Draft Politics -- More confirmations of a draft in 2005

DoD has coordinated with the Congressional committees

DoD likes to blame Congress. Questions have been raised about the legislation to support a draft. DoD's position is "that's Congress telling DoD what to do." On the contrary, DoD was instrumental in working with the committtees to draft the legislation.

Congressional bills

Senate and House both have bills coordinated with DoD.

List of options exhausted

If you go down the list of options available under the existing statutes, they've just about been exhausted. The only way to increase combat capability is to institute a draft.

DoD goals are below requirements

It is merely a diversion to say "we've met our goals" when those goals are well short of combat requirements.

"Desire" is at odds with reality

It is ridiculous to say "nobody wants a draft" as "what we want" doesn't match what happens: We may not want the heat in the desert, but the sun still chooses to shine regardless our desires. So too does the enemy move regardless our manning levels.

Draft would solve many problems.

Yet, rather than say, "We meesed up by invading Iraq," the President and DoD choose to say, "there is no need." They have no credibility.

Rather, DoD seeks an external excuse to fix an internal problem. The only reason we're having repeated denials about a draft is that DoD does not want to take responsibility for the problem. DoD knows that in all likelihood an external problem will appear to justify the "reshaping" of the forces.

They already have the studies and plans ready to "justify" the policy to "respond" to the future event.

The President controls both DoD and the Selective Service.

DoD denies any relationship with the Selective Service It is false to state there is no relationship between the Selective Service System and DoD; they may be "independent" but they have memorandums of understanding.

4.12. By agreements between the Secretary of Defense, the Commandant of the Coast Guard (as appropriate) and the Director of Selective Service, and as authorized by DODD 1235.11, May 6, 1996 3 Section 460 of 50 Appendix, U.S.C. (reference (d)), IMAs may be assigned to the Selective Service System (SSS), as necessary, for mobilization support and assistance at the U.S. national and specified State headquarters of the SSS; and that the SSS reimburse the Department of Defense for inactive and active duty pay for assigned IMAs. Ref

There are also statutes related to the Selective Service clearly identifying the director as working for the President, not Congress. Further the legislation from the 1917-era clearly shows that Congress and the President will jointly pass legislation to do "whatever it takes" to get manning.

Section 203, act May 18, 1917, ch. 15, § 3, 40 Stat. 78, related to bounties to induce enlistments, substitutes, and payments to escape service. Ref

The President has broad powers under the statute to do what he wants in re military forces. Thus, to suggest that the Selective Service is "independent" of DoD misses the point -- they both work for the President.

Selective service website is jammed

Many people are logging into the site, exceeding the design parameters of the webpage. What is unusual is that the traffic immediately prior to the "jamming" was well below the 2003 post-Iraq-invasion numbers.

It appears as though the SSS website can handle spikes, but not a sustained increase. We'd have to see whether there are any anecdotal reports of "website not accessible in the Summer of 2003" when the number of hits exceeded the current level.

Chart: Note the number of hits is not spiking as it did just after the 2003 Iraq-invasion, but steadily increasing since the summer.

Alternatives

In fact, the only way to connect to the site is through the archive. IP

Error message

Attempting to connect directly yields an error message: "Error
FW-1 at nhqcpfw: Failed to connect to the WWW server. " This has been described as an "overused" serial link. Ref

Generally when this happens, the website owner will deploy a "team" to look at the issue; this means that the "primary responsibilities of the team" are adjusted; it remains to be seen "what is not getting done" in terms of other selective service-website "team" responsibilities: Updates, postings, changes, etc. It would not be surprising to find that new messages are posted later than expected. It would be helpful if there were other mechanisms to get information other than through the selective service.

Site analysis; another