Author says Cheney draft deferments weren't unusual - Boston Globe

[Dems Will Win]

Author says Cheney draft deferments weren't unusual
Many exercised option in the '60s
By Nick Anderson, Los Angeles Times | September 18, 2004

WASHINGTON --

-snip-

The deferments were issued as Cheney was in the midst of an on-and-off college career. He started at Yale in 1959 but flunked out, by his own admission, and eventually earned bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Wyoming.

-snip-

Elizabeth Cheney was born July 28, 1966. Critics have noted that her birth occurred nine months and two days after a change in government policy that made childless married men more likely to be drafted.

Cheney's record also shows he was twice given 1-A status, indicating he was able to serve. The first instance was Feb. 15, 1962, when he was first exposed to the draft because government policy then was to confer that status on men who had reached their 20s, specialists say. The second time was May 19, 1965. As a result, there were apparently several months -- especially in 1965 -- when he could have been drafted. In all, 1.8 million men were drafted from 1964 to 1973.

When Cheney faced Senate confirmation hearings in 1989 for his nomination to lead the Pentagon, he was quoted as saying he ''would have obviously been happy to serve" had he been called. Another Cheney quote from that time: ''I had other priorities in the '60s than military service."

-snip-

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/09/18/author_says_cheney_draft_deferments_werent_unusual?mode=PF

[saigon68]

1. ''I had other priorities in the '60s than military service."

CHENEY = CHICKEN HAWK COWARD

[indepat]

3. Is not Cheney the epitome of the classic chicken hawk who found a way out

of military service but who seemingly callously supports policies in which members of our military and countless innocents die and are maimed in furtherance of ideological, rather than, self-defense goals?

[Dems Will Win]

6. Hang up this DRAFT FLYER!

PRINT THE PDF: http://somnamblst.tripod.com/draftalert.pdf
HANG THIS FLYER EVERYWHERE

This is a SPECIAL MILITARY DRAFT ALERT. THIS IS NOT THE RANGEL DRAFT BILL, THIS IS NEW! THIS IS BUSH QUIETLY READYING THE COMBAT DRAFT AND HAVING THE SELECTIVE SERVICE CREATE A NEW DRAFT FOR 2005.

In May, the Seattle Post Intelligencer published an article about a document they received through the Freedom of Information Act. It was revealed that the SSS is currently “designing procedures” for the implementation of a “Skills Draft” after holding a top-level meeting on it with Deputy Undersecretaries at the Defense Department. The top-level This draft would change the very mission of the Selective Service and require “virtually every young American”, male and female ages 18-34, to register for the Skills Draft and list all the occupations they are proficient in to fill labor shortages throughout nearly the entire government.

Here, for the first time, is the FOI document itself:

http://blatanttruth.org/selective_service091304.pdf

This document is real, having been acknowledged by the DoD and the SSS when they said no action is being taken on it at the present time, as reported:

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/171522_draft01.html

Although Congress would have to approve new legislation to create a Skills Draft or reinstate the combat draft, Family Circle reported in its July 13 issue that Karl Rove has polled GOP members of Congress in September 2002 to see if they would support the President if he requests reinstatement. The Republicans said they would vote for the draft.

In addition, the SSS itself has said that it is “designing procedures” (Seattle PI, May 1, 2004) to implement the skills draft, meaning designing the compliance cards and the data fields needed to keep track of “virtually every young American” and their skills. Acting Director of the SSS Brodsky has also said the Skills Draft is the “top priority” of the Selective Service for 2004. The Issue Paper options include:

- Allow a non-combat draft for shortages in critical skills, without calling a combat draft.

- Fill labor shortages of all kinds throughout not only DoD but the Dept. of Homeland Security and other agencies, especially high-paying professionals like computer networking specialist or linguist.

- Create a single-point, all-inclusive database, in which every young person would be forced to send in a “self-declaration” of all of their critical skills, chosen from a long list of occupations like the Armed Forces Specialty Code. The usual penalties of imprisonment and/or a $250,000 fine would apply to all non-registrants.

In the secret planning meeting document, the next steps strongly recommended by SSS Acting Director Brodsky were:

1. “Promptly” redefine the SSS Mission to draft men and women up to age 34 for skills, and deliver them within 90 days or sooner to the Department of Defense. Program a massive database to be ready to enter millions of names of those registering their critical skills.

2. Expand mission to deliver personnel in skills draft to the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies, including FEMA, NSC, Border Patrol, INS, Customs, Corporation for National Service, Public Health Service and other agencies.

3. Form interagency task force to provide Administration with recommendation on this skills draft for the entire government.

4. Obtain White House Statement of Administration Policy on the future of the SSS.

5. Be prepared to market the skills draft, raising the non-combat age to 34 and the drafting of women to the Armed Services and Appropriations Committee.

In contrast to this planning and preparation to create a targeted draft, Kerry plans to spend an additional $7 billion to strengthen the Volunteer Army in what is essentially a “No-Draft Plan”. Moreover, Kerry is strongly opposed to the neo-con plan revealed in Wes Clark’s book Winning Modern Wars, in which Clark was told by a senior Pentagon official that invasions of Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Sudan and Somalia were planned and still to come over the next three years.

DON'T FORGET TO USE THE .PDF NOT THE .GIF FILE.

BUSH '04 = DRAFT '05

KERRY '04 = PNAC OUT THE DOOR!

[bluestateguy]

7. If I ever got a draft notice that would be my response

I would scribble it on the draft notice and send it back to the SSS. And I'd be telling the truth too. I'll be dammed if I'm going to risk so much as a papercut to make Halliburton executives ever more wealthy. I have a dissertation to write, bills to pay and a career to work on. I have a life and it does not belong to the government, much less George W. Bush and his illegally installed cabal.

[stepnw1f]

2. Tell That To All The Poor Who Served, that Deferments Aren't Unusual

You bastads!

[kysrsoze]

16. They were common for rich, connected fuckwads.

[oneighty]

4. They were singing a different song

about President Clinton.

OK for a Republican to skip out, but after all they all do.

Hypocrites.


180

[bluestateguy]

8. You are right

Though David Marinass's book suggests that Clinton's preferential treatment by his draft board was common at the time for Rhodes scholars.

[oneighty]

10. Yes

I have heard that before in reference to Rhodes scholars.

180

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

13. Clinton didn't avoid the draft

From Nightline:

JEFF GREENFIELD (VO)

Clinton has long acknowledged his opposition to the Vietnam war. As a Rhodes scholar in England, he helped organize an anti - war protest in November of 1969. But he has also said that it was his doubts about the morality of the war and the Selective Service system that led him to abandon the ROTC idea and to subject himself to a draft lottery. Only the luck of the draw - a high lottery number - kept him out. One of his friends from his Oxford days strongly backs Clinton's story.

[Branjor]

5. I remember that student deferments....

were quite commonplace back then. I also remember hearing a politician making a speech once (for the life of me can't remember who) in which he said that some young men were serving in Vietnam and that "the cream of the crop" were in the colleges. Seemed to me like a kick in the teeth to those who were serving (not "the cream of the crop").

[saigon68]

9. I remember that

I was not "the Cream of the Crop" but we got even with the old Dumbocrats who sent us off to fight a Rich man's war

They rued the day when the Veterans came back and took to the streets.



Richard Nixon's Convention coronation Miami Beach summer 1972

Ron Kovic in the chair on the right.

[Dr Fate]

11. Let Cheney say this in his own words. "Journalists" are making excuses...

If it was "okay" for Cheney to support a war but refuse to serve, let him say that in his own words.

[bluedeminredstate]

12. I don't fault anyone for trying not to go

but I make an exception for those who get perpetual boners over war and make their money that way.
Cheney ranks right up there at the top of the heap of the warmongers and war profiteers who want someone else to fight them.
:mad:

[LastLiberal in PalmSprings]

14. It's just to give the Repugs a response to the charge Cheney

had so many deferments.

"Oh, yeah? Well, everyone was getting deferments. But at least they weren't lying about their Purple Hearts!" (Somehow that argument makes sense in their warped minds.)

[saigon68]

15. KICK

[Dems Will Win]

17. kick

[sofa king]

18. Heh. Elizabeth Cheney is a "personal welfare" baby.

[Judi Lynn]

19. I remember those sad days when gibbering about Clinton's lack

of service in Vietnam was all Republicans had to sustain them. Poor, poor things trying to rage about Clinton while deflecting remarks about Dan Quayle. It was a godsend when finally Scaife scared up Whitewater, Paula Jones, and Monica Lewinsky stumbled into view, or they'd still be obsessing about Clinton's time in England (ooooh, he eeeeven went to Russia!) and exonerating Quayle.

[librechik]

20. Yeah, which makes what Kerry did even more unusual and heroic