BRING BACK THE DRAFT?

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http://www.geocities.com/northstarzone/DRAFT.html

 

BRING BACK THE DRAFT?

 

Senator Chuck Hagel has come out publicly calling for a return to the

draft. The soldiers in Iraq have been kept well beyond their original

tour of duty. Fewer are willing to stroll into the local recruitment

center and sign up to walk into the latest NWO meat-grinder, so now

they want to make it mandatory. And if you think your safe from the

draft because your over 35, think again. One of the plans calls for a

mandatory draft for all able bodied adults up to the age of 49! Some

would be used in civilian projects (perhaps constructing the new

detainment facilities for those deemed " terrorists " among us). Others

would be used overseas as " peacekeepers " , much like those currently

making a desolate war zone of Iraq. As more news surfaces about how

the war in Iraq will go on for years and years, and that we will be

needing more troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, the rumblings about

reinstating the draft continue to intensify.

 

Hagel told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee all US citizens know

exactly what was at stake in the occupied country. " Why shouldn't we

ask all of our citizens to bear some responsibility and pay some

price? " Hagel said, even if that price meant death.

 

It is my belief that every politician arguing in favor of the draft

should be the first one sent to a front line combat unit if a draft

should ever be reinstated. The senator also argued that restoring

compulsory military service would force " our citizens to understand

the intensity and depth of challenges we face " . The call to consider

imposing a draft comes just days after the Pentagon moved to extend

the missions of about 20,000 of the 135,000 US troops in Iraq. The

US-led occupation forces were put under further strain by the

announcement by Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic that they

would withdraw their military contingents from Iraq.

 

Even staunch supporters of US occupation, such as Australia, have less

than 500 troops stationed in Iraq and rule out the possibility of

sending any more. Moreover, opposition parties in Australia have vowed

to pull troops out of Iraq should they win the general election this

year. Meanwhile, witnesses at the hearing, including academics and

former US officials, expressed concern about increasing resistance in

Iraq this month - the bloodiest yet for US troops. " I think it's clear

that pressures in Iraq have reached the boiling point, " said Samuel

Berger, national security adviser during the Clinton administration,

who called for an increase in troops there.

 

" Even in Vietnam, as difficult as it was there, you knew from the time

you hit the ground to the time you returned it was one year -- whereas

with this [iraq war] it's really up in the air. " -- an American

soldier discussing Pentagon decisions that keep soldiers in the field

against their will even after they've served their tours of duty.

Donald Rumsfeld has said that US troops scheduled to leave Iraq in the

next few weeks might instead be forbidden to leave. So soldiers who

have no doubt been counting down the days to when they can go home are

now in limbo. The Army, meanwhile, has prepared new so-called

" stop-loss " orders that forbid thousands from leaving the service even

after they've put in their agreed time.

 

Britain's The Guardian newspaper also reports that the Pentagon,

desperate for warm bodies, " is sending unfit soldiers back to Iraq

long before they are ready to serve again. " The Guardian cites many

examples. This amounts to an unannounced military draft: You have men

who haven't volunteered to serve and who don't want to serve being

ordered to a war zone. That's a draft. In some ways, it's even a less

fair draft than if Rumsfeld came for, say, me: Why should men who have

already served voluntarily in highly dangerous duty be singled out as

the only victims for conscription? (Especially when, to hear The

Guardian tell it, some of them are even wounded!)

 

Now, many of these soldiers would re-enlist if asked and if offered

real incentives. But see, we've frittered away all of the public's

money on politically-connected war-profiteering. So, not only is the

government unwilling to pony up for attractive re-enlistment bonuses

-- so much easier just to enslave people than to pay them! -- it's

also left us running short on other promises to men in uniform. For

example, The Associated Press reports from Oregon, " National Guardsmen

returning from duty in Iraq are finding that the funds promised them

for tuition reimbursement are in short supply. The federal program

that is supposed to defray up to 75 percent of their college expenses

is short of funds ... "

 

One Staff Sergeant, discussing the injustice of a stop-loss order,

laid it out this way to The Washington Post, " An enlistment contract

has two parties, yet only the government is allowed to violate the

contract; I am not. " Funny.

 

I wonder why he didn't just " work it out with the military " to leave.

He must have missed " Meet the Press " in February, when George W. Bush

discussed his own Vietnam-era days serving, or not, with the National

Guard:

 

Russert: You did -- were allowed to leave eight months before your

term expired. Was there a reason?

President Bush: Right. Well, I was going to Harvard Business School

and worked it out with the military.

 

Peter DeFazio has introduced a bill in the House that would give an

extra $500 a month to soldiers who are forced to stay in uniform by

" stop-loss. " " The federal government is failing to honor the contracts

it has signed with tens of thousands of men and women serving in the

U.S. military, " says DeFazio. " This amounts to an involuntary draft.

It hurts troop morale. And it borders on breach of contract. ... While

there may be military rationale, I believe that the federal government

should compensate our men and women in uniform when the Pentagon

ignores the terms of a contract it signs. "

 

A humble prediction: This bill will be thrown aside by the Washington

elite on grounds that you should never spend a dollar on someone

putting their life on the line fighting their dirty little wars when

they can spend it instead on themselves, or Halliburton. They can

afford to ship billions of our hard earned dollars to countless

corrupt dictatorships around the world, but they won't give one red

cent to these troops, many of whom were tricked into fighting these

globalist wars unknowingly and reluctantly.

 

A presidential scholar at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and

former professor of strategy at the National War College in

Washington, Ned Lebow, says: " 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. The U.S. Department of Defense Web site

was recently seeking applicants for local draft boards. The headline

on the posting read: " Serve Your Community and the Nation. Become a

Selective Service System Local Board Member. A spokesman for the

Defense Department who declined to identify himself said the posting

was taken down after several people called expressing concern. " But I

checked again and it's still there.

 

Most military experts say it is unlikely that a return to conscription

would occur before the November 2004 presidential election, mainly

because even Bush & company realize it would be political suicide. But

if the guerrilla war in Iraq continues to get worse, the day after

that election, whoever the president is, could well be forced to

decide on either a phased withdrawal or escalation--and a national

call-up.

 

Faced with the same choices in Southeast Asia, Presidents Lyndon

Johnson and Richard Nixon both chose escalation over withdrawal. What

Bush or Kerry, faced with that choice will do is obvious, unless more

outrage is shown on the part of the American people. Go to IRC,

forums, start threads, speak out loudly, take it to the streets, do

whatever it takes.