http://www.virginiadefenseforce.org
Posted on 10/14/2003 9:24:35 AM PDT by So Cal Rocket
WASHINGTON - Democrat Wesley Clark says if elected president, he would create a corps of civilians who could be called up for service in national emergencies much like the National Guard.
Every American age 18 or older could register for Clark's civilian reserve, listing skills that could aid the country in a disaster. Registration is voluntary and would involve a commitment to serve any time for five years.
In times of national emergency, such as floods, forest fires or terrorist attacks, the president would have the power to call to duty up to 5,000 civilian reservists. Tours would last as long as six months. Congress could authorize more to be mobilized.
Civilian reservists also could be sent overseas for jobs like reconstruction in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Those who are called to duty would receive health care, a stipend, and the right to return to their jobs when their service is completed. Clark spokeswoman Kym Spell said the program would cost about $100 million a year and would be part of the Department of Homeland Security.
In a speech prepared for delivery Tuesday at New York's Hunter College, Clark said the reserves "will reinvigorate America's ethic of service, tap the vast reservoir of skill, generosity, and energy that is the American people, and call millions more Americans to duty."
Clark, a retired four-star Army general, also called for an expansion of the AmeriCorps national service program created by President Clinton.
Clark's speech is the first of four that he will give over a month outlining his campaign agenda. Others will focus on health care, the economy and national security.
These guys and dolls will be part of the great social experiment, politically correct up the wazzoo--a fertile field for all kinds of recruitment.
They'll be run by administrator-pink triangle-types in Homeland Security, not military types of the Pentagonal variety.
HF
The Minuteman: Restoring an Army of the People by Gary Hart
Free Press (May 1998); 292 pp.
"Hart's book is well-written and thoroughly anchored in both military and political realities. An America that followed his recommendations would probably be less apt to become involved in ill-considered foreign wars, more resistant to tyranny, and effectively impossible to invade."—Glenn Harlan Reynolds (Reason)
... "Drawing on his long experience as a leader in the field of military reform (including twelve years on the Senate Armed Services Committee), Hart proposes a return to the oldest principles of the republic, making an impassioned case for replacing the present Cold War military with a smaller standing army and a much larger, well-trained citizen reserve-- an "army of the people". The professional nucleus would be a rapid-response force responsible for dealing with immediate crises and low-intensity conflicts, while the larger army of citizen-soldiers would be called up when national interests required a larger, sustained military presence.
From ancient times to the present, the heroes of democracy have consistently upheld two principles: that it is dangerous to maintain a large standing army in peacetime; and that free people have a civic duty to participate in their own defense.
Contemporary America, by contrast, has sunk into "Eisenhower's Nightmare", beholden to a powerful military-industrial complex embracing the armed forces, military contractors, unions, Congress, and military communities economically dependent on military spending. The only way to break this cycle of dependence, Hart argues, is to restore a citizen military—a true militia, like the one that defended Lexington and Concord. If we reject this path, he warns, we risk being truly ill-prepared for the challenges facing our nation in the century about to dawn."
The only problem with the idea of both Clark and Hart is that they propose to completely control this so-called "citizen militia" and in reality disarm the Constitutional Militia in the process. Never trust a RAT with security issues, either from the personal self-defense mode, or the larger national defense picture.
http://www.virginiadefenseforce.org
Yup, that's the way it is in GA. You also have to purchase your own BDU's, etc. I'm still batting around the idea of joining...
Same in Texas. The big difference from the National Guard is that you don't get paid for training.
More precisely, Wesley Kanne's Chicago-area rabbi father Benjamin, Democratic Delegate to the 1932 Democratic National Convention, has ties to many of the same Chicago *buisinessmen* and bought political figures of that period, as does Hillery Rodham.
The old Chi-town newspaper morgue files from that time still exist, at least for now....
-archy-/-
More precisely, Wesley Kanne's Chicago-area rabbi father Benjamin, Democratic Delegate to the 1932 Democratic National Convention, has ties to many of the same Chicago *buisinessmen* and bought political figures of that period, as does Hillery Rodham.
The old Chi-town newspaper morgue files from that time still exist, at least for now....
-archy-/-
Think Kucinich is a space case, then take a look at Clark before you make your final decision.
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