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http://counterpunch.org/reeves03192005.html Exposing the Coming Draft continued... A NEW KIND OF DRAFT FOR A NEW KIND OF WAR The type of draft now being considered--both by some liberals and by White House military advisors and the Selective Service System--most closely resembles what Israel has today (minus the ethnic and religious distinctions)--and perhaps the Bush assertion of the "new kind of war" against terror most closely mirrors the real and desperate conflict within Israel between Jews and Palestinians struggling for the same small piece of territory. Since its beginning in 1948, Israel has been a nation under siege by its Arab neighbors and the Palestinians from whom it carved out its territory. The Israeli national service requires three years of service for all Jewish and Druze men, two for all women--between age 17 and 50. Israel divides the type of service in three parts: military (compulsory for men, except orthodox women and Jewish or Druze theology students or teachers), security (police, fire, border, anti- terror units), and community service. All students may defer enlistment, but must complete a month of training each year. There are exemptions only for the ultra-Orthodox religious scholars, mentally or physically impaired, and criminals. Women who are pregnant or married with children may also be deferred. In practice, only about 40% of all women actually serve. In this religiously based land, Christians and Muslims are not eligible to serve. What makes the Israeli system relevant for the current discussion of a revived draft in the U.S., is its focus on homeland and border security, and its universal, comprehensive nature in service of a national interest assumed to be at extreme risk from terrorism. Of course neither Mexico nor Canada represent a threat to the United States as do Israel's neighbors, but since 9/11, Bush has adamantly asserted the immediate danger of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil. This would clearly qualify as Rumsfeld's demonstrated need for conscription. Yet the main features of the Israeli system seem likely to be elements of any revised conscription in America. Just as Israel is a central factor in U.S. middle-eastern foreign policy, the 'war on terror,' essentially a war on Arab and other Muslim militants, will demand an Israeli-style security apparatus. Another feature of the Israeli system likely to be imitated in the U.S. is a special skills draft for health-care and other specialists, who may be forced to serve even beyond the mandated period. Finally, as in the U.S., the reserves are a major back-up for this system. All Jewish and Druze men remain on call until age 42, women until 24. In practice, men are now required to train for one month only until age 35, and women not at all, but all former enlistees may be called up at any time, especially if they have unique skills not satisfied by existing recruits. The Rangel plan requires two years' service for all persons between 18 and 34, with delays for schooling only until age 20. Women are included. Persons approved as conscientious objectors could still be chosen for non-combat military service. Although Rangel's Universal National Service Act was defeated overwhelmingly when the Republican leadership sprang a floor vote last October to embarrass those who warned about a coming draft, Rangel's office says he will re-introduce it in 2005. The Selective Service suggests, as was done during the lottery years 1970-1973, that 20 is a more appropriate and less controversial year to require such service. Both the Rangel bill and the Selective Service proposal have these same types of required service--with an emphasis on the new needs of Homeland Security. The Border Patrol, for instance, is having great difficulty recruiting the thousands of new guards mandated by Homeland Security. In the Selective Service plan, women would be included in the mass registration drive--to collect a vast array of personal and skills data--but would be exempt from combat service, as at present. They could choose non-combat military roles, homeland security, or community service. If not enough young people chose the military option during a war, the current draft lottery would be re-activated for both men and women not specifically drafted for skills like linguistics, engineering, computers, and health care. The Rangel plan, which is not clear about whether women could be drafted for combat roles, and which does not include the massive skills' data base, allows the President to choose the types of alternative service and the method of selection for those chosen to serve in each category. This certainly seems to guarantee the kind of class stratification that the "imperfect society" Rumsfeld mentioned forty years ago has always demanded. Perhaps Donald Rumsfeld hit the nail on the head in 1966, when he said, "Society will be imperfect tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, whether we have a voluntary or an involuntary system." As Rumsfeld said then, correcting social injustice and "imperfection" does not correlate with how we choose our soldiers. The Washington Monthly proposal suggests compelling only those who would attend four-year colleges and universities to perform at least 12 months of some kind of national service before being allowed to pursue their education. They repeat the same three types of service that are in the other proposals: community service, homeland security, and military service (with a choice for non-combat or combat duty). Under this highly unlikely scenario, only the elite would be required to serve. "Even if only 10 percent of the one-million young people who annually start at four-year colleges and universities were to choose the military option, the armed forces would receive 100,000 fresh recruits every year." This, they say, would avoid a lottery, and give 'choice' to America's best-educated young people--it would also provide a force that has the language and computer skills so lacking in the current force. They propose (as does the Rangel bill) GI Bill of Rights benefits, including scholarships, for all who serve--with higher pay and higher benefits for those who accept combat roles. They do not say what would be done if 10% did not choose combat roles in time of war, nor do they explain why such a draft, aimed only at elite students, would not in fact trigger massive protests. In whatever form, the '21st century draft' will be more comprehensive. Almost all women's organizations now support equal opportunities for women in the military, so it is highly unlikely that there would be a feminist movement against a truly comprehensive compulsory national service. Gay and lesbians cannot count on traditional homophobia to keep them out either. Their principal spokespeople have been demanding for years that homosexuality not be a reason for discharge from the military. Congress is considering elimination of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, on the grounds that it has been extremely costly--as much as $191 million since its inception in 1993, according to the General Accounting Office (GAO) report in February 2005. The author of the "Don't Ask" policy is none other than Charles Moskos, who is most visible among White House advisors in promoting the "new kind of draft." (Some who know him say he's angling to become director of an expanded selective service under Bush.) He told the Advocate, a gay/lesbian publication, that "the policy should be abandoned if there is to be a draft," simply because it would be too easy for people to use this as a way out. (Advocate, July 6, 2004.) DOES THE DRAFT PROMOTE PROTEST? DOES CONSCRIPTION GUARD AGAINST WAR AND EMPIRE? If conscription in some form is likely--and likely not to resemble the Vietnam-era draft, but more closely an Israeli-style national service--what are the arguments for it, from an anti-empire, anti-war perspective? The arguments in its favor: (1) If anyone must be forced to serve, a draft would be fairer; (2) A broad national service would allow choice, and serve community interests as well as military; (3) A 'citizen' army--that is one drawn from among all citizens--is less likely to fight wars of empire or wars for corporate interest, and more likely to recognize unjust wars and human rights atrocities. A variant of this argument is that it was the draft that led to massive student protests during Vietnam, and that without a draft, such protests will be muted. These are the arguments that lead some of the most stalwart anti-war activists either to support a draft or national service, or at least not to oppose it. Rep. Rangel and his band of anti-war liberals (with some conservative support) agree that the war in Iraq and other adventurist policies of the U.S. cannot be sustained by the current so-called volunteer army--which they call the 'poverty draft.' They believe that by instituting a universal national service, including a compulsory military draft if not enough volunteer (or by threatening one), Americans will simply not go along with wars like the present one in Iraq. They argue that the anti-war movement in the 1960s and early '70s would not have been nearly as strong had their not been a draft which threatened the sons of the elite. They insist that a volunteer army today is based on an economic draft of the poor--especially non-white poor (though Rangel insists he is speaking about all the poor, not simply blacks). If a truly universal draft were enacted--without deferments that would exempt almost all elite children--and if the sons (and daughters) of that elite--including the President's daughters, for instance--were forced into military service--the war would end, and U.S. policy would change. Further, they hold that the only form of 'fair' selection of manpower for combat in wartime is one that is random and truly universal. Congressmen Rangel insists that the current volunteer force, especially those who face combat in Iraq, is made up primarily of the poor and lower middle class men, who have accepted such dangerous work because of economic necessity (the poverty draft). Others have continued to stress that there are more Blacks and other minorities in the military, and in Iraq, than their numbers in the general population would warrant. This echoes the complaint during the Vietnam War (when draftees were cannon fodder) that Blacks took the brunt of fighting and dying. A review of ethnic demographics of the military during the Vietnam period and then recently shows a more complex picture. Racially, 11% of the 648,560 soldiers (including officers) who fought in the Vietnam War at its height were Black--when they were 13.5% of the general population. The Black percentage of combat marines and army infantry was 14%. Among the 1.8 million who fought in Vietnam at any time during the 20-year conflict, 16% were black, but of all U.S. combat deaths in Vietnam, 12% were Black. It is interesting to compare some religious demographic figures: though less than 25% of the general population was Catholic at the time, more than 33% of combat deaths in Vietnam were Catholic. (These statistics are all from Charles Moskos and Sibley Butler, BE ALL THAT YOU CAN BE, Harper-Collins, 1996.) Before 1966, however, 20% of casualties in Vietnam were Black, while this figure dropped to 10% by 1971. There is no way to know if heightened Black consciousness, Black desertions and G.I. organizing, or the general awareness of race in America, led to military policies that reduced such casualties. Throughout this period, the draft was the primary means of recruiting combat soldiers for Vietnam. It is also important to note that Blacks only made up 1% of draft board members in 1966, and by 1971, only 5%. No wonder that a Gallup Poll in 1972 found that 76% of all Black soldiers opposed the war--draftee or volunteer. Chomsky and others call the military of the late Vietnam War period a broken military. One general at the time spoke of two armies in Vietnam: the smaller force of faithful soldiers who followed the officers, and a larger body of anti-war grunts--many of whom were Blacks, Hispanics, working-class whites--and some intellectual officers from the upper middle class who came via elite university ROTCs. It is unclear whether this broken force had anything to do with the draft or not. It is undeniable that the presence of Blacks increased in the voluntary force developed after 1972 , growing far beyond their percentage in the society at large. In 1964, 9% of all military manpower was Black, while in 1976, the figure had increased to 15%. By the time of the 1991 Gulf War, 23% of the (voluntary) military were Black (but only 11% of the deaths in that war were Black-- about as many as in Vietnam). By this time, though, Blacks were only about 11% of the general population. It would appear that this was the high point of Black participation in the U.S. military. Since then, percentages have dropped--by 2003, the Black percentage was about 20%, but only 10.6% of combat units. Of those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, it would appear (the statistics are somewhat confusing) that 11.2% are black--just over their percentage in the population. Hispanic deaths are 11.7%--while their percentage in the general society is higher now than Blacks--about 14%. As an academic and activist, I was in Haiti during the intervention by U.S. troops in 1993 to restore President Aristide under Clinton, and several times during the U.S. occupation that followed it. Likewise, I have been in Haiti three times recently--once immediately after the U.S. intervention last year under the second George Bush to remove Aristide. In the 1990s, I was struck by the number of Blacks, both as ordinary marines, and as officers--including quite a few Haitian-Americans. I was told by the U.S. military in charge of the operation that Haitian-Americans had been sought out for duty in Haiti--which made sense. Last year, the opposite seemed true. In the streets, one saw countless trucks and humvees with U.S. marines--sometimes all white, never more than one or two Blacks. At the Presidential Palace, where marines had just been stationed to protect the new U.S.-approved 'president,' whom I interviewed, I counted more than 50 marines including two officers. There was only one Black. At the airport, a group of 'private security consultants' (private army soldiers) mingled with several marine officers on their way back to the states or for R&R in the Dominican Republic. All were white. I interviewed several at the palace and several more at the airport, and I spoke to some in the streets. Every soldier I interviewed was from a poor white, rural family--many from the U.S. South and Mid-West. Some of these soldiers had been 'snatched' from duty in Iraq, as they put it. One told me, "We have no idea what is going on here. None at all. They just told us a Saddam like dictator was taken out, like in Iraq." Many Haitians complained of serious incidents where civilians were killed because of language misunderstandings--the marines had no Creole translators with them. I asked a military advisor about this and he told me, "We have no policy to recruit Blacks or Haitians for duty here. The Canadians and the French can translate." This ignored the fact that Creole, spoken by most Haitians, is not the same as French. So what's going on? Is the army in the field whitening again? Is there an unwritten policy to cleanse some parts of the military of Blacks and other minorities--whether to satisfy Black feelings that they are bearing too much of the burden, or to avoid a return to the Vietnam situation where so many Black soldiers resisted and rebelled against an unjust war where they felt they had to kill people of their own or a similar race? A close look at the military reveals a very major racial shift since the Gulf War--and one that has not yet been widely acknowledged. Charles Moskos says military recruiting is now much more aggressive in rural areas than in urban ghettos. The result is clear in the make-up of the military. While general enlistment of Blacks has now fallen from 30% (at its height in the late 1990s) to about 13% today, the re-enlistment level for Blacks has remained far greater than that of whites. This is especially true for those in non-combat units, especially communications and unit administration. Moskos says that of the 45,586 combat infantry in the army in 2003, 10.6% were black; of the 12,000 air force pilots, 2%; and of the Green Berets, 5%. "The U.S. forces fighting the wars today are disproportionately white," said experts quoted in USA Today (1/20/03). Moskos told me (email correspondence, February 2004), "The portion of Blacks in combat units has been shrinking for two decades. Special forces are almost all white now. The high black numbers are in supporting roles. Even Black enlistment over all has been declining for the past two years--perhaps due to anti-Iraq and anti-Bush feelings among Blacks." Class demographics--that is the percentages from various income groups--are not kept by the Pentagon, at least not for public consumption--but it would seem that whether in a conscripted army during the Vietnam War or in a 'voluntary' army today, the poverty draft does work. Officers have always been drawn heavily from the U.S. South (the military academy graduation lists will show), and from middle and upper-middle class whites. That began to change in the period 1972-1991, when more Blacks went to those Academies and became officers. The older pattern now seems to be reappearing. Enlisted men--especially those in combat--come almost exclusively, whether drafted or volunteer, from lower middle class and the poor, and elite units are almost exclusively white now. The combat and casualty burden today seems to fall heaviest not on Blacks--or Hispanics--but on poor, rural whites--though it is difficult to prove this. The soldier facing potential combat in Iraq (or in Haiti or anywhere else) today is much more likely to be a poor white soldier from West Virginia or Nebraska than a Black from the urban ghettos of Watts or Harlem. (See also Charles Moskos, quoted by Newsmax.com, July 16, 2003, and subsequent articles by Moskos.) What does this have to do with bringing back the draft? Rangel and others say they are crafting a truly fair national service act, with a random military draft lottery, that will exempt no-one, and restore racial and class balance to the military overall. Yet both Rangel's bill and the plan being prepared by Selective Service for such a national service seem to perpetuate class differences, if not racial ones. And these plans are so much more total, that they seems to threaten the very concept of a free society. Rangel's plan, as well as the 'secret' proposals of Selective Service, would still channel young people into roles that are class related: 'skills' means middle or upper class youth; others will be grunts when grunts are needed. Again, Rumsfeld's assessment seems to hold up: in an unequal society, any form of military--drafted or volunteer--will fall more heavily on the poor. Noam Chomsky and some other radical critics of U.S. foreign policy, would agree with Rangel, but go further. They insist that 'citizen armies,' by which they mean armies drawn from the whole population and not a professional force of mercenaries, are by nature incompatible with imperial aims. Chomsky asserts that no modern European empire has fought colonial wars with conscripts--they have all built up professional, mercenary cadres, insulated from public opinion by their isolation within a military culture. He believes this is why Rumsfeld and the Pentagon so strongly prefer a 'voluntary' force. Jacob Levich has reviewed the history, and insists that Chomsky is simply wrong. ("Even Homer Nods: Chomsky and Conscription," CounterPunch, Feb. 4, 2005) Levich points out that the war in Iraq is already being waged by a 'citizen army,' drawn from men and women who are pulled from their families and their careers and forced to serve beyond their contracts as national guardsmen. He also surveys the history and finds that most colonial wars have been fought with a mix of conscripts and professional officers (Russia, Italy, Japan, Napoleon in France, Franco in Spain, Israel against the Palestinians). Britain, Levich points out, was the exception because it could depend on highly paid elite colonial troops--as the famed Gurkhas from India-- and I would add, Irish and Scottish regiments. Even if a so-called 'volunteer force' were not based on severe economic need and discrimination, a draft would both be fairer and less likely to sustain colonial wars and empire, Chomsky insists. Chomsky repeats the assertion that it was the draft that led to the massive protests against the Vietnam War--of which he was a part, but never (as he reminds us) as an opponent of the draft--only as opposed to the war itself and the imperial policies behind it. On the other hand, if a state is based on true consent (not manufactured consent, evidently!), its policies will be just, Chomsky asserts. Assumedly if such a state and its citizens were really threatened by an unjust state or non-state force, it would be 'just' to require that the burden of fighting fall on all citizens equally. (See Chomsky's interview with Amy Goodman on the Democracy Now radio program, Nov. 15, 2004, and his articles in Znet, Dec. 11, 2004, and CounterPunch, Feb. 2, 2005.) An examination of the facts during the Vietnam War do not bear out Chomsky's views about the connection between the draft and resistance to end the war. Inside the military--the broken force--according to statistics provided by the Pentagon--60% of those disciplined or suspected of anti-war organizing were from among volunteers. (See Stan Goff, From the Wilderness, Feb. 27, 2004.) I have personal knowledge of this. As an anti-war and anti-draft activist, I was smuggled onto a couple of military bases in the late 1960s (Fort Bragg and Fort Devins) to support groups within the military who opposed the war. Every leader of such a group whom I met was a volunteer, including some who were life-long professional soldiers. When I asked about this at the time, a sergeant told me, "We know the army well enough to keep from being caught--the fresh draftees would be mincemeat in a few days if they stood out by speaking out." In any case, what Chomsky, Rangel and others fail to point out is that every army is led by life-long professionals--who spend decades in isolation within a socialist-style military system that takes care of their every need, from groceries and schooling to health-care and recreation. At the same time, it is often the conscripts (or volunteer grunts at the bottom level) whose naiveté leads them to commit abuses against enemy soldiers and civilians. It is the same class of people who somehow get trapped into such behavior--whether at Mai Lai or Abu Ghreb. SHOULD THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT GEAR UP TO FIGHT THE DRAFT? As the evidence I have presented shows, some form of draft seems to be on America's horizon. It will be more comprehensive on the one hand, and more complex and subtle on the other. It will allow the illusion of 'choice,' since it will be a skills' draft for a wide range of roles demanded by the 'national interest.' Some--for instance, the Snopes rumor mill site in October 2004--simply dismiss this kind of draft as no draft at all. It will, they say, just require some with special skills--health care, linguistics, computer technology--to be inducted for both military and homeland security purposes. They call this a 'minimal' draft. In fact it is the maximum use of the conscription concept: compulsory registration of all young people, to include all relevant data about their training, skills, health and legal records, and then choose those with needed skills for specific urgent tasks--whether military, homeland security, or "other national interest." This is the draft expanded, not reduced, and it remains a likely option for a government hugely strapped both in terms of military manpower and it's perceived 'homeland' and anti-terror requirements. At the close of 2004, Al Jazeerah editorialized that, while it would take "a massive casualty-producing event on U.S. soil for the U.S. to re-introduce the draft," such an event was extremely likely if not now, soon. "Already the military situation is untenable, and homeland security itself is stretched impossibly thin already." Former Attorney General Ashcroft was chided for once saying more or less the same thing--yet did not retract his assessment. Some form of conscription is coming, so long as the U.S. continues its Imperial drive to control the whole world. This will be true whichever party is in the White House, though Democrats might put a better face on it, with more involvement of our allies. So long as the U.S. sees itself as under siege from hidden terrorists within and without, an Israeli style manpower system is the most likely. It will not be the simple Vietnam era draft of the infantry. But force, compulsion, conscription, involuntary servitude--for any role--whether as linguist or border guard or officer or foot soldier-- undermines a basic human right for people of all races and classes: free choice, especially over one's work and one's life. Furthermore--like the death penalty--conscription gives any state a power that is liable to be misused, and that is dangerous in the hands of those who see themselves as the embodiment of some ill-defined national interest. At the Stockholm Conference on Vietnam in 1969, I joined other anti-draft activists to propose a resolution to the assembled delegations from around the world. We proposed that ALL nations abolish conscription. Peace groups from the USSR and the Eastern Bloc staunchly opposed this. They were, of course, controlled by their governments. The anti-draft resolution was defeated (Rumania and Cuba abstained on the final vote). The Soviet argument was that just governments could require service from their young citizens--and that all should serve equally. Chomsky is like the Soviets in believing that a 'just government' could develop a fair system to fight its wars by having the power to force all its young people to serve. The flaw in this thinking is that any government can be trusted to be just, if it is granted total powers like conscription or the death penalty. Karl Marx himself seems to have agreed with this principle. (See Howard Zinn, "Je ne suis pas Marxiste," ZINN ON HISTORY, Seven Stories Press, 1999, pp. 86-87.) It is time to revive the old saw, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." If those who oppose empire and war are divided on the question of granting the state (and especially the empire) the absolute power of conscription, they will be much more easily overcome by those who promote the empire and wage the wars. REBUILDING AN ANTI-DRAFT MOVEMENT There has been a resurgence in anti-draft awareness and activism over the past two years. Long-time organizations against war and militarism, as well as those who organize conscientious objectors, have generally taken the stand that they oppose a return of the draft, but that it is unlikely today. These groups stress that more important issues are organizing within the military, against ROTC and JROTC campus units, and against military recruitment, especially in low income neighborhoods and at high schools and colleges. Such groups include the Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors (CCCO), War Resisters' League (WRL), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR). The traditional anti-military group that has given the most attention to the possible come-back of a draft is the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD). Yet it's articles have also downplayed the real possibility of a revived draft. The Friends Committee on National Legislation (FCNL) likewise has given token opposition to the Rangel bill, but its priorities are elsewhere. One veteran conscientious objector organization, formerly known as NISBCO, now the Center for Conscience and War (CCW) has mostly takes a middle road--it has not see the draft as an immediate threat, but viewed developments in the Selective Service System as worthy of close scrutiny. It provides a wealth of information to young people and their parents about any possible coming of a draft--and warns especially against expecting Canada or other exile to be a good option in the future. Yet CCW director Bill Galvin now says, "I've begun to see the draft as more and more of an issue that will face us within the next year." A spate of new anti-draft organizations have arisen over the past two years. Each of these has a rather specific ideological or cultural style and viewpoint, ranging from far left to far right. On the right are endselectiveservice.org of the Libertarian Party and draftisslavery.com, an objectivist group. Moderate groups include the quirky but moderate DraftResistance.org, which like many of the groups, seems largely the product of one individual or a local group, in this case from Alaska. A similar effort is wewontgo.org at the University of Tennessee, which is circulating a pledge among college students that they will refuse induction if a draft is re-instated. (In 1970, the 'Charlottesville Pledge,' which had young men promise to resist once 10,000 others had signed the pledge, has often been cited as a factor in the huge increase in those who refused induction or simply fled.) The left is represented by two very active new groups--again, both organized rather locally and/or by political parties or movements. One of these is People Against the Draft (nodraft.info) mostly in New York City--whose chief organizer, Jacob Levich, has written thoroughly researched and well-formulated articles for CounterPunch and other alternative media--but who has also managed to get some attention from major media. Another group that is just now becoming active is nodraftnoway. Associated with left-oriented anti-Iraq War groups, they have planned actions on both coasts--especially for the March 31 deadline when Selective Service will announce to the President it is up and running, prepared to re-institute the draft when called for, within as few as 75 days. Stopthedraft.com is another group that seems left-oriented, but courts support from all sides. Their site recently featured a distinctly conservative group, Mothers Against the Draft (MAD), of which Phyllis Schafly is a participant. Finally, Draftfreedom.org, located in Seattle, has been started by a marketing group that seeks to reach a wide range of constituencies to prevent the draft, as well as to support those who oppose the current war, including deserters and resisters. This confusing array of websites and organizations has as yet no coherence. No attempt has been made to put together a coalition or even loose network of the anti-draft, anti-military and conscientious objector groups specifically on the issue of fighting a renewed draft. The obvious reasons are two: many within these groups still do not believe the threat is real; a few prominent liberal and leftist allies are actively promoting a draft, or at least letting it be known (like Chomsky) that they do not oppose one. But this may be changing. The Fellowship of Reconciliation invited local and national peace groups and individuals from around the country in February to consider the possibility of a draft, as one of several issues facing those who oppose the war. The result was the Nyack Declaration of Conscience and Courage, which opposes war and any future draft and supports conscientious objection. On the other hand, some peace activists continue to question what they feel may be rumors about the draft starting up this year. Oskar Castro, coordinator of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Youth and Military Program, complained at the FOR gathering about "misinformation which leads the public to believe a future draft is eminent." (From the FOR website report on its Gathering of Conscience & Courage, Feb. 2005.) Clearly there is still uncertainty and division about a coming draft among those working against war and organizing military resistance. Given the facts of a U.S. military manpower shortage, the planning going on within Selective Service, and the obvious desire of the Bush government for an ever-more-comprehensive homeland security apparatus, it is extremely urgent for those who oppose empire and wars like Iraq to unite in recognizing the danger of a new kind of draft and in strongly opposing it. This cannot be like the old conservative-liberal (Goldwater-McGovern) coalition against the draft in the 1960s and 70s. Nowadays, most conservatives can be counted on to support a draft or virtually any other measure when Bush demands it in the name of fighting terror, and most liberals are likely to support some form of broad national service, if only to show they are not soft on terror and national defense. The 21st century anti-draft movement must be more diverse and more varied in its strategies than that of the 1960s and 70s. In the same March issue of Washington Monthly with the pro-draft article, Christina Larson writes that "modern marches matter only to the marchers," in her piece, "Postmodern Protests." "Protesting for protest's sake serves a market," she says, putting down such actions as merely self-serving psychological exercises. As others have indicated, the government has devised clever new strategies to keep protests from developing--such as the preventive detention in the post-Seattle anti-globalization demonstrations in Washington. The major media virtually ignore such protests today--any march or demonstration in Washington with fewer than 1000 will merit not one inch of space--and even the larger ones get sketchy coverage or are treated in puff pieces about the marchers' since of self-worth. Fran Donolan partially agrees, but sees a need to re-invent some of the long-time methods of protest. She has been a draft counselor and anti-war activist for over thirty years, and now teaches peace studies at Goucher College in Baltimore. She says, "As George Lakey and others have been urging for a long time, the work needs to be done closer to home--at the local level, first trying to persuade those who know you. But we shouldn't give up direct action or mass demonstrations--you just don't know when the critical mass will be reached--none of us do. Going to a demonstration, even a small one, was often the first time my students had a chance to connect their own concerns with a movement. Many of them have told me, 'That's what turned me around.'" In this new environment, anti-draft organizers must reserve protest rallies and marches for a time when they can amass really large numbers, and they must learn to outwit the government in keeping down the numbers and the media in its current tendency to ignore them. Pledges to resist--including on-line petitions--may still be useful, but only if tens-of-thousands of young people can be proven to have signed them. Those with internet savvy need to be enlisted to design cyber-strategies to parallel lobbying and street protests. A revived Anti-Draft Movement should cast the widest net possible, to include all those who seek to short-circuit the new Roman Empire that George Bush envisions, and to halt or stave off wars like Iraq--or Syria, or Iran, or North Korea. The common denominator for such groups--and the core value for all who really love freedom--should lead us to expose and fight the 'new kind of draft,' a truly total state institution which would register, monitor, channel and mobilize all young Americans for its various purposes. This will exclude many mainline Democrats and Republicans, liberals as well as conservatives, who have one vision or another of an America that "brings freedom to the world." On the other hand, it can include some conservatives and libertarians--like Texas Republican Representative Ron Paul--who staunchly oppose all three: the draft, the empire and the wars. And it should have on board all those progressives, radicals, and others who are usually thought to make up the "movement" for peace and social change on the 'left.' Good timing for this new movement to coalesce would be the week of May 15, which is international conscientious objector day, with lobbying, rallies and demonstrations already planned world-wide by groups ranging from War Resisters' International to the Center for Consciousness and War and the Fellowship of Reconciliation. It would be a good start if these and other groups began to coordinate their work by acknowledging the seriousness of the threat of a return to conscription in the United States, and by forging a common front against any form of compulsory service--a draft by any name and in any form. The new kind of war, which demands a new kind of draft, must spawn a new kind of anti-draft movement if there is to be any hope of stopping the draft, countering the spread of an American empire or bringing an end to the current war in Iraq and the other wars that will inevitably come as America maintains and builds its empire. Those who work for peace and social justice and against imperialism need to see that these three--the draft, empire and war--go together and need to be fought together as part of one coherent movement. Tom Reeves was co-author with Karl Hess of THE END OF THE DRAFT (Random House, New York, 1970). He was National Director of the National Council to Repeal the Draft from 1968-1972. 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