A military draft is not going to happen.
That is what a spokesman for President Bush and a spokesman for Selective Service have said in telephone interviews with The Rip.
Dan Amon, public affairs specialist for Selective Service, said in a telephone interview that no draft is being planned.
“We have gotten no signal whatsoever that we should start the draft,” Amon said. “In Congress there is no support whatsoever for starting the draft.”
Amon said that it would take a congressional action to start the draft. He also stated that it would take “something of practically Pearl Harbor proportions to overcome the opposition of just about everybody.”
When asked if there was any talk around the Selective Service about a draft happening after Sept. 11, 2001, he said, “No. … It probably affected everybody in a way, but as far as our day-to-day operations, we continued to do what we’ve been doing for years and that is just to maintain the database of names of young men as kind of an insurance policy for The Department of Defense,” Amon said.
If a military draft does start at any time, it would take months to start training the first recruits.
“We have pretty much indicated that the time Congress gives us the signal, the time to deliver the first young man to basic training would be about 193 days,” he said.
Amon gave notice to the Selective Service looking for board members, which has sparked some of the draft rumors.
“There was a notice on a Web site, not our own, but a subsidiary of The Department of Defense which called for volunteers for local (draft) boards. The thing is, back in 1980, President Carter resumed registration, not the draft, but registration,” said Amon.
“When that happened we needed, of course, board members. They all came aboard for 20-year terms. At the beginning of the century, those terms started to expire. … We’re always needing new board members.”
Two bills, S. 89, and H.R. 163, which was recently voted down in the House (402-2), have been floating around Congress since January.
The title of H.R. 163, which is virtually identical to S. 89, says: “To provide for the common defense by requiring that all young persons (18-25) in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes.”
Bill H.R. 163 was proposed by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., and bill S. 89 was proposed by Sen. Fritz Hollings, D- S.C., in response to Rangel’s bill. According to Rangel’s office, only two representatives voted to pass the bill. Ironically, Rangel voted no on the bill.
Ken Lisaius, spokesman for The White House, said in a telephone interview that had President Bush been presented with H.R. 163, he would have vetoed it.
Ilene Zeldin, Sen. Hollings’ press secretary, said in a telephone interview that Hollings feels a draft “would help build the character of Americans.” Zeldin said that S. 89 has no support in the Senate.