Summery: Universal National Service Act of 2003 - Declares that it is the obligation of every U.S. citizen, and every other person residing in the United States, between the ages of 18 and 26 to perform a two-year period of national service, unless exempted, either as a member of an active or reserve component of the armed forces or in a civilian capacity that promotes national defense.
Amends the Military Selective Service Act to authorize the military registration of females.
To anyone who will be between the ages of 18 and 26 during the next 5 years: if you think that College will exempt you from being drafted, think again. If this bill becomes a law, your induction into the military would be delayed no longer than the end of a current semester.
The SSS has already recruited 2000 "Selective Service System Local Board Members", who are -- to put it more succulently-- the people who will decide who goes to war. While they deny that they are moving towards reinstating the draft, the memory hole has recovered the SSS's erased "Defend America" website. You can be the judge.
Why isn't anyone talking about this bill? Charles Pena, senior analyst with the Washington-based Cato Institute said, "I don't think a presidential candidate would seriously propose a draft -- but an incumbent, safely in for a second term — that might be a different story."
Mr Pena continued, "When you crunch the numbers, you understand why you hear talk about a draft. You only have to look at troop levels to realize we don't have the numbers to do the job in Iraq properly."
Of course, the SSS, DOD, and Pentagon all insist that none of this has anything to do with reinstating the draft. But they haven't commented on it for a year. The situation in Iraq has gotten signifigantly worse since November 2003. I think we need to all be thinking very carefully about this.
Post a Comment