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Now it's officially out of the bag, Between
the troops that are not going to re-enlist, lower recruitment,
and the need for more troops, not to mention the dead and
several thousand wounded and the troops that will not be asked
to redeploy a second time, by the middle of 2005, it's looking
like Bush is going to re-activate the DRAFT!
This
official Selective Service site clearly says that $28 million
is being spent next year to have the draft ready for
activation within 75 days by March 31, 2005, conveniently
AFTER the 2004 election. The scrubbed Draft Board recruitment
ad (the first in decades), was just the tip of the following
$28 million iceberg:
http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html
Strategic
Goal 1: Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the
Manpower Delivery Systems (Projected allocation for FY 2004 –
$7,942,000)
Strategic Goal 2: Improve overall
Registration Compliance and Service to the Public (Projected
allocation FY 2004 – $8,769,000)
Strategic Goal 3:
Enhance external and internal customer service
(Projected
allocation for FY 2004 – $10,624,000)
Strategic Goal 4:
Enhance the system which guarantees that each conscientious
objector is properly classified, placed, and
monitored.(Projected allocation for FY 2004 –
$955,000)
Total=$28,290,000
An annual
report providing the results of the implementation of these
performance
measures will be submitted by March 31, 2005.
This report will address attained versus
planned levels of
performance, explain unattained target levels, and identify
where and
how strategies, performance goals, and
performance indicators should be changed to
ensure that the
SSS reaches its strategic and annual goals and
objectives.
tie that paragraph to this
one:
Strategic Objective 1.2: Ensure a mobilization
infrastructure of 56 State Headquarters,
442 Area Offices
and 1,980 Local Boards are operational within 75 days of an
authorized
return to conscription.
They are
reducing draft activation time to 75 days from the current 7-8
months. The first draft lottery according to this official
document could be June 15, 2005.
Question: why does a
dormant agancy need to be ready to answer all correspondence
in 10 days?
They said "no plans" yet they are
conducting nation-wide exercises far beyond what is needed for
a dormant agency. This is really a plan to get the whole
system ready for activation within the 75 days proscribed,
although Congress must authorize the actual activation. They
are trying to stop this discussion by saying "no plans",
making everybody think it's off the table. They just mean Bush
has "no plans" to ask Congress at this time. Yet on April 1,
2005, according to this he could ask for activation and have
it in 75 days.
Also draft boards reported being
"unexpectedly" asked during summer training sessions to fill
the Board vacancies (salon.com from a Philly draft Board
member)
Also Rumsfeld's leaked memo said "long hard
slog" and "we have not made any truly bold moves yet"--and
that was after Iraq and Afghanistan.
They are even
making sure the Alternative Service is all exercised and ready
to go within 75 days of March 31, 2005.
This is called
Performance improvement but it looks exactly like a readiness
action. They are bringing the whole system up to 90% +
operational capability after 30 years of dormancy. Obviously,
with a war on terror this could be considered prudent
(although you don't need a draft to catch Osama Bin Laden and
several thousand al-Queadas). Then why did they scrub the
Draft Board notice? Why not come say out front we are filling
the Draft Boards and gearing up the system in case the
President needs it to fight the war on terror?
Congress
would of course have to approve, supposedly after a Joint
Session by the President where he could easily say "we are not
going to cut and run" (same was said in Vietnam). By March 31,
2005, the draft may only be 75 days away.
This change
the dynamics of this issue, because people will say OK, Bush
is getting the draft ready by June 15, 2005 if we need it. Now
do I trust him or the Democrat more to not reinstate, given
Iraq and PNAC?
"those astonishing electronic computers
which...enhance the essential (and too little noted) factor of
the 'speed of thought'...As in the case of all organisms
preceding it, but on an immense scale, humanity is in the
process of 'cerebralising' itself." - Teilhard de Chardin,
Future of Man, 1947 essay |
