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Last 15 Articles

14-4-2004 - DRAFTED Rhymes With SHAFTED

4:47 PM GMT

Hey kids, and by kids I mean young adults in their teens, you'd better get active and fight any attempts to reinstate the draft. It's being talked about, oh yeah, and not just from Ralph Nader. Someone posted "young punks be prepared to be drafted...... check this out, especially if you are a high school male. Boy are you guys fucked! You might want to get INVOLVED as your life may depend on it." and left a URL to TheWashingtonTimes. Woot and click.

"I'm about to have a nervous breakdown, my head really hurts," blasts from Black Flag in my ears as I read the article called "Nader tells youths to brace for draft." I'm approaching that state, you know. Nothing, other than racism, can rock me like this. Not these kids, no farking way.

The article talks about Nader's announcement on his website that a draft looms and young people should be getting prepared. Then I read something that sounds too familiar, like these same words and this same issue was news a while back:

"The independent candidate noted that the federal government is filling seats on local draft boards as preparation for a reinstatement of the draft, which was eliminated in 1973."

Some checking proved he's repeating the pulled DefendAmerica page from November which caused such a stir. It began:

"Serve Your Community and the Nation
Become a Selective Service System Local Board Member

The Selective Service System wants to hear from men and women in the community who might be willing to serve as members of a local draft board. " Thanks to thememoryhole for their copy of the page.

Well Ralphie, though you're a bit late, it's good you brought it up again because the wake-up alarm is ringing loudly. The military is seriously stretched and just how are they going to enlarge it? The draft seems inevitable if things continue as they are, if the push for globalization, turning the whole world into mini-America, continues and other countries are targeted, they're going to have to pluck from the cream of the crop, ie., today's youth, with the reinstatement of the draft.. Ohhh how this angers me and fuels the passions.

The article goes on mention another voice saying the same thing about the draft.

Another third-party candidate, Libertarian Aaron Russo, has joined Mr. Nader in warning Americans that a draft is a real possibility, despite denials from all quarters of the Bush administration.

Mr. Russo, one of three front-runners vying for the Libertarian nomination, said at a party forum in Virginia last month that "the draft is a bipartisan effort between Republicans and Democrats that will start after the 2004 presidential election, for obvious reasons," a prediction he repeats on his campaign Web site."

Talk about perfect timing. An instant message popped up from 14 year old Cody whom I've written about before due to his computer problems, amazing, he wanted to ask me a question and I said I was working on something and would have to get back to him, but then I thought, hmm, he's here, he's one of those who could be targeted by a draft in 3 years.

Me: hey tell me what you think about a possible draft
Cody: if there is a draft im going to break my back, or something that makes me incapable of going to war. im not going to fight for bush's bullshit
Me: that's pretty drastic..... tell them you're gay
Cody: well if u break ur back they cant draft u
Cody: if ur gay they cant draft u?
Me: they kick gays out of the military if they're found out
Cody: i guess im officially gay

I asked for permission to use this, btw. I wouldn't want to be 14 right now and having to deal with issues like this, but they're going to have to if they don't want to be drafted.. They have a lot of power, yet many don't know they possess it being kids in an adult world. Unity, strength in numbers. They came together for Dean. "The future's in our hands", sings Living End. Hell yes. Calling Kimmie Cash. She's busy with D.I.Y., her do it yourself project but this is an issue for D.I.Y. to tackle and Cash to organize.

It may sound premature to sound the call for action, but if it doesn't start NOW it's going to be too late. There must be a Stop the Draft movement for those who, like Cody, want no part of the military or war.

Like I said, the talk has definitely begun in earnest, not just from Nader and that other guy. They're talking in Oregon on GazetteTimes in an article called "Consider possibility of ‘D' word" and it goes on about a general who spoke to the Benton County Democrats and Oregon State University Democrats:

"The news isn't good. McPeak sees Operation Iraqi Freedom as a losing proposition with no "exit strategy." His advice? We should initiate a draft in order to double the 135,000 troops in Iraq to at least 270,000.

Those in the audience 50 and older must have felt as though they were in a surreal time warp where McPeak was channeling the ghost of McGeorge Bundy, the security advisor to President Lyndon Johnson, one of the key influences on Johnson's decision to escalate the war in Vietnam.

McPeak was forthright in saying Monday in Corvallis that he thought a draft was needed. During his press conference Tuesday evening, nobody asked Bush directly if he planned to initiate a draft if re-elected. It's time we did ask, and then press for a direct answer."

There was a great comment in regards to this op-ed.

Letters: There should be no need for a draft for war in Iraq

I disagree with Retired Gen. Merrill ‘Tony' McPeak, (April 13, "Retired Air Force general: No easy Iraq solution in sight.")

There is no reason for reinstating the draft. President Bush stated that he had enough military men to get the job done, so I suggest that if he needs more men then he should send his family members and the people and their family members that voted for him.

Some choice things were written on community.nbbsc.org in February.

"If the draft was reinstated, I would hope that there would be a mass revolt against it. This is not our war. Most people recognise that the U.S is the bully and that this war is just a way to show this, a way to make the economy seem better by comparison, perhaps?

If supporting the war means going to the airport to collect the remains of your son, I think support for it would diminish quickly- if there was any real support to start with. We have already had wars like this. This war is another Vietnam. The parents of most of the people who could be drafted remember this- many were drafted themselves- and lucky enough to get the right number."

More from this site:

"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 cur-rent semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year.*

See, this is why it's so important to fight this now. This was a comment left to "young punks be prepared to be drafted."

"oman! i hope i am never drafted i wont fight for shit. freedom comes with a big price i guess. YOUR LIFE. fuck ill move to Canada." Nope, not a chance of that.

Brilliant, a site exists called "Citizens Against the Reinstatement of the Draft". Click here to sign the petition which reads:

We are OPPOSED to the DRAFT. Conscription is a violation of human rights, creates the escalation of war, the sacrifice of lives, and is not necessary. A volunteer military force has been proven to work. Service people are treated better, with more incentives and benefits than when a draft is in force. What is needed in the war against terrorism is not more brute force, but more intelligence, and in humanitarian service to end the root causes of terrorism: hopelessness, poverty, ignorance, and fear. Therefore we demand that no DRAFT be mandated, and all bills to reinstate the draft be dismissed."

This is for parents of students in high school. The military wants information on your child and you have the right to say no. Please, please, for their sake, deny this. From Wired, December, 2002. Yep, old, but it contains some crucial information.

"The No Child Left Behind law, signed last January, pumps billions into education but also gives military recruiters access to the names, addresses and phone numbers of students in 22,000 schools. The law also says that schools must give the military the same access to their campuses that businesses and college recruiters enjoy.

Students and parents who oppose the law can keep their information from being turned over to the military, but they must sign and return an "opt-out" form.

Federal law already requires men to register with the Selective Service within 30 days of turning 18. The new law, however, enables the Pentagon to reach potential recruits when they are 15 or 16."

Get active, kids. Your future is up to you! More information is available here. It's a must read if you don't want the name of this changed to "No child left alive."

Oh, be sure to check out the Selective Service's site and read what is proposed for 2004. Click here. Oooh this pisses me off as much as Rangel's bill to reinstate the draft.

"Sarge, I'm only eighteen, I got a ruptured spleen
And I always carry a purse
I got eyes like a bat, my feet are flat, and my asthma's
getting worse
O think of my career, my sweetheart dear, and my poor old
invalid aunt
Besides, I ain't no fool, I'm a goin' to school, and I'm
working in a defense plant."

-- Phil Ochs (Draft Dodger Rag)

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