Concern about a possible reinstatement of the draft have recently reached me on two different, unconnected vectors, prompting me to wonder what was behind the sudden upsurge in attention to this rumor. This article on factcheck.org sugests a possible answer – apparently there’s a chain email circulating, spreading fear about a new draft. The article is the best I’ve yet seen summarizing the issue and debunking it. In particular, it appears to clear up some questions I hadn’t seen addressed about recent actions by the Selective Service System.
The short version, if you have seen one of these emails and are concerned about a new draft, is that it is a false rumor. It’s not going to happen, not in the foreseeable future, anyway. For more, follow the link above.
you beat me to posting it (though i wasn’t exactly rushing to do it) – i bought into the rumours 4 years ago and haven’t since. on Fox News yesterday I saw Cheney publicly declare that the rumours are false and there are no intentions of reinstating the draft whatsoever.
somehow I just hadn’t pegged you as a Fox News watcher… 😉
Yeah….
It was after two emails that I also posted my little bit on how this wasn’t likely in my journal…
Stop runnaway memes whenever possible.. 🙂
Is it based on a couple bills of legislation that were put forth some time back by about a dozen Democrats legislators to re-instatet the draft.
I had to deal with several friends nearly deciding not to vote for Bush because a post stated “government plans to re-start draft”. I found out the bills were actually put forth. But found out there were like no Republican signatures on the bills. It was a Democrat Party bill.
But of course that took me an hour or two of research which most people would never do. They’d simply vote against the incumbants (Republicans) assuming they were the ones trying to do so. When it was in fact Democrats.
But does the media clarify that fact…hell no. *lol*
🙁
Phew. You know, I’m glad, that puts my mind at ease to a degree.
BUT, there were really still bills out there about men AND WOMEN having to register for 2 years of military/nonmilitary service. I wouldn’t feel too good about that (I wonder if the peace corps count…). Of course, the article said they were DOA. But the fact that they even existed in the first place makes me uneasy.
See the article… the bills weren’t introduced with the idea that they would be passed; they were just intended to make a point (the point being that it would be harder for congressmen to make the decision to go to war if their own kids might be required to fight in it.