While you were sleeping…
It was just a couple of weeks back that the warning flags went up, and now Democratic Underground appears to be first to the web with the news (link via TalkLeft):
Read this official budget carefully and you will see that Bush is gearing up the draft—there is no longer any doubt about it. Selective Service must report to Bush on March 31, 2005, that the system is ready for activation within 75 days. So on June 15, 2005, expect the announcement that the first draft lottery since Vietnam will be held for 20 year-olds.
The primary source for Democratic Underground’s story?
The Selective Service’s own website, itself.
The Selective Service lists its four strategic goals for the period ahead:
- Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the manpower delivery systems
- Enhance external and internal customer service
- Improve overall registration compliance and service to the public
- Enhance the system which guarantees that each conscientious objector is properly classified, placed, and monitored
Ouch. See, this is what happens when you don’t press a point. When the Pentagon was issuing statements that it had “no contingency plan” to reinstate the draft, shouldn’t somebody have asked whether that meant it was their intention all along, then? After all, a contingency plan means that it’s a plan you can fall back on. If it was their plan all along to reinstate the draft without trying anything else, first, then they told the truth – they had no such contingency plan.
But even more interesting is the date on which Bush wants the report. March 31, 2005.
Just like his attempts to get the Patriot Act renewed, Bush is specifically planning on four more years – not hoping for them, not campaigning for them, but planning. As far as he’s concerned, they’re already in the bag.
I think it’s about time he should repack his bags and plan for a long retirement.
See you at the voting booth in 2004…
November 18th, 2003 at 8:25 am
Bloody fair-mindedness strikes again, darn it! And again I find myself defending Bush! Darn it!
It would be irresponsible of him (or any other president) not to plan past the election.
You’re right, though… that he’s planning a draft is too scary.
November 18th, 2003 at 8:36 am
Hey, if our young Americans don’t want to be drafted, they can just have their rich, politically connected daddies get them cushy jobs in the National Guard from which they can go AWOL when it’s convenient. Isn’t that, after all, the American way?