I was just informed by a neighbor of S.89, a bill proposing to reinstate the draft.
A bill to provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons 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.
The man who is sponsoring this is a democrat, which I find to be very suprising. John Edwards promised no military draft if John Kerry is elected. The bill was submitted almost two years ago, which is even more scarry because the “need” for a draft has only increased them with so many dead americans in Iraq. I suppose it is very likely that this senetor has had a change of heart by now, but if not how can we trust that anything a democrat proposes will actually be done if other democrats will vote it down?
I do not know anything about the typical amount of time it takes for a bill to be presented infront of congress, is a year a long time for a bill to sit not doing anything? Perhaps someone is waiting until after the election? Old dead news by now? I don’t know.
I look forward to hearing people’s comments on this. If Bush won the November election would his administration risk a draft? What do you think would happen to the country if they did? I have a feeling that republicans loosing support would be nothing compared to all the other potential problems it would cause with so many people overseas.
Update - 2004/09/29
This website allows you to recieve notifications of changes regarding to this (and any other) bill, as well as alot of other intresting information.
MSNBC is running an article describing how the SSS continues to insist they are not secretly planning a draft.
Two things in the article caught my eye…
“Congressman Charles Rangel, D-New York, admits he introduced his bill, in part, as a protest to the war in Iraq.”
The bill they are reffering to is H.R. 163, a bill identical to S.89. What the hell kind of protest is that?
“I want to make it clear. This war is stupid, it is unnecessary,” says Rep. Rangel.
No, no, he’s right. It would be unfair if only some americans got to experience the stupidness first hand, best to force everyone.
What the hell is wrong with people?
Update - 2004/09/26
Here’s another article I found. Apparently I’m not the only concerned citizen, but the SSS insists it’s all just a rumor.
Update - 2004/09/24:
Here are two articles that were just published regarding the topic.
7 Comments
This bill scares the crap out of me and it has since the first time I heard of it. There are no exemptions for college students or anything, but there is a conscientious objector clause. We should talk about it sometime.
If you feel like draft dodging, we’ve got a spare room…
Well, this legislation was well introduced, and had been talked about several times since or even before the Iraqi-war. The likelyhood of such a legislation being passed, and signed is very unlikely. Unless there was a major need, I highly see the nation rallying behind this piece of legislation. I wonder if anyone would take the time, and look up the sponser/co sponser, and current form of the legislation in the hopper. That’ll give a more reassurance.
After poking around, the bill has not had any action on it since it was introducted into committee, which makes it extremely unlikely to come up again. (Dead in committee).
Also from the selective service website (www.sss.gov - for those males turning 18, and live in the USA)
“Notwithstanding recent stories in the news media and on the Internet, Selective Service is not getting ready to conduct a draft for the U.S. Armed Forces — either with a special skills or regular draft. Rather, the Agency remains prepared to manage a draft if and when the President and the Congress so direct. This responsibility has been ongoing since 1980 and is nothing new. Further, both the President and the Secretary of Defense have stated on more than one occasion that there is no need for a draft for the War on Terrorism or any likely contingency, such as Iraq. Additionally, the Congress has not acted on any proposed legislation to reinstate a draft. Therefore, Selective Service continues to refine its plans to be prepared as is required by law, and to register young men who are ages 18 through 25.”
It seems that the United States are considering a “draft” to ensure that everyone has the right to “national service”, as stated..
A bill to provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons in the United States, including wom…
As usual, whatever happens in US will usually be duplicated in Australia.
Fast forward 3 years,
You get drafted.. You will probably NOT be over in iraq, but rather doing homeland defense, walking around kicking tyres interrogating innocent terrorists.
You know how fun that will be.
We had been discussing this topic today in my history class; it’s curious to note, that we’d be thinking if a draft were to occur, it’d more or less be occupying, err… help securing the land(s) [ie: iraq]. However, I want to know where did the so called “alliance” go; and why does the US have to do everything.. once again [ie: UN troops are mostly American forces].
hMm..