A Modest Proposal
Badnarik: End the draft threat permanently
Farmington Hills, MI (PRWEB) October 26, 2004 -- George W. Bush dismisses it as an "Internet rumor." John Kerry says it's already here and that it came in through the "back door." Both claim that there will be no military draft on their watch -- and neither has squared that position with their announced plans to expand a shrinking army and extend the US occupation of Iraq.
But, says Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, it isn't really that complicated.
"If President Bush and Senator Kerry are serious about putting these rumors to bed, they can do so before the election," says Badnarik. "The president can call a special session of Congress. Senator Kerry can draft legislation repealing the Selective Service Act on his plane en route to Washington. With Congress in a hurry to get back on the campaign trail, there should be no problem getting the bill debated and passed in one day -- IF the Republicans and Democrats are serious when they say they oppose the draft."
Badnarik won't hold his breath, though.
"Bush and Kerry want the issue to go away -- until November 3rd," says Badnarik's communications director, Stephen Gordon. "Kerry wants everyone to forget that until this March, his campaign web site called for universal national service. Bush wants people to stop noticing that that recruitment and re-enlistment quotas aren't being met, that his own Secretary of Defense has called for 30,000 more troops in 2005, and that the US only has about a third of the troops in Iraq that it needs to pacify the country." Kerry removed the draft proposal from his web site after Aaron Russo, one of Badnarik's opponents for the Libertarian presidential nomination, called public attention to it.
"There are two possibilities," says Badnarik. "Either the 'major party' candidates plan to withdraw from Iraq, or they plan to implement conscription. They should honestly state their intentions."
Instead, Badnarik says, the candidates have used other politicians -- including Republican Chuck Hagel and Democrats Hillary Clinton and Tom Udall -- to float "trial balloons" and prepare the public for conscription. "Next spring, the promises will be forgotten and President Bush or President Kerry will point out that our congresspeople have been debating it for a year; why weren't we listening?"
Badnarik, whom voters in 49 states and the District of Columbia will be able to support at the polls November 2nd, has pledged to veto funding for the Selective Service System and to send repeal legislation to Congress if elected.
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