What about the "Draft" ?

Since 1973, America has relied on an all-volunteer military. But current retention issues, recruiting problems, and over-extension have pushed our armed forces to the limit. General Richard A. Cody recently told members of the House Armed Services Committee that our military has reached a breaking point. He stated, “Are we stretched thin with our active and reserve component forces right now? Absolutely.”
The next logical contingency for military planners is the draft (link). A recent poll called “The State of Our Nation’s Youth” by the Horatio Alger Association indicates that most high-school students believe that the government will restart the military draft during their lifetimes. Among teenagers, 55% say young Americans will be required to serve in the military, up from 45% last year.

for more facts please visit: http://www.optruth.org

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Letter to the editor - Dallas Morning News

Draft boards ready

Until recently, the law requiring young men to register with the Selective Service System seemed like an insurance policy – one that is wise to have but that you hope you never have to use. With the military stretched thin and facing recruiting and retention challenges, the possibility of having to use the draft seems more likely.
The same law that requires youths to register also established procedures for drafting people. But the rules are different than they were during the Vietnam era. This time the rules that allowed Vice President Dick Cheney to get student deferments don't exist. College seniors would finish the current school year; others would be deferred only until the end of the current semester.
If Congress activates the draft, then 20-year-old men would be called first. A lottery, by birth date as during the Vietnam draft, would be used to determine the sequence within each year. If there are not enough 20-year-olds in a year, then 21-year-olds would be called next, followed by those aged 22, 23, 24, 25, 19 and finally 18. Individual deferment requests could be heard by local boards.
Twenty-year-old men could start receiving orders to report for an armed forces examination within about two weeks of a draft being instituted.
Bernard Mayoff, member,Local board 031,
Selective Service System,
Richardson

Nation not serious

When the House rejected the draft by an astounding 402-2 vote this past week, I knew that the American people did not believe they are at war for their survival. They believed that 9-11 was a fluke and that all the alerts are scare tactics.
It will probably take an even larger 9-11 to convince Americans that this war on terrorism is a true war, that our Islamic enemy means to kill us in any way because we are the great Satan.
If Americans really believed that this was a war for survival, they would all be willing to put their sons and daughters in harm's way. You believe in a war only when you are willing to put everything on the line to win it.
The word "sacrifice" is never used by our leaders. Americans complain that this war costs too much as they go right on using millions of barrels of gas for their big cars. Oil feeds terrorists. This is a sure sign Americans do not believe that this is a war for survival because they sacrifice nothing.
Peter J. Riga, Houston


source: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/letters/stories/101004dneditlet.70849.html