Author: Edward Hasbrouck

Thursday, just before Congress recessed until the new year, U.S. Representatives Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Rodney Davis (R-IL) introduced H.R. 5492, a bill “To repeal the Military Selective Service Act, and thereby terminate the registration requirements of such Act and eliminate … the Selective Service System.”

This bill is the most comprehensive anti-draft proposal introduced in Congress since the reinstatement of Selective Service registration in 1980.

Continue reading “Bill Introduced To End Draft Registration”

NPR’s Morning Edition today includes a report by David Welna, possibly the only journalist who sat through all of the two days of hearings on Selective Service at which I testified last month before the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service, “Selective Service registration comes under fire again."

The NPR story highlights the lack of updates to addresses in the Selective Service System database, and the key testimony by Bernie Rostker, former Director of the SSS, that the current registration database is so inaccurate as to be “worse than useless."

Today’s NPR story is the first mainstream news report on Rostker’s testimony, accuracy of the SSS database, or whether a draft based on the current system would be possible (regardless of whether it is regarded as desirable or who supports or opposes it on political or ideological grounds).

Continue reading “NPR: ‘Selective Service Registration Comes Under Fire Again’”

The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (NCMNPS) released its interim report and schedule of formal hearings today.

Archived C-SPAN video of news conference announcing report:

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Article by Gregory Korte in USA Today
• My analysis of the errors of omission and commission in the report

The Commission was created in 2016 to study and report to Congress and the President on whether registration with the Selective Service System for military conscription (“the draft”) should be ended, extended to young women as well as young men, extended to older women and men with skills in special demand by the military (in health care, computer science, STEM, foreign languages, etc.), or replaced with something else such as compulsory “national service” with both civilian and military options.

The Commission’s goal in its interim report released today is not really to “report” on what it has done, but to set the terms of debate (excluding options like, “Admit that draft registration has failed”), and test the political reaction to some of the proposals the Commission is considering.

For the most part, the report was as expected, including a complete absence of any mention of issues of compliance, enforcement, or feasibility of any compulsory service scheme.

Continue reading “National Commission on Military Service report and hearing schedule”

The National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service (NCMNPS) will release an “interim report” this Wednesday, January 23rd, at a press conference from 9-10:30 a.m. EST at the Newseum in Washington, DC.

Members of the public can attend the news conference in DC on Wednesday by preregistration, and the news conference will be livestreamed on the Commission’s Facebook page. The written interim report will be posted on the Commission’s Web site at Inspire2serve.gov.

The interim report is unlikely to reveal what the Commissioners have agreed, and there is probably still substantial disagreement between members of the Commission. But the interim report will lay out what options the Commission is considering with respect to whether Selective Service registration should be abolished, expanded to women as well as men, or replaced with a new system, most likely a national service scheme in which those who don’t “voluntarily” do civilian work approved by the government would be subject to possible conscription into the military.

Continue reading “National Commission on Military Service Interim Report Due Wednesday, January 23rd”

No matter what happens in today’s voting, it won’t end the bipartisan support for war or the need for antiwar activism outside the sphere of electoral politics.

Case in point: The bipartisan National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service is continuing to work toward recommendations to Congress and the President on whether draft registration should be ended, extended to women, modified to include people with skills in special demand by the military (health care, foreign languages, tech, etc.), and/or replaced with a compulsory national service scheme with both military and civilian components.

The Commission completed its initial round of stage-managed public meetings in September 2018. Here’s more on the activities of the Commission including records of its closed-door meetings and invited briefings, released in response to my ongoing Freedom Of Information Act requests. I will continue to post more Commission documents at Resisters.info as I receive them.

Continue reading “National Commission on Military Service To Release Interim Report in January”

The "National Commission on Military, National and Public Service" has announced that the final event in its year-long series of "informal" open-mike public hearings on whether registration for a military draft should be ended or extended will be at Cal State University, Los Angeles, on Thursday, September 20, 2018, from 3-5 p.m.:

Thursday, September 20, 2018
3:00 PM – 5:00 PM PDT

California State University Los Angeles
Golden Eagle Ballroom 1 & 2
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032

Following presentations by an invited panel, members of the public will get 2 minutes each to testify. This will probably be framed as an opportunity to ask questions of the panel, but members of the public can testify on any of the issues the Commission has been appointed to study.

Continue reading “Hearing on the Draft and Draft Registration, Thursday, 9/20/2018 in Los Angeles”