- On March 31, the Selective Service System will report
to President Bush that it is ready to implement a draft within 75 days.
We have to organize now to stop the draft before it starts.
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- Despite what politicians say, there is a high probability
that the Bush Administration will attempt to reinstate the draft.
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- The U.S. military is in a quagmire in Iraq, facing a
national popular uprising against the occupation. Soldiers are dying every
day. A report issued in January 2004 by Jeffrey Record, a visiting professor
at the Air War College, said the Army is "near the breaking point."
The Pentagon has been forced to issue repeated "stop loss" orders
and recall soldiers who had retired or otherwise returned to civilian life.
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- Out of 10 Army Divisions, part or all of 9 of them are
either deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan. Twenty-one out of 33 regular combat
brigades are on active duty in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea, or the Balkans.
That's 63% of the Army's combat strength. This means the Army is extremely
overextended. The Bush Administration has been trying to fill the gap
with Reserve and National Guard troops, but this is a temporary fix at
best. The head of the Army Reserves has recently written a memo saying
that the readiness of his forces has been drastically reduced through over-deployment
and is "degenerating into a broken force."
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- Meanwhile, official U.S. foreign policy is now the doctrine
of "pre-emptive war" and "regime change" wherever a
leader runs afoul of U.S. corporate interests. An invasion of Iran, Syria,
Korea, or Cuba -- all of whom are on Washington and Wall Street's list
of targets -- would require tens or hundreds of thousands of new soldiers.
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- Enlistment rates not even able to maintain current force
levels, much less provide troops for new invasions and occupations. All
four services missed their enlistment quotas last year, and enlistments
in the Reserves, National Guard, and regular military are at a 30-year
low. Many current members of the armed forces plan to get out as soon as
their current enlistment ends. According to a poll conducted by the military
newspaper Stars & Stripes, 49% of soldiers stationed in Iraq do not
plan to re-enlist.
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- The President has given the Selective Service System
a set of readiness goals to be implemented by March 31, 2005. As part of
these performance goals, the System must be ready to be fully operational
within 75 days. This means we can look for the Draft to be in operation
as early as June 15, 2005.
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- March 19 is the second anniversary of the war. On the
weekend of March 19-20, activists all over the globe will take to the streets
to demand and end to the war and occupation. No Draft No Way will be mobilizing
to take part in these demonstrations, which will take place just a few
days before the Selective Service System reports to President Bush that
it is ready to go. We must be in the streets to let them know that we
oppose the draft and will not be used as cannon fodder in Iraq or in any
new war.
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- Let's Organize NOW to Stop the Draft:
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- 1) Come to NYC for the March 19 Troops Out Now demonstration.
Join the No Draft No Way! contingent in the march. http://www.troopsoutnow.org.
Or join the march and rally in Fayetteville, NC, outside Fort Bragg--for
more information, see http://www.ncpeacejustice.org.
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- 2) Organize an anti-draft meeting at your school, church
or mosque, union hall, etc. Contact us at 212-633-6646 for help and speakers.
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- 3) Organize protests outside the selective service office
in your area.
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- 4) Donate to help build a network of educators, activists,
and resisters to fight the draft--before it returns. http://nodraftnoway.org/donate-new.shtml
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- 5) Sign the No Draft Petition. http://nodraftnoway.org/petition.shtml
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- http://www.NoDraftNoWay.org
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- March 19 Troops Out Now! March on Central Park in NYC!
Regional Demonstrations Across the U.S. & Worldwide
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