Appeal for draft board volunteers revives memories of Vietnam era

[MORTARDUDE]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/...077906,00.html

Appeal for draft board volunteers revives memories of Vietnam era

Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Wednesday November 5, 2003
The Guardian

The Pentagon has begun recruiting for local draft boards, dredging up painful memories of Vietnam era conscription at a time of deepening misgiving about America's occupation of Iraq.
In a notice posted on the defence department's Defend America website, Americans over the age of 18 and with no criminal record are invited to "serve your community and the nation" by volunteering for the boards, which decide which recruits should be sent to war.

Thirty years have passed since the draft boards last exerted their hold on America, deciding which soldiers would be sent to Vietnam. After Congress ended the draft in 1973, they have become largely dormant.

However, recruitment for the boards suggests that in some parts of the Pentagon all options are being explored in response to concerns that the US military has been stretched too thin in its occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Although Pentagon officials denied any move to reinstitute the draft, the defence department website does not shirk at outlining the potential duties for a new crop of volunteers to the draft boards.

"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," it said.

Pentagon officials were adamant that there were no plans to bring back the draft.

"That would require action from Congress and the president and they are not likely to do that unless there was something of the magnitude of the second world war that required it," said Dan Amon, a spokesman for the selective service department.

Bringing back conscription would be catastrophic for George Bush in an election year, and at a time when parallels are increasingly being drawn between Iraq and Vietnam.

However, officials were not immediately able to explain how the advertisement appeared on the site. Mr Amon said the notices were a response to the natural attrition in the ranks of the draft board, where some 80% of 11,000 places are now vacant. "It is the routine cycle of things," he said.

But it was unclear why the Pentagon decided at this time it was necessary to fill staff bodies which had played no function since the early 1980s.

The idea of a draft has never entirely disappeared, and is contemplated by Democrats and some military experts.

In the run-up to the war, the New York congressman Charles Rangel argued for a draft on the grounds that the US military was disproportionately made up of poor and black soldiers, and that it was unfair for America's underclass to go off and die in wars.

In recent weeks, there has been growing concern within the defence department about relying too heavily on members of the National Guard and army reservists.

Some 60,000 of the 130,000 US soldiers in Iraq are members of the National Guard or the reserves. An opinion poll last month in the Pentagon-funded Stars and Stripes newspaper, showed 49% threatening not to re-enlist.

The families of reservists have become increasingly vocal in their complaints after the Pentagon's decision to extend duty tours to up to 15 months.

[reeb]

Mort,

I truly and honestly dont know really how to reply to this, but I will give it my best shot.

Might not make any sense.

The Govt should have never gotten rid of the Draft.

When you reach of age 18, you had better show up and registar, and go from there.

At that time you mainly have two options:

Enlist to the bracnh you want
Get drafted into the Army.

Sit back and think, ( really you dont have to do that )

It is every MANS duty to serve this country, wheter good or bad situations.

Now the Women are in it also . GOOD...

Do Your Duty For The Term/Tour, and come home and live the rest of your lives.......

enough..........

[Desdichado]

reeb,

I got no issues with a draft provided it's used to fill up support services and not combat arms. I can't think of anything more harmful than filling the ranks with the unwilling and the unmotivated. Such troops can be more a liability than an asset if they are not properly led.

If we haven't got the arms and legs to fulfill commitments to all these little wars, maybe it's time to start closing up a few shops. If the only way Iraq is going to straighten itself out is by splitting up along ethnic lines, then it really isn't our business, is it? Why are we freaking out trying to make sure it stays one country when the indigs clearly don't want it to be?

Bring 'em home, and from Afghanistan too, and let 'em sort out their own back yards.

[skeeter]

Mort, Reeb, and Disdichado, here is something worth notice. My wife and I was at a local college yesterday, and a Army recruit officer (ncon) was there looking into who may be recruitable. He said, he was having a hard time getting recruits now due to the war in Irag. He also said, the draft probably be the cure to the situation and it was highly possible it would be in effect in early 2005. Now you know that would be after the 2004 Presidental election and GWB probablly get beat as Mort states. In my opinion, I think they should reinstate the draft.

[MORTARDUDE]

I have $ 5 that says the draft will back after the 2004 elections. Any takers ?

Larry

The draft=slavery.No more,no less.
If this Country can't survive without slave armies,it doesn't deserve to survive at all.
If the cause is just,if the Country is willing to pay reasonable wages and benefits and deserved respect,there should be no reason to consider a draft.I'll take that $5.

[MORTARDUDE]

I have gotten into 3 very heated arguments in the past 3 weeks about the National Guard and The Reserves. In all cases, non-veterans ( one being my wife who should know better... ) made totally asinine comments about those units being used in the war in Iraq. I proceeded to tell them that the horror show many of us were involved in from 1959 - 1975, became a horror show in large part because those units were not sent in first, as they were in 1898, WW 1, WW 2, Korea, and Desert Storm. I gently, at first, reminded them of what our options were with the draft. The draft is just a vague memory in most people's minds under 35....They have no clue... I sometimes wonder how the U. S. Army survived at all....

Larry

[Stick]

Draft? I don't know.
Raising your hand and swearing to "serve, protect and defend" proves that this country means something to the person that raised his or her hand. I personally would never vote for someone who had not proven to me that he or she had an allegiance to this great country. No one who refused to serve should ever be allowed to hold an elected office here. If they refused to serve or consciously avoided that service they should have no right to draw any of my tax dollars.
Recently we had a President who defied the draft when we had a draft in the armed forces of this country and he was elected to become the Commander and Chief of the very forces that he would have served with. He even refused to show any respect for those servicemen when he would not return their salute.
Draft if this country needs help. Have those that we elected decide if this country is in need of conscripted services.
Don't refuse to permit your ability to provide that help. Don't ask for or expect my vote if you do.

[skeeter]

I'm with Larry, as I think we will reinstate the draft by July 2004.
We have spread ourselves too thin with the military.. We do have enough Navy and Air Force, but the ground troops is needed. We have taken our people from their jobs and turned them into fighting men without any good basic training. I know!, some of you may have different opinions, but good fighting men come from a good training and some years of experience..
My beef with the whole matter, is we should not be in Irag, or Afghanistan fighting for something that we will never benefit from.

[BLUEHAWK]

Alot of sound advice and common sense here...

I am FOR a "draft" but not for conscription, in the sense of producing an annual coterie of young people who MUST serve at least one year (AFTER completing Basic and Tech training) in the military, either a branch of their choice or wherever they are needed, mainly in support roles.

I regard this kind of program as a useful antidote to "MEism" which is absolutely rampant among the young, two of my own four kids included. It is well known that if someone can get something (e.g. FREEDOM) for free, then they will gladly let the other guy work for it 50% of the time, if not more often than that.

I am also FOR allowing us old-timer vets to re-up past the age limit, some of us could and would gladly do support service... in uniform... the "Grandfather Battalion"... our shoulder patch would be a fierce looking guy in a beard with a cane holding thunderbolts in the other hand.

NO damn deferrments.