I have said before that by all accounts the preservation of U.S. dominance in the world is ultimately dependent on seizing control of this region [ed: the Middle East]. This is not an irrational war. It is an icily rational war, given that the alternative is to relinquish control of the world's economic future – which would be disastrous for political elites in the United States, because our entire economy, under their direction, is now a house of cards built on an international treasury-bill standard that forces the rest of the world to give loans to the U.S. that it never intends to pay back. Control of the world's peaking energy supply is absolutely essential for the U.S. state to maintain its economic arm-lock on China and Europe to enforce their continued complicity in this international extortion racket.
The Bush administration has not the slightest intention of ever leaving Iraq.
Given that this is the prime directive, Donald Rumsfeld's accounting and the political risks associated with Selective Service may both have to be overlooked, and in the not-too-distant future.
...The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940. While there are certainly marked differences between the Bush administration and the Roosevelt administration, there was one thing they had in common. Each was bent on entering a war that was initially very unpopular. We all know the story of George W. Bush and his Neocon coterie. The story of Roosevelt, however, has been mythologized beyond recognition. In fact, he ordered repeated provocations of Hitler by sinking German ships and violating neutrality with the Lend-Lease Act, but Hitler didn't bite. He finally slapped an oil embargo on Japan, forcing Japan to look to Indonesia for its petroleum needs, which meant neutralizing the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. There is quite credible evidence, in fact, that Roosevelt had foreknowledge of the impending attack and obstructed information to his military commanders that might have stopped it.
Sound familiar?
...“Draft” is not a word the Bush administration wants to introduce into election year discourse. But if Republican district gerrymandering, Rove-sleaze politics like the current slanders being circulated on the internet against John Kerry by attack-dog front-groups like Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, and Diebold voting systems come through… and Bush is re-elected… it's a lame duck administration. That means accountability falls to zero.
...HOW THE DRAFT WILL WORK
A few things will be the same if the draft comes back and a few things will be different.
A birthday lottery will still be used to select draftees. Every day of the year is dropped into a hopper, and then they are drawn at random. (Republicans might be able to fix this so certain birthdays go to the end of the line. If they can hijack elections, surely they can fix a lottery.) During Vietnam, you were in the primary selection group if you were between 18 and 25 years old. Now the primary group is 20-years-old, then each year thereafter is assigned a lower priority. This does a couple of things. It stops the draft of 18 and 19-year-olds, which will lower anxiety and resistance from families. It also significantly reduces the draft-anxiety period for potential conscripts. Deferments have been tightened, because the college exception used by wealthy families to evade the draft in Vietnam exposed class conflicts. Now, deferments can only last until the end of a semester, and if the draftee passes his 21st birthday in school he will still be drafted if his birthday was selected for conscription during his 20th year. Seniors can be postponed until the end of the academic year, but the same rule pertains, and the lad will be inducted if his number came up. (Women are still exempt from conscription.)
First priority also goes according to a fitness classification, 1-A being the highest. The main classifications are:
* [1-A] - available immediately for military service;
* [1-C] Members of the Armed Forces of the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Public Health Service;
* [1-D-D] Deferment of Certain Members of a Reserve Component or Students Taking Military Training;
* [1-D-E] Exemption of Certain Members of a Reserve Component or Student Taking Military Training;
* [1-O] Conscientious Objector- conscientiously opposed to both types (combatant and non-combatant) of military training and service - fulfills his service obligation as a civilian alternative service worker;
* [1-A-O] Conscientious Objector - conscientiously opposed to training and military service requiring the use of arms - fulfills his service obligation in a noncombatant position within the military;
* [1-O-S] Conscientious Objectors to All Military Service (Separated from Military Service);
* [2-D] Ministerial Students - deferred from military service;
* [3-A] Hardship Deferment - deferred from military service because service would cause hardship upon his family;
* [4-A] Registrant Who Has Completed Military Service;
* [4-A-A] Registrant Who Has Performed Military Service for a Foreign Nation;
* [4-B] Official Deferred by Law;
* [4-C] Alien or Dual National;
* [4-C] Alien or Dual National - sometimes exempt from military service;
* [4-D] Ministers of Religion - exempted from military service;
* [4-T] Treaty Alien;
* [4-G] Registrant Exempted from Service Because of the Death of His Parent or Sibling While Serving in the Armed Forces or Whose Parent or Sibling is in a Captured or Missing in Action Status;
* [4-F] Registrant Not Acceptable for Military Service.
Exemptions, aside from the college postponements above, also include service academies and ROTC.
...But before readers start counseling their 19-year-olds to learn French and start drinking Moosehead beer in anticipation of an extended Canadian vacation, they need to review the “Smart Border Declaration” (SBD), signed in December 2001 between the United States and its frosty northern neighbor....The SBD was designed to “keep terrorists out” of the U.S., but it also serves to keep U.S. citizens in the U.S. with “pre-clearance agreements,” “advance passenger notifications,” shared databases, and an agreement from Canada to extradite Selective Service scofflaws. Sweden, long a haven for draft evaders with an aptitude for foreign languages, also redesigned its laws to prohibit asylum in 1995.
The Bush administration has not the slightest intention of ever leaving Iraq.
Given that this is the prime directive, Donald Rumsfeld's accounting and the political risks associated with Selective Service may both have to be overlooked, and in the not-too-distant future.
...The Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 was signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1940. While there are certainly marked differences between the Bush administration and the Roosevelt administration, there was one thing they had in common. Each was bent on entering a war that was initially very unpopular. We all know the story of George W. Bush and his Neocon coterie. The story of Roosevelt, however, has been mythologized beyond recognition. In fact, he ordered repeated provocations of Hitler by sinking German ships and violating neutrality with the Lend-Lease Act, but Hitler didn't bite. He finally slapped an oil embargo on Japan, forcing Japan to look to Indonesia for its petroleum needs, which meant neutralizing the American fleet at Pearl Harbor. There is quite credible evidence, in fact, that Roosevelt had foreknowledge of the impending attack and obstructed information to his military commanders that might have stopped it.
Sound familiar?
...“Draft” is not a word the Bush administration wants to introduce into election year discourse. But if Republican district gerrymandering, Rove-sleaze politics like the current slanders being circulated on the internet against John Kerry by attack-dog front-groups like Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry, and Diebold voting systems come through… and Bush is re-elected… it's a lame duck administration. That means accountability falls to zero.
...HOW THE DRAFT WILL WORK
A few things will be the same if the draft comes back and a few things will be different.
A birthday lottery will still be used to select draftees. Every day of the year is dropped into a hopper, and then they are drawn at random. (Republicans might be able to fix this so certain birthdays go to the end of the line. If they can hijack elections, surely they can fix a lottery.) During Vietnam, you were in the primary selection group if you were between 18 and 25 years old. Now the primary group is 20-years-old, then each year thereafter is assigned a lower priority. This does a couple of things. It stops the draft of 18 and 19-year-olds, which will lower anxiety and resistance from families. It also significantly reduces the draft-anxiety period for potential conscripts. Deferments have been tightened, because the college exception used by wealthy families to evade the draft in Vietnam exposed class conflicts. Now, deferments can only last until the end of a semester, and if the draftee passes his 21st birthday in school he will still be drafted if his birthday was selected for conscription during his 20th year. Seniors can be postponed until the end of the academic year, but the same rule pertains, and the lad will be inducted if his number came up. (Women are still exempt from conscription.)
First priority also goes according to a fitness classification, 1-A being the highest. The main classifications are:
* [1-A] - available immediately for military service;
* [1-C] Members of the Armed Forces of the United States, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or the Public Health Service;
* [1-D-D] Deferment of Certain Members of a Reserve Component or Students Taking Military Training;
* [1-D-E] Exemption of Certain Members of a Reserve Component or Student Taking Military Training;
* [1-O] Conscientious Objector- conscientiously opposed to both types (combatant and non-combatant) of military training and service - fulfills his service obligation as a civilian alternative service worker;
* [1-A-O] Conscientious Objector - conscientiously opposed to training and military service requiring the use of arms - fulfills his service obligation in a noncombatant position within the military;
* [1-O-S] Conscientious Objectors to All Military Service (Separated from Military Service);
* [2-D] Ministerial Students - deferred from military service;
* [3-A] Hardship Deferment - deferred from military service because service would cause hardship upon his family;
* [4-A] Registrant Who Has Completed Military Service;
* [4-A-A] Registrant Who Has Performed Military Service for a Foreign Nation;
* [4-B] Official Deferred by Law;
* [4-C] Alien or Dual National;
* [4-C] Alien or Dual National - sometimes exempt from military service;
* [4-D] Ministers of Religion - exempted from military service;
* [4-T] Treaty Alien;
* [4-G] Registrant Exempted from Service Because of the Death of His Parent or Sibling While Serving in the Armed Forces or Whose Parent or Sibling is in a Captured or Missing in Action Status;
* [4-F] Registrant Not Acceptable for Military Service.
Exemptions, aside from the college postponements above, also include service academies and ROTC.
...But before readers start counseling their 19-year-olds to learn French and start drinking Moosehead beer in anticipation of an extended Canadian vacation, they need to review the “Smart Border Declaration” (SBD), signed in December 2001 between the United States and its frosty northern neighbor....The SBD was designed to “keep terrorists out” of the U.S., but it also serves to keep U.S. citizens in the U.S. with “pre-clearance agreements,” “advance passenger notifications,” shared databases, and an agreement from Canada to extradite Selective Service scofflaws. Sweden, long a haven for draft evaders with an aptitude for foreign languages, also redesigned its laws to prohibit asylum in 1995.
More...
I have a collection of links to sites on my web page here to help anyone interested in avoiding the draft.
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