Military Draft System To Be Tested
This image made from amateur video released by Shaam News Network and accessed Saturday, May 26, 2012 purports to show covered bodies after a government assault on Houla, Syria. Government troops shelled a string of villages in central Syria before pro-regime thugs swept through the area, shooting people in the streets and in their homes in attacks that killed more than 90 people, activists said Saturday. The assault on Houla, an area northwest of the central city of Homs, is one of the bloodiest single events in Syria's 15-month-old uprising. / AP Photo/Shaam News Network via AP video
The Selective Service System is making plans to test its draft machinery in case Congress and President Bush need it, even though the White House says it doesn't want to bring back the draft.
The agency is planning a comprehensive test — not run since 1998 — of its military draft systems, a Selective Service official said. The test itself would not likely occur until 2009.
At the direction of the White House, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson is making it clear he is not advocating the reinstatement of a military draft. He told a news conference that society would benefit from a return to the draft, but a few hours later, after the White House disavowed the remark, Nicholson issued a statement in line with administration policy. He said he strongly supports the all-volunteer military and does not support returning to a draft.
President Bush has repeatedly stated that the all-volunteer army would remain all-volunteer.
"We're kind of like a fire extinguisher. We sit on a shelf," Scott Campbell, the service's director for operations and chief information officer, said. "Unless the president and Congress get together and say, 'Turn the machine on' ... we're still on the shelf."
The administration has for years forcefully opposed bringing back the draft, and the White House said Thursday that policy has not changed and no proposal to reinstate the draft is being considered.
The "readiness exercise" would test the system that randomly chooses draftees by birth date and its network of appeal boards that decide how to deal with conscientious objectors and others who want to delay reporting for duty, Campbell said.
The Selective Service will start planning for the 2009 tests next June or July, although budget cuts could force the agency to cancel them, Campbell said.
President Bush said this week he is considering sending more troops to Iraq and has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to look into adding more troops to the nearly 1.4 million uniformed personnel on active duty.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, increasing the Army by 40,000 troops would cost as much as $2.6 billion the first year and $4 billion after that. Military officials have said the Army and Marine Corps want to add as many as 35,000 more troops.
Recruiting new forces and retaining current troops is more complicated because of the unpopular war in Iraq. In recent years, the Army has accepted recruits with lower aptitude test scores.
In remarks to reporters, Nicholson recalled his own experience as a company commander in an infantry unit that brought together soldiers of different backgrounds and education levels "in the common purpose of serving."
Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, plans to introduce a bill next year to reinstate the draft. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has said such a proposal would not be high on the Democratic-led Congress' priority list.
Hearst Newspapers first reported the planned test for a story sent to its subscribers for weekend use.
The military drafted people during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. Reincorporated in 1980, the Selective Service System maintains a registry of 18-year-old men, but call-ups have not occurred since the Vietnam War.
© 2009 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. The agency is planning a comprehensive test — not run since 1998 — of its military draft systems, a Selective Service official said. The test itself would not likely occur until 2009.
At the direction of the White House, reports CBS News correspondent Mark Knoller, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson is making it clear he is not advocating the reinstatement of a military draft. He told a news conference that society would benefit from a return to the draft, but a few hours later, after the White House disavowed the remark, Nicholson issued a statement in line with administration policy. He said he strongly supports the all-volunteer military and does not support returning to a draft.
President Bush has repeatedly stated that the all-volunteer army would remain all-volunteer.
"We're kind of like a fire extinguisher. We sit on a shelf," Scott Campbell, the service's director for operations and chief information officer, said. "Unless the president and Congress get together and say, 'Turn the machine on' ... we're still on the shelf."
The administration has for years forcefully opposed bringing back the draft, and the White House said Thursday that policy has not changed and no proposal to reinstate the draft is being considered.
The "readiness exercise" would test the system that randomly chooses draftees by birth date and its network of appeal boards that decide how to deal with conscientious objectors and others who want to delay reporting for duty, Campbell said.
The Selective Service will start planning for the 2009 tests next June or July, although budget cuts could force the agency to cancel them, Campbell said.
President Bush said this week he is considering sending more troops to Iraq and has asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates to look into adding more troops to the nearly 1.4 million uniformed personnel on active duty.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, increasing the Army by 40,000 troops would cost as much as $2.6 billion the first year and $4 billion after that. Military officials have said the Army and Marine Corps want to add as many as 35,000 more troops.
Recruiting new forces and retaining current troops is more complicated because of the unpopular war in Iraq. In recent years, the Army has accepted recruits with lower aptitude test scores.
In remarks to reporters, Nicholson recalled his own experience as a company commander in an infantry unit that brought together soldiers of different backgrounds and education levels "in the common purpose of serving."
Rep. Charles Rangel, a New York Democrat, plans to introduce a bill next year to reinstate the draft. House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi has said such a proposal would not be high on the Democratic-led Congress' priority list.
Hearst Newspapers first reported the planned test for a story sent to its subscribers for weekend use.
The military drafted people during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. Reincorporated in 1980, the Selective Service System maintains a registry of 18-year-old men, but call-ups have not occurred since the Vietnam War.
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PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel.
http://www.washingtonpost.com
/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR200
6080300629.html
Posted by robert_in_d at 01:57 PM : Dec 24, 2006
I'd call that playing to his base, just like any good politician would do. Of course he's going to bellow and threaten, it's what the people who voted for him want him to do. He was elected you know, he's not a dictator. Bush says cr*ap all the time too. Sure he'd like to see Israel destroyed someday, but for now it's much to valuable to him as a standing enemy. Without them he'd have a harder time staying in power. After all, just like Bush does, he needs someone else to blame for everything. With him it's Israel, with Bush it's the "evildoers". Different names, same bullsh*it.
I'm not saying the Iranian President DOESN'T want to destroy Israel, but again, unless he becomes psychotic, he would never use nuclear weapson(s) to do so.
Oh really? What would you call this then:
PUTRAJAYA, Malaysia -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis is to destroy Israel.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080300629.html
Bush will need more troops for his war against Iran, but he'll do it through furthering the privatization of the military. There are already 30,000 mercenaries from private 'security' companies in Iraq paid for by the US taxpayer and the Busho-fascists have already expanded the 'poverty draft' to Central America. Mercenaries have been protecting the civilian and military brass in Iraq since the get-go. Bedsides diverting even more of the US Treasury to Bush, his family, and the other war-profiteers, mercenaries have the added advantage of having no legal responsibility for the atrocities they commit.
Bush will need more troops for his war against Iran, but he'll do it through furthering the privatization of the military. There are already 30,000 mercenaries from private 'security' companies in Iraq paid for by the US taxpayer and the Busho-fascists have already expanded the 'poverty draft' to Central America. Mercenaries have been protecting the civilian and military brass in Iraq since the get-go. Bedsides diverting even more of the US Treasury to Bush, his family, and the other war-profiteers, mercenaries have the added advantage of having no legal responsibility for the atrocities they commit.
Bush will need more troops for his war against Iran, but he'll do it through furthering the privatization of the military. There are already 30,000 mercenaries from private 'security' companies in Iraq paid for by the US taxpayer and the Busho-fascists have already expanded the 'poverty draft' to Central America. Mercenaries have been protecting the civilian and military brass in Iraq since the get-go. Bedsides diverting even more of the US Treasury to Bush, his family, and the other war-profiteers, mercenaries have the added advantage of having no legal responsibility for the atrocities they commit.
Posted by Descartes13 at 01:03 AM : Dec 24, 2006
I suspect that you and I think the same.
Now let me state what would happen in a worst-case scenario if we were ever hit with just a single 20-megaton nuclear-tipped missile.
Scientists have stated that such a bomb, if detonated at the right height over St. Louis, Missouri, would generate an extremely strong electromagnetic "pulse" that would wipe out every last microprocessor in this entire country, along with any data stored on any magnetic media.
In other words, all the pc's, laptops, mainframes, hard drives, etc., etc., would be irreperably damaged.
Our country, in the space of a heartbeat, would cease to function.
Although it can be argued that the Bushies have managed to prevent our being hit with another terror-attack thus far, the fact is, by constantly engaging in behaviors and rhetoric that gets the muslims riled up, he's just INCREASING the chances of our getting hit!