CARTOON: Lawmakers Quietly Move To Automate Military Draft Registration For All Men, 18-26

Wake up young people, something is moving and you will soon be right up in front.

Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink

“America exists today to make war. How else do we interpret 19 straight years of war and no end in sight? It’s part of who we are. It’s part of what the American Empire is.”

— Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Democracy Now 1/13/20

By Mark Taylor
DeMOCKracy.ink (6/4/24)

Nothing happens by coincidence, especially when it comes to nations intentionally scheming to launch wars, as the United States is clearly now doing in conflict zones around the globe. Young people have wisely been shunning military service for the corrupt corporate state.

In 2023, Army leaders projected a 20,000 shortfall in their recruitment goal of 485,000. Among all military branches last year the gap was 41,000.

But it’s worse than that.

In Congressional testimony War Department acting undersecretary for personnel and readiness Ashish Vazirani noted: "That number understates the challenge before us as the services lowered [their] end-strength goals in recent years, in part because of the difficult recruiting environment. The all-volunteer force faces one of its greatest challenges since inception.”

In other words, when they couldn’t meet recruitment goals they just said they needed less, but now can’t even meet that deception.

Currently, there are about 1.3 million active-duty personnel, or less than one-half of 1 percent of the U.S. population.

But never underestimate the slimy shenanigans of the corporate state to meet its needs for waging useless wars destined to failure but guaranteed to gin up massive corporate profits for those whose children never get closer to military service than some lobotomizing video game.

Hijacking

On the sly, both political parties in the House Armed Services Committee recently came together to pass a proposal assuring potential military draftees can be quickly hijacked from civilian life to military indenture by automatically registering all men from 18-26 in the Selective Service System. The proposal would need to be passed by the House, Senate and signed into law by the White House to take effect. But it sits, ready and waiting for the tripwire of the next manufactured national emergency. Details on the proposal are in the story below.

I’m going to make a bold prediction for this election year.

None — absolutely none — of the members of Congress who voted for this military draft set up will be bragging about making it easier to hijack young men into our next war(s) in their re-election campaign speeches. I’m also willing to bet none of their sons will wind up trudging through ankle-deep mud with a helmet, ruck sack and AR-15.

Nothing happens by coincidence. Especially when it comes to our endless wars for corporate profit. Those are all carefully plotted out and manufactured.

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“No one can be so crazy as to want war instead of peace, for when there is peace, the children bury their fathers, and when there is war, the fathers bury their children.”

——Herodotus

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Lawmakers Move To Automate Military Draft Selective Service Registration For All Men

By Leo Shane III and Bryant Harris
The Federal Times (5/22/24)

A new plan from House lawmakers would automatically register men for a potential military draft when they hit age 18, avoiding potential legal consequences connected to failing to file the paperwork at the proper time.

Language included in the House Armed Services Committee’s draft of the annual defense authorization bill would mandate the automatic registration of all males between ages 18 and 26 living in America in the Selective Service System, the federal database used for a military draft in case of a national emergency.

The system hasn’t been used for that purpose for 52 years, but men who fail to register can face a host of legal consequences, including forfeiture of eligibility for federal programs and possible jail time.

But the number of individuals who have skipped registering has increased in recent years, in large part because registration options were removed from the federal student loan process two years ago. That had accounted for nearly a quarter of all registrations in prior years.

Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, D-Pa., sponsored the automatic registration language and called it both a money-saving and common-sense reform.

“By using available federal databases, the [Selective Service] agency will be able to register all of the individuals required and thus help ensure that any future military draft is fair and equitable,” she said during debate on the idea Wednesday night.

“This will also allow us to rededicate resources — basically that means money — towards reading readiness and towards mobilization … rather than towards education and advertising campaigns driven to register people.”

The Selective Service System costs roughly $30 million a year. Lawmakers have proposed a number of reforms to the database in recent years, including adding women and completely eliminating the agency altogether, but none have made it through Congress.

The latest proposal was approved unanimously by the committee but still must advance through the full House and Senate before it can become law. The authorization bill, which contains a myriad of military budget and policy priorities, is expected to be finalized by the two chambers sometime this fall.

Link to Story

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Col. Lawrence Wilkerson On Endless War & American Empire: “America Exists Today To Make War”

“We are going to cheat and steal to do whatever it is we have to do to continue this war complex. That’s the truth of it. And that’s the agony of it.”

Democracy Now! (1/13/20)

Retired U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of State Colin Powell’s chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, says the escalation of tensions between the U.S. and Iran today [back in 2020] is a continuation of two decades of U.S. policy disasters in the Middle East, starting with the 2003 run-up to war with Iraq under the Bush administration.

“America exists today to make war. How else do we interpret 19 straight years of war and no end in sight? It’s part of who we are. It’s part of what the American Empire is,” says Wilkerson. “We are going to cheat and steal to do whatever it is we have to do to continue this war complex. That’s the truth of it. And that’s the agony of it.”

17-minute video