Stinky Bush wants Stinky Draft

[blueimac540c]

I feel sorry for all the eighteen through twenty-two year old males in
America. It's going to be rough for them in the not too distant future. The
president most of them didn't vote for -- in fact, the president most of us
didn't vote for, regardless of age -- is going to wage numerous wars in the
not too distant future and these wars will need soldiers, more soldiers than
Bush has on hand.

http://www.SmirkingChimp.com/article.php?sid=9185

Kurt Nimmo: 'Resist the (coming) draft'

I feel sorry for all the eighteen through twenty-two year old males in America. It's going to be rough for them in the not too distant future. The president most of them didn't vote for -- in fact, the president most of us didn't vote for, regardless of age -- is going to wage numerous wars in the not too distant future and these wars will need soldiers, more soldiers than Bush has on hand.

Of course, for the moment, Bush and his junta partisans in the Senate and House say they have no interest in the draft. In the short term they have enough soldiers to do what they need to do -- which is to say hunt down Taliban stragglers in Afghanistan and bomb the hell out of Iraq. But if too many brushfires break out -- and they certainly will soon after Bush commences the relentless saturation bombing of Iraq -- the Empire's going to need more kids fresh out of high school or yanked out of college or those simply hanging out not doing much of anything, as teenagers are often wont to do. Bush will need all of them -- or most of them, anyway, especially if they are middle class or lower middle class or just plain poor. Rich kids, of course, will be gently shunted off to the National Guard -- as was our illustrious president (who went AWOL and nobody was the wiser).

If you think a brand spanking new draft is unlikely, consider the Universal Military Training and Service Act of 2001 (HR 3598). Introduced shortly after 9.11 by Rep. Nick Smith (R-MI), this bill would require "the induction into the Armed Forces of young men registered under the Military Selective Service Act." All males between 18 and 22 years would be inducted and required to complete basic training. High school dropouts will get the short end of the stick and be forced to serve for an additional six months. Pay would be dismal, pegged at a mere 35% of the basic pay of an enlisted member of the Armed Forces -- or approximately $85 per week (or $4,420 a year). The bill is currently before the House Armed Services Committee. During the Civil War and WWI, forced military conscription resulted in huge demonstrations and riots. For a lot of people indentured military servitude was an unamerican concept. "There are hearts beating that they don't want war, that they don't want conscription -- that they are not going to be conscripted," wrote the anarchist Emma Goldman during WWI. "The ruling classes fight a losing game. The Wall Street men are fighting a losing game. They represented the past and we represent the future."

"The current war on terrorism could last for decades and having a nation of men and women across this country with an understanding of homeland security and international relations is important," writes the sponsor of HR 3598, Nick Smith, a Michigan Republican. "The experience of training and working with those from all walks of life broadens one's perspective. Going through the discipline of a 'boot camp' environment with physical fitness and some hands-on vocational training would benefit many young men. The bill also would improve our nation's readiness in time of war or emergency."

Of course, Smith doesn't bother to point out that "international relations" means slogging it out in the swamps of southern Iraq or broiling in the desert sun of Saudi Arabia -- and maybe coming home in a body bag so the Bush junta can bring "democracy" (read: a "friendly" dictatorship like the shah had in Iran) to the backward Islamic heathens of the Middle East. Not only, according to the Bushites, do the North Koreans -- who have lately taken to telling Bush and his neocon cronies to shove it sideways -- need to be taught a lesson, but so does that ill-mannered (if democratically elected) Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. All of these "international relations" will necessitate a whole lot of low-paid and highly expendable US soldiers. As it stands now, far too few gullible young men are enlisting -- and when they do, they are not re-enlisting (one tour of abuse is obviously enough for most of them).

The Bush junta and the transnational corporate-fascist agenda requires massive militarism -- more than the current so-called volunteer army can provide. But as the massive resistance of the Vietnam era demonstrated, the kind of totalitarian future Bush has in mind for us can be resisted and turned back -- if people are dedicated enough to fill the streets in large numbers (as they are beginning to do, fortunately, and in advance of Bush's plan to annihilate the people of Iraq). The neocon vision of New World Order fascism will crash and burn if people refuse to accept militarism and avoid the coming draft -- even if it means going to prison. Bush can't arrest everybody. And he surely can't run a war of global domination if the people refuse conscription.

If you are opposed to the new draft, let the House Armed Services Committee know about it -- sign the online petition. It only takes a minute or two -- and the more people who sign, the more likely the Bushites will understand we are against the Republican plan to conscript Americans to fight in illegal and ultimately devastating wars.

http://www.petitiononline.com/umtasa/petition.html

[blueimac540c]

I didn't know exactly where to put this so...

[marky]

Thanks for posting that, Tim.

[Myke115]

First of all ... let me say that I didn't vote for GW and will not next time. However ... just as a point of note ... the chief politician clammoring for re-institution of the mandatory military draft is Representative Charles Rangel, Democrat of New York state.