An issue most people should be aware of by now is that the military draft will most likely be reinstated in the upcoming year following the presidential election.
While most of the country is focusing on the election and trying to decide which candidate is the better of two evils, Congress is taking advantage of the diversion and quietly taking action on the draft legislation.
Congress has apparently allocated $28 million more to the 2004 selective service system budget in preparation for this draft.
Action will be taken quickly after the election results are finalized.
Bush is all for the draft. And I’m sure Kerry is not against it. But give him a couple days, he could change his mind, and then change it back again.
Either way, a draft is something we have a good chance of facing. Probability is now in our favor.
The day this draft will be implemented inches ever closer. Information I received the other day via email announced that pending congressional legislation, this mandatory draft will commence as early as June 15, 2005.
All men and women, ages 18-26, will be required to register.
One thing that worries me is that I am included in that age bracket, and will be for the next five years.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly ready to go join the Army or become a Marine. I admire those who serve our country because it’s not something I think I would be able to do. But with this new draft, it’s a possibility.
I know there are a lot of people who share a common opinion. That’s why I think this new draft is a bad idea. I understand that the United States is short people when it comes to enlisting in the armed forces, but I would much rather have someone who chose to do so defending my country.
It just seems like common sense to think that people who want to be in the military are going to be better prepared and more dedicated than those who are forced to be there because of a draft.
In this new mandatory draft, higher education will not be an exemption. College students will have to halt their studies to join the armed forces. It doesn’t seem fair that students on an educational path should be forced to stop doing so. It would be hard to return after such an interruption; that is if they choose to return at all afterward.
And what about high school? Some people turn 18 during high school. Would these students be expected to drop everything, or would they be exempt? It’s one thing to stop working on a degree, but a high school diploma would not be as easy to pick up where it was left off.
Not that it has ever really worked before to escape to Canada, but precautions have been taken for this as well. A Smart Border Declaration was signed in December of 2001 between the United States and Canada that will assist in keeping draft dodgers from fleeing the country.
But my question is, what is our country going to do when nobody wants to go into the military? What if nobody wants to fight wars against their own will? How will the country control this?
It sounds like a simple solution to a big problem. In other countries military service is required from all citizens. But the United States has gone so long with a voluntary enlisting policy that many people are just not ready or willing.
I don’t think Congress has really thought about what they would be doing to this country.
All I have to say is that if Bush is re-elected and the draft is re-instated, Jenna and Barbara should be the first to enlist.
Chrissy Zehrbach, a senior broadcasting major, is editor in chief of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at sqweet@aol.com.
