Free Republic

Draft Dodgers Monument Ditched After Outcry Sunday, October 03, 2004 Plans for a bronze monument honoring American draft dodgers in Nelson, British Columbia, have been scrapped. The mayor of Nelson, who initially said his town was the right place for the "Our Way Home" festival and statue, has changed his tune. "We don't want to do controversial monuments in the city of Nelson, that's the bottom line. If this does not have wide community support, then we don't want to create controversy within the city," Mayor Dave Elliott told FOX News. The monument might have avoided conflict if it were...

Are You Ready To Be Drafted? Federal government quietly mobilizes Selective Service System for 2005 By Jessica Steinhoff Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld predicted that the war with Iraq would be a "long, hard slog." The amorphous war on terrorism, he characterized as "permanent." When gazing into his crystal ball, however, he neglected to mention the manpower required for these epic battles. Now, though more than 1,000 American soldiers have been killed in combat in Iraq and the Bush administration's war is running off reservist resources, he's still afraid to admit that he left something out of his prophecy: a draft....

On Tim Russert's Show (his other show), Howard Dean "Guaranteed" That Bush Will start a draft. He then laid out reasons why. Tim Russert, of course, didn't mention to him that the only pieces of draft legislation were written by Democrats. A sign of things to come...

A few days ago a recieved an e-mail from a Washington Post reporter about my opinions on the military draft. He found me here at Free Republic. The story will appear within the next couple of weeks. If I am quoted, I think I will be the first young person of a conservative worldview to be in a major-newspaper news story about the draft. I'm so excited!!

The Bush administration is trying to quash a rumor that keeps cropping up in cyberspace. For several months now, e-mails from an unknown source have warned that President Bush plans to reinstitute the draft if he wins a second term. The rumor persists despite repeated denials from top-level administration figures. In Thursday's debate, Bush declared that the U.S. military will remain an all-volunteer force. Recently, Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that "President Bush has no plans for a draft, nor is a draft needed." And Congress would just as soon debate the revival of Prohibition, because...

Kerry has said that our military is overtaxed in Iraq and that he would create two more divisions to fix it. His two new divisions was one of several options discussed in Congress in 2002 and 2003. Creating two new divisions was rejected as a viable solution. The report makes it clear why Kerry's solution is the wrong choice. The following extract is a discussion of the option titled "Increase the Army's End Strength." Extract: "In this option, the active Army would grow by 80,000 personnel--enough, CBO estimates, to provide the service with another heavy division, one more light division,...

Notwithstanding recent stories in the news media and on the Internet, Selective Service is not getting ready to conduct a draft for the U.S. Armed Forces -- either with a special skills or regular draft. Rather, the Agency remains prepared to manage a draft if and when the President and the Congress so direct. This responsibility has been ongoing since 1980 and is nothing new. Further, both the President and the Secretary of Defense have stated on more than one occasion that there is no need for a draft for the War on Terrorism or any likely contingency, such as...

Not having anything worthwhile to say for himself, John Kerry has his surrogates out starting nasty rumors about the Bush administration. Our liberal national media doesn't seem to mind when Kerry minions spout obvious mistruths. The large media news organizations never bother fact-checking and questioning Democrats about even the most blatant lies, so Democrats babble on with impunity. We, however, prefer to take notes and lie in wait until the actual candidate starts feeling confident the trial balloon sent up by minions is safe to follow. John Kerry, of course, is libel to say anything. So, it didn't take long...

Your editorial did not surprise me ("Dan Does it Again, Sept. 30). Dan Rather and CBS are, and have always been, left-leaning liberals. Their "news broadcasts" ceased to be relevant or unbiased as soon as Rather took over. [snip] Rather is at it again, peddling the Democratic canard that President Bush and the Pentagon are conspiring to reinstitute the military draft. So what else is new? Besides using those forged documents relating to the president's National Guard service in an effort to sway the upcoming election, during Watergate he and his ilk feasted on a wounded President Nixon, and...

'Have you heard anything about the draft coming back?" an anxious-sounding woman asked me at the health club the other day. "Oh, that's just a rumor," I told her with a wave of my hand. "It's not going to happen." The rumor mill is grinding this one out at a fast clip though. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that a rash of e-mails have been circulating since the spring about an alleged plan by the Bush administration to resurrect the military draft as early as next spring, provided Bush is re-elected. This is nothing more than election-year posturing....

Hello everyone, So I'm sitting in my natural science class and these sophomores are talking about how Bush plans to reinstate the draft, yada yada yada. Where can I direct these kids to information that 1)the draft isn't coming back and 2)it's being pushed by the Democratic Party? Thanks in Advance

Ironically, despite another round of FORGED DOCUMENTS suggesting the Republicans would institute a draft, there is real cause for concern that a Kerry Presidency could result in a draft.

Here is an excerpt of the CBO report. "Increase the Army's End Strength. In this option, the active Army would grow by 80,000 personnel--enough, CBO estimates, to provide the service with another heavy division, one more light division, and 19,000 additional support personnel.(21) CBO assumed that the additional support units created would be largely military police, civil affairs, and psychological-operations units. Those types of support personnel have been in high demand in peacekeeping operations over the past decade and are concentrated in the Army's reserve component. Thus, creating additional active units of those types could reduce the levels of mobilization...

NBC'S DRAFT-MONGERING DISHONESTY By Michelle Malkin · September 30, 2004 02:21 PM CBS News isn't the only one failing to disclose the political activism of purportedly ordinary Americans fearful of the return of a draft. NBC News has its own Beverly Cocco. His name is Jeremy Tor. Here's the full transcript of the draft-mongering segment that ran on NBC Nightly News last night: TOM BROKAW, anchor: One issue that may come up tomorrow, tonight, the military draft. Senator Kerry has already suggested President Bush may be forced to reinstitute the draft after the election to deal with the pressures on...

Guess what is QUIETLY being put through the House and Senate - a DRAFT starting 2005. If you are against this, you better pass this on IMMEDIATELY! I was not aware of this until I received this today. Mandatory draft for boys and girls (ages 18-26) starting June 15, 2005,is something that everyone should know about. This literally affects everyone since we all have or know children that will have to go if this bill passes. There is pending legislation in the house and senate (companion bills:S89 and HR 163) which will time the program's initiation so the draft can...

Want to hang the Democrats on their own petard and turn the draft issue right around? Just issue this press release: "Today the White House issued a press release on the issue of the pending bill sponsored by (D) Charles Rangel. "The White House, and this administration, strongly oppose the imposition of a draft. If the Afghanistan experience has shown us anything, it is that small numbers of superb troops and airmen can defeat hordes of a numerically superior, but less well-motivated and trained foe. We would prefer to withdraw from Iraq and concentrate our efforts elsewhere, as opposed to...

Democrats, Not Bush Admin, Behind Draft Legislation & Fears Knight Ridder Newspapers 9-30-4 WASHINGTON - Talk of a military draft keeps blowing in the wind this campaign season, and it's giving many people chills. E-mails and Web logs continue to warn that Congress and the White House are moving to reinstitute a draft by next spring for all men and women 18 to 25 years old, with no deferments for college students, as there were during the Vietnam War. The Bush administration has denied having any such plans, but Democrats have seized on the issue in an attempt to energize...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - To help meet its recruiting goals at a time when its forces are strained by operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army has lowered some requirements for recruits. The changes are among the clearest signs yet of the military's growing problems in recruiting and retaining soldiers. They mean that many hundreds of recruits who would have been rejected in the past could be enlisted this year. Army officials characterize the changes as modest and well within quality standards mandated by the Pentagon and Congress. But they amount to the first relaxation in Army recruiting standards since...

It’s not an “if.” It’s a “when.” Pentagon officials have indicated that they plan to send as many as 15,000 additional troops during the first four months of 2005, and the President George W. Bush continues to insist “we will stay the course” until Iraq is stabilized. (I do wish his advisers would provide a different vocabulary so that those of us steeped in the mistakes regarding Vietnam could be spared painful flashbacks.) Where will the additional troops come from? The Bush administration insists there will be no draft, but its credibility has been badly tarnished. The “backdoor draft” that...

Since Sen. Kerry has raised the issue of the draft to try and scare American voters, let's look at what was said tonight: George W. Bush very clearly stated that our military was to remain all volunteer. John F. Kerry stated that he wanted to add 2 new army divisions and double special forces troops. A combat division is 10,000 combat troops. For each combat troop it is said you need 3-7 support troops, dependent upon the source. This is a minimum of 25,000 men per division. Doubling special forces adds thousands more. What about the Air Force, Marine Corps,...