---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Wednesday, March 17, 2004 2:10 PM -0800
From: Alan Graf <peopleslawyer-r9/a4iiAUwJeoWH0uzbU5w@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: nlg-list-jNMiF0OvOZ83uPMLIKxrzw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
NLGMassDefense@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: The draft is back
Information I just recieved:
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. Details and links follow.
Even those voters who currently support U.S. 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
-- also crossing into Canada has already been made very difficult.)
ACTIONS, ACTIONS, ACTIONS:
Please send this on to all the parents and teachers you know, and all
the aunts and uncles, grandparents, godparents.... And let your children
know -- it's their future, and they can be a powerful voice for change!
Please also write to your representatives to ask them why they aren't
telling their constituents about these bills -- and write to newspapers
and other media outlets to ask them why they're not covering this
important story.
*********
The DRAFT
$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. SSS 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.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5146.htm
www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html
Congress brought twin bills, S. 89 and H.R. 163 forward this year,
www.hslda.org/Legislation/National/2003/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
remember. College and Canada will not be options. In December 2001,
Canada and the US 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 US Homeland Security Director, Gov.
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.
Alan Graf
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