More on the draft

Following up my earlier post...

The Toronto Star has an article today about the possibility of a new U.S. military draft, citing a Dartmouth professor's response to the DoD website ad.

"This is significant," said Ned Lebow, a presidential scholar at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and former professor of strategy at the National War College in Washington.

"What the department of defence is doing is creating the infrastructure to make the draft a viable option should the administration wish to go this route."

He said it is the first public call to reconstitute draft boards since the compulsory draft was abolished in 1973.

Well, Professor Lebow is wrong. I remember some time back just after 9/11 an e-mail I received talking about some local newspapers quietly running similar ads. I don't recall any particulars, and I have long since dumped the e-mail.

With my limited search skills, however, I was able to locate this website - Women Against Military Madness reporting in May 2000 that Wisconsin was seeking volunteers to serve on draft boards. That's May 2000. What were they expecting?

WAMM member Florence Heist, of Bayfield, WI, mailed a copy of an article advertising the need for Selective Service board members in Wisconsin. They are seeking volunteers to serve on local draft boards should a draft become necessary.

...Attempts to reduce or eliminate funding for the Selective Service program are moving closer to realization every year. However, in an era when unemployment and enlistment are low, it is difficult to predict how hard the Pentagon might fight for the means to conscript.

Florence Heist writes, "There is really only one reason for a military draft. It is an expansion of our current drug war in South America!"

Or maybe they were already anticipating Afghanistan...Iraq?