reduce DRAFT ACTIVATION time from the current 8 months to just 75 days--by March 31, 2005? AFTER the election!
The official Selective Service site clearly says that $28 million is being spent next year to have the draft ready for activation within 75 days by March 31, 2005, conveniently AFTER the 2004 election. All Bush has to do is say "We are not going to Cut and Run from Iraq, but we have no more men. THe Pentagon has told me we need to activate the Selective Service System". The scrubbed Draft Board recruitment ad (the first in decades), was just the tip of the following $28 million iceberg headed for a home near you:
http://www.sss.gov/perfplan_fy2004.html (This was part of the Defense bill passed Nov. 24, 2003)
<snip>
Strategic Goal 1: Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the Manpower Delivery Systems (Projected allocation for FY 2004 – $7,942,000)
Strategic Goal 2: Improve overall Registration Compliance and Service to the Public (Projected allocation FY 2004 – $8,769,000)
Strategic Goal 3: Enhance external and internal customer service
(Projected allocation for FY 2004 – $10,624,000)
Strategic Goal 4: Enhance the system which guarantees that each conscientious objector is properly classified, placed, and monitored.(Projected allocation for FY 2004 – $955,000)
Total=
$28,290,000 An annual report providing the results of the implementation of these performance
measures will be submitted by
March 31, 2005. This report will address attained versus
planned levels of performance, explain unattained target levels, and identify where and
how strategies, performance goals, and performance indicators should be changed to
ensure that the SSS reaches its strategic and annual goals and objectives.
tie that paragraph to this one:
Strategic Objective 1.2: Ensure a mobilization infrastructure of 56 State Headquarters,
442 Area Offices and 1,980 Local Boards are operational within
75 days of an authorized
return to conscription.
<snip>
They are reducing draft activation time to 75 days from the current 7-8 months. The first draft lottery according to this official document could be June 15, 2005.
Question: why does a dormant agancy need to be ready to answer all correspondence in 10 days?
They said "no plans" yet they are conducting nation-wide exercises far beyond what is needed for a dormant agency. This is really a plan to get the whole system ready for activation within the 75 days proscribed, although Congress must authorize the actual activation. They are trying to stop this discussion by saying "no plans", making everybody think it's off the table. They just mean Bush has "no plans" to ask Congress at this time. Yet on April 1, 2005, according to this he could ask for activation and have it in 75 days.
Also draft boards reported being "unexpectedly" asked during summer training sessions to fill the Board vacancies (salon.com from a Philly draft Board member)
Also Rumsfeld's leaked memo said "long hard slog" and "we have not made any truly bold moves yet"--and that was after Iraq and Afghanistan.
They are even making sure the Alternative Service is all exercised and ready to go within 75 days of March 31, 2005.
This is called Performance improvement but it looks exactly like a readiness action. They are bringing the whole system up to 90% + operational capability after 30 years of dormancy. Obviously, with a war on terror this could be considered prudent (although you don't need a draft to catch Osama Bin Laden and several thousand al-Queadas). Then why did they scrub the Draft Board notice? Why not come say out front we are filling the Draft Boards and gearing up the system in case the President needs it to fight the war on terror?
Congress would of course have to approve, supposedly after a Joint Session by the President where he could easily say "we are not going to cut and run" (same was said in Vietnam). By March 31, 2005, the draft may only be 75 days away.
This change the dynamics of this issue, because people will say OK, Bush is getting the first draft lottery ready by June 15, 2005 if we need it. Now do I trust him or the Democrat more to not reinstate, given Iraq and PNAC?
In additon Brodsky, the head of SSS, says a priority will be drafting Special Skills Personnel: 20 to 45 year-old computer experts, linguists (especially Islamic languages), and engineers. All 3.4 million doctors and nurses under 45 will have to register at their local Post Office in 2005 if Bush gets Congress's permission. All signs are they will ask for the draft at that earliest possible moment and will probably establish the Special Skills Personnel Delivery System (like the HCPDS) even sooner, as soon as the election is over in November, 2004, although these computer programmers and engineers would not have to register until the draft was activiated.
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