Not In The News

from Dennis Kucinich HT The Burning Platform. He makes some good points in this article. I disagree with his assessment that the great replacement is a “theory.” It’s demonstrable. Otherwise, he raises good questions.

Greetings to Young Americans: You are Automatically Registered for the Draft Conscription without Representation? Where and WHY are we sending our Kids to War?

Our government is planning a big draft, conscripting millions of young Americans for an even bigger war!

I call to your attention a Democratic amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which was slipped into the almost trillion-dollar Pentagon war spending bill, by voice vote, in the House Armed Services committee.

The Democratic Amendment to H.R. 8070, the National Defense Authorization (NDAA) reads:

Section 531. Selective Service System:  Automatic Registration.  SEC. 3. (a)(1) “Except as otherwise provided in this title, every male citizen of the United States, and every other male person residing in the United States, between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, shall be automatically registered under this Act by the Director of the Selective Service System.” 

This amendment is in the NDAA legislation and there is no pending amendment to strip it from the bill.  So, when the NDAA passes, as early as this week, Congress will have taken steps to make automatic conscription the law of the land.

Why an automatic draft?  Members of Congress and the President have an obligation to explain to the American people to which foreign land will their sons, and perhaps their daughters, be sent to die?

The U.S. has been in a continuous “State of Emergency” since September 11, 2001, which provides a president with over 100 powers he would not ordinarily have.   Notwithstanding that the automatic draft provision will go into effect in a year,   a presidential order invoking emergency powers and/or an Act of Congress, could readily move millions from their civilian lives to the front lines of a war.

WHAT WE KNOW:

We know that America is fomenting wars around the world

We know that the military industrial complex controls our government

We know that we are on the precipice of a global war, provoking aggression rather than resolution with Russia, China and in the Middle East.  

The only winners in these wars are the war profiteers.

They’re now going to take our children to fight in unnecessary, destabilizing, dangerous, debt-creating wars.

Just today President Biden committed the U.S. to an additional decade of support for Ukraine’s war with Russia.

There is no other conceivable reason to require more than 16 million American males to be automatically registered for the draft, other than to prepare for a large-scale war.

The Selective Service System is the vehicle by which individuals are inducted into the armed forces.  This NDAA Automatic Registration amendment facilitates an efficient, large-scale draft.

The new law will automatically register all males between the ages of 18 and 26.  Selective Service will notify in writing every young American male that they have been registered and will prescribe regulations which can require the registrant to provide “date of birth, address, social security account number, phone number and email address….”

There are members of Congress who advocate that young women also be included in any draft, which could bring to 32 million the number of Americans of draft-eligible age.

The U.S. currently has over 1,300,000 men and women, career soldiers, as well as volunteers, serving in the all-volunteer armed forces.

According to the new automatic draft law, undocumented immigrants, between the ages of 18 and 26, numbering at least 1.5 million, could also be conscripted, if it were to apply to women as well as men.

A government conscription edict covering the undocumented could ironically do damage to the so-called “replacement theory,” where draft-eligible undocumented immigrants could decide to retreat to the other side of the border.  Military service may appeal to others as a path toward citizenship, since immigrants serving during “period of hostility,” can seek immediate naturalization.

The last time a draft was instituted in the United States was during the Vietnam War, when 1.9 million Americans were conscripted.

A total of 8.7 million Americans served during the course of that war, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, including married men, who were subject to the draft by Presidential order.

Of 58,220 U.S. service fatalities in the Vietnam War, 17,671 were draftees.

President Biden’s recent D-Day speech, quoted in Politico, contained this noteworthy warning for young Americans: “The price of unchecked tyranny is the blood of the young and the brave.” 

Years ago I had a conversation with then-Vice President Biden, who mused, painfully, about his own sons’ lives potentially being at risk in combat.  His deep love for his sons is reflective of all Americans’ love for their children.  Those parents and grandparents with a first-person understanding of the human cost of wars in Vietnam and Iraq may have a powerful  aversion to exposing their children and grandchildren to deadly conflict, unless there is a direct threat to the territory of the United States.

Ukraine understands the price paid for war, having lost hundreds of thousands of its courageous sons and daughters in the ongoing war with Russia.

As Ukraine turns to conscription, there is push back coming from those who are subject to service but who understand they could well be facing a death sentence.

In Israel, the growing ultra-orthodox worshippers have been exempt from military service since the founding of Israel, but the government is being pressed to expand its military ranks creating a political squeeze on the Netanyahu ruling coalition.

Conscription is under discussion in Germany and Italy, while at least nine other European Union countries already use the practice to replenish their armed forces.

Resistance does occur during a draft.  I well remember anti-Vietnam war rallies with the cry “Hell, no, we won’t go!”   But for a heart murmur and a high draft number, I would have joined my brother Frank Kucinich, Jr. on the battlefield in Southeast Asia.

During the Vietnam war, an estimated 60% of all draft-eligible young men found a means to avoid getting conscripted, (including future a President by the name of Bill Clinton).  Some, fearful for their lives, fled to Canada or Sweden.

The Vietnam War ripped apart the country.  The protests over the war, fueled by compulsory service and rising casualty numbers of US troops, led President Lyndon Johnson to decide, on March 31, 1968,  not to run for reelection.  The draft was ended in 1973 and was reinstated by President Carter on January 23, 1980.

We must have a national debate over America’s forever wars which have led to the automatic draft.    Just what, exactly, are America’s interests?  Our nation’s leaders’ diplomatic skills seem limited to putting a gun on the table and saying “Let’s talk.”

Why does our government choose war over diplomacy?

As directly-elected representatives of the people, Congress, a co-equal branch of government, has a responsibility under Article One, Section 8, of the U.S. Constitution to decide to formally take  this nation to a state of war.

Yet this congress, and others, have been content to appropriate money for war and then let the President take the responsibility, something the Founding Fathers sought to avoid in devising a system of checks and balances.

Congress must take up the question of war, long before the country institutes an automatic draft. An automatic draft is a preparation for war, dramatically altering the lives of young Americans.   They deserve an answer.  We all deserve an answer. America’s future is literally on the line.

Here is a link to the excellent documentary series on the attack on the USS Liberty and the subsequent cover up.

https://www.sacrificingliberty.com

You can get a free 7-day trial and watch the movie.

Here are my notes from Sunday’s Cultural Update.

This is the cliff notes of cliff notes. There is a lot more to the story than I’m presenting here. Go watch the documentary.

Everyone knows we recently celebrated the 80^th anniversary of D-Day on June 6. Yesterday was another significant event, but I wonder if anyone knows what it is? Ever hear of the attack on the USS Liberty?

On June 8, 1967, the Liberty was sailing in the Mediterranean sea about 17 nautical miles off the northern Sinai coast. At 2 PM, without warning, she is buzzed by three unmarked jets at high speed and low altitude. The Liberty is a signals intelligence ship with only four 50 cal machine guns with no shrapnel shields. She is flying an 8’ x 5’ American flag and has 10’ high letters identifying the ship. There is a crew of 297 souls on board.

After the first pass, the jets come back around and begin launching rockets, firing onboard cannons and dropping napalm. Once they expend their ordinance, additional squadrons of planes came in and did the same.

Due to broadband signals jamming, including the maritime distress channel, the ship was unable to call for help to the nearby US sixth fleet. At one point, a distress call did get out and US fighter jets were launched to come to her aid. Those jets never made it, however, being turned around at the order of the white house, specifically LBJ and Robert McNamara.

Thirty five minutes into the attack from the air, torpedo boats began their assault. Five torpedoes were launched, one of which struck the side of the ship in the intel hold, instantly killing 25 of the men who worked there. The ship began to take on water, its engines were dead and it had no rudder. The men started launching life boats. However, the attacking surface vessels machine gunned the life boats rendering them useless and injuring many.

As helicopters approached for the final assault, Captain William L. McGonagle called out, “Stand by to repel boarders! They’ve come to finish us off.”

The attack lasted 67 minutes and was the bloodiest attack on a US ship since WWII. 34 sailors were killed and 173 were wounded.

Transcripts later showed that the attacking forces knew they were attacking a US ship and one of the pilots shouted, “Great! Wonderful! She’s burning! She’s burning!”

The ship was supposed to sink with all souls lost. However, in what must be a divine miracle, she didn’t. The crew rallied to get the engines up and running, and even though badly damaged could sail.

Incredibly, instead of being sent to the nearest port of Crete—a day’s sail–to care for the dead and wounded, they were instead directed to steam to Malta, a 7 day journey through the deepest waters of the Mediterranean sea, while listing at 15 degrees. Clearly, our government wanted her to sink as well.

Through yet another miracle, the ship made it to Malta. The survivors were immediately ushered off the ship and debriefed. When asked if they knew who attacked them, the sailors named the country. They were each threatened with court marshal and certain jail time if they ever told anyone about the attack, even their family.

After they returned home, a concerted effort was made to scuttle any story in the media about the attack and who was behind it.

Then president Johnson didn’t want to raise a fuss with the attacking nation’s domestic supporters, so he arranged for a deal to be struck. The survivors were paid off and instructed to never speak of the attack again. The attacking country said it was an accident and never spoke of it again.

A congressional committee looked into the attack, but the investigation lasted only 8 days, included but 14 crewmen and produced a report of 158 pages. Years later, the crew’s lawyer broke his silence and said the court barred them from traveling to the attacking nation to interview the pilots, obtain official transcripts or review logs.

To this day, no president has ever even acknowledged the attack or the surviving crew. Only two congressmen have ever even talked about it; Cynthia McKinney from Georgia and James Traficant from Ohio. It’s instructive to look into what happened to them.

There is an excellent documentary out called Sacrificing Liberty if you’d like to learn more. Unfortunately, it’s behind a partial paywall; you can sign up for a trial and watch it from what I can tell. I caught it when it was released on YouTube and it will break your heart. It’s worth the watch.

Oh, any guesses on which nation deliberately and without provocation attacked one of our unarmed signals intelligence ships with the intention to sink it and kill everyone on board?

Our “greatest ally in the middle east,” the geopolitical nation-state known as Israel.

Why would they do this? Israel had just started a war with Egypt and wanted desperately to get the US involved to fight it for them. The only thing that saved us from getting embroiled into a larger war in the Middle East was that LBJ was preoccupied with Vietnam and didn’t want a second war right then.

So now you know a little bit about this story; go dig some more.