got a selective service letter a while back but he didnt have to go because were from canada and we never got american citizenship.
This is one of the most ridiculous bills I've seen in my time. A draft for a war we're winning? What's the deal? We've beaten the country we've meaninglessly invaded. I guess we'll go invade another country and send new recruits to die there, too. I'm planning on joining the Marines, for no political reason, just because I may enjoy the experience (even though it may cost my life). Even now, without the draft, we're a pseudo-police nation and we present this new bill, which the US decides it wants to be a nation of nothing but drafted recruits, dying outside their will with a strive for power. The US suffers one terrorist attack, and we strike back with full force against any nation that we think will oppose us. Bush even thinks that we are above the United Nations, due to his post-war acquisitions of "Let us in, or we'll let ourselves in" when the United Nations denied that Iraq had any weapons of mass destruction, the United States insisted that Iraq was operational with this program. The background of this country is what I love, not the modern era.
Even if I was drafted, the only thing I could do is sit behind a computer. I have a heart murmur and I wear glasses, so that takes me off the battlefield right off the bat.
*hugs Canada too* I love our country. As for this law...I honestly don't know what to say other than it's one of the most ridiculous things I've heard of.
Better move here quick, because the possible draft will start in Spring '05. [/b][/quote] How old do you have to be? edit: Nevermind. I officially don't care anymore. As only male child in the family, I can not be drafted. The only way I'll get into the millitary is to enlist, and I'll tell you all there's no way in hell that will happen.
*hugs Canada too* I love our country. As for this law...I honestly don't know what to say other than it's one of the most ridiculous things I've heard of. [/b][/quote] the dinosour in your signature looks like nessie the lochness monster /offtopic