Interestingly, both of those bills were proposed by Democratic legislators who wanted to get in the news. The idea was that talk of the draft would make the war seem closer to home, and make people consider it more carefully. Those bills are currently as good as dead:
http://www.californiaaggie.com/article/?id=4686
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Discussion arose last year when, in January 2003, Senator Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.) and Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) introduced the Universal National Service Act to both the House and the Senate. The bill would reinstate the military draft requiring both men and women aged 18 to 26 to perform either military or civilian service.
The bill is currently tabled, is not likely to receive any attention in the near future.
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That said, there have been movements on other fronts to prepare for the draft.
http://www.kingcountyjournal.com/sit...ry/html/165236
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Under the No Child Left Behind law, a federal education law, military recruiters have access to students' names, addresses and telephone numbers.
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Nevermind the selective service. High Schools that receive federal money are required to give the military access to student information for recruiting purposes.
http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com...190138,00.html
Quote:
he Army will prevent soldiers in units set to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan from leaving the service at the end of their terms, a top general said Wednesday.
The announcement, an expansion of an Army program called "stop-loss," means that thousands of soldiers who had expected to retire or otherwise leave the military will have to stay on for the duration of their deployment to those combat zones.
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They've been doing stop loss for quite a while now, but it's just another indicator of the manpower problems that the military faces.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0...228178,00.html
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There already exists a Selective Service System (SSS). All young Americans are obliged to "register for the draft". It has been a mere formality since conscription was abolished three decades ago, after Vietnam, together with the loathed (and much burned) draft card. SSS will be reactivated imminently. A $28m implementation fund has been added to the SSS budget. The Pentagon is discreetly recruiting for 10,350 draft board officers and 11,070 appeals board members nationwide.
Draft-dodging will be harder than in the 1960s. In December 2001, Canada and the US signed a "smart border declaration", which, among other things, will prevent conscientious objectors (and cowards) from finding sanctuary across the northern border. There will be no deferment on higher-education grounds. Mexico does not appeal.
. . .
And, of course, the strategic case for the draft is overwhelming. If, as Rumsfeld promises, Iraq turns out to be "a long, hard slog", who will do the slogging? If others follow the Spaniards, and Tony Blair goes, the US may find itself a coalition of one. What then if something blows up in North Korea?
On how many fronts can America fight its global war on terror with a "professional" army of half a million? Half a million and shrinking fast. Reservists are not re-enlisting. They signed up for the occasional weekend playing soldiers and some useful income, not death or glory.
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So there you go. The tricky part about this is that the political situation changes completely after November 5th. Neither candidate wants to talk about it now, but it's certainly going to be on the table once the election is over, and the hot potato cools down. I'm guessing that the possibility of a draft next year after the election is quite real, but at the same time, there's talk of moving our troops out of Iraq in the next year or two. Perhaps they can stretch things out until then, but there are two things to consider. One, our military is at a state of high activity, and will need several months to regroup and cool down before remobilizing, and two, it will take a considerable amount of time to get draftees up to speed. How long? I'm not really sure.
Nobody really knows at this point, and all I can say with certainty is that the draft will probably be on the table next year, and we'll almost certainly have a draft debate, if not a draft itself. There's just no crystal ball we can look into.