June 15, 2005 will be the first DRAFT LOTTERY of 20 year-olds, IMHO.
http://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/story.asp?ID=4188<snip>
They stopped the draft when I was 10; we lost the war two years later. I never had to resolve the terrible dilemma that drove those kids on the wanted posters to flee to Canada. Were they pacifists or were they wimps? Everyone knew that Vietnam wasn't winnable. Was it wrong to refuse to die for nothing, or was it good sense? Was defending the corrupt South Vietnamese regime of President Nguyen Van Thieu "fighting for your country"? Even if a war was both winnable and moral -- World War II, say -- was forcing a human being to risk death and dismemberment a form of slavery?
War is the riskiest and gravest endeavor that can be undertaken by a nation-state. Defensive combat, the struggle for self-preservation, is the only kind of war a just and prudent nation may wage. Unless an overwhelming majority of a country's citizens agree that a war is necessary -- a real war like Iraq or Vietnam, not a lark like Grenada or Panama -- it cannot be won. And a country united by the consensus that it must fight doesn't need a draft. Citizens will line up to volunteer.
In early November, the Pentagon website DefendAmerica.mil put out a call for applicants willing to serve on Selective Service System draft boards. "Serve Your Community and the Nation -- Become a Selective Service System Local Board Member," the ad read. "If a military draft becomes necessary, approximately 2,000 local and appeal boards throughout America would decide which young men who submit a claim receive deferments, postponements or exemptions from military service, based on federal guidelines."
Noting that the SSS hopes to fill its 8,000 draft board slots by spring 2005, many journalists are wondering aloud whether the Bush administration plans to reinstate forced conscription of 18-to-26-year-olds after the election, just on time for invasions of Iran, Syria and/or North Korea.
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Here is the Draft Readiness Plan:
http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.htmlAnd the new 2003 "Register" magazine that explains the new Special Skills DRAFT which will induct computer specialists, linguists and engineers and any other job DoD requests, age 20 to 44, man or woman! Also the Health Care DRAFT which will force 3.4 million men and women 20 to 44 to register at the local PO.
http://www.sss.gov/PDFs/NovDec2003-Register.pdf (Page 6)
BUSH '04 = DRAFT '05