"Pookie" <pookie18323@optonline.net> wrote in message news:<Hh6dd.14840$YM4.4418985@news4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net>...
Liberal Group Still Spreading Draft Rumors to College Students
By Nathan Burchfiel
CNSNews.com Correspondent
October 19, 2004
(CNSNews.com) - The liberal group MoveOn.org is continuing to push the rumor
that if reelected, President Bush will institute a mandatory draft.
The group has established MoveOnStudentAction.org, which "will launch a
nationwide campus 'Feel a Draft?' campaign to demand an exit strategy to end
the war in Iraq from President Bush, as well as a specific plan to avoid the
need for a draft," according to a press release.
`... Last week, the Republican National Committee sent an angry,
threatening letter to Rock the Vote, an organization that has been
using the draft issue to mobilize young voters. "This urban myth
regarding a draft has been thoroughly debunked," the letter declared,
and quoted Mr. Bush: "We don't need the draft. Look, the all-volunteer
Army is working."
In fact, the all-volunteer Army is under severe stress. A study
commissioned by Donald Rumsfeld arrived at the same conclusion as
every independent study: the U.S. has "inadequate total numbers" of
troops to sustain operations at the current pace. In Iraq, the lack of
sufficient soldiers to protect supply convoys, let alone pacify the
country, is the root cause of incidents like the case of the
reservists who refused to go on what they described as a "suicide
mission."
Commanders in Iraq have asked for more troops (ignore the
administration's denials) - but there are no more troops to send. The
manpower shortage is so severe that training units like the famous
Black Horse Regiment, which specializes in teaching other units the
ways of battle, are being sent into combat. As the military expert
Phillip Carter says, "This is like eating your seed corn."
Anyway, do we even have an all-volunteer Army at this point? Thousands
of reservists and National Guard members are no longer serving
voluntarily: they have been kept in the military past their agreed
terms of enlistment by "stop loss" orders.
The administration's strategy of denial in the face of these realities
was illustrated by a revealing moment during the second presidential
debate. After Senator John Kerry described the stop-loss policy as a
"backdoor draft," Charles Gibson, the moderator, tried to get a
follow-up response from President Bush: "And with reservists being
held on duty --"
At that point Mr. Bush cut Mr. Gibson off and changed the subject from
the plight of the reservists to the honor of our Polish allies, ending
what he obviously viewed as a dangerous line of questioning.
And during the third debate, Mr. Bush tried to minimize the issue,
saying that the reservists being sent to Iraq "didn't view their
service as a backdoor draft. They viewed their service as an
opportunity to serve their country." In that case, why are they being
forced, rather than asked, to continue that service?
The reality is that the Iraq war, which was intended to demonstrate
the feasibility of the Bush doctrine, has pushed the U.S. military
beyond its limits. Yet there is no sign that Mr. Bush has been
chastened. By all accounts, in a second term the architects of that
doctrine, like Paul Wolfowitz, would be promoted, not replaced. The
only way this makes sense is if Mr. Bush is prepared to seek a much
larger Army - and that means reviving the draft.`
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company |
From: "Feeling the Draft" By PAUL KRUGMAN October 19, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/19/opinion/19krugman.html?hp=&oref=login&pagewanted=print&position=
The campaign kicked off Monday with an ad in the New York Times, which
alleges that "poor planning for the occupation has overstretched our armed
forces and put us on the road to a draft."
The movement against a potential draft comes on the heels of rumors
circulated by Democrats that Bush is planning to institute a draft if he is
reelected.
A bill supported in the House of Representatives by 16 Democrats would have
called for mandatory service for citizens 18 to 26 years of age, including
women, beginning in 2005. That House bill was defeated last week by a vote
of 402-2.
The campaign will also feature screenings of a new pro-John F. Kerry movie,
"Going Upriver," which lauds the senator's service during the Vietnam War
and his anti-war activities following his service.
MoveOn is insisting that Sinclair Broadcast Group air "Going Upriver"
alongside the anti-Kerry film it plans to show on its network, "Stolen
Honor: Wounds That Never Heal," which criticizes Kerry's anti-war actions
following his service.
Sinclair has come under fire in recent days for its plans to air the
anti-Kerry film within days of the election. The Democratic National
Committee filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission accusing
the network of offering an "illegal in-kind contribution" to the Bush-Cheney
campaign.
The Federal Communications Commission, which oversees broadcast media,
announced that it would not prevent the airing of the film.
In a release, MoveOn called "Stolen Honor" a "partisan smear film that
slanders Kerry's anti-war testimony to Congress in 1971."
http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200410\NAT20041019a.html
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