Oregon poised for unlikely military draft

The Oregonian
Aug. 25, 2005

There is no military draft and federal officials say there are no plans to restart one, but if that changed suddenly, Oregon's system could spring to life quickly, board members say.

"There's a system in place, ready to go," said Mike Weatherby, the mayor of Fairview and a member of the statewide Selective Service appeals board. If a national draft was suddenly instituted, he said, "it would have some hiccups, some stumbling, but it would work."

While the U.S. military has been an all-volunteer force since the draft was abolished in 1973, the questions about a draft surface regularly.

The Army, Marines and especially the National Guard have struggled to meet their targets for recruiting and retaining soldiers. The continuing U.S. presence in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan has required many troops to rotate back to the region for second tours.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is planning a worldwide reallocation of its troops and equipment, to be more efficient.

"In my opinion," said Weatherby, a draft is "inevitable given the situation overseas."

That's not the official view of the Pentagon, nor the Selective Service System.

"I think the only people who could conceivably be talking about a draft are people who are speaking from pinnacles of near-perfect ignorance," Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told a Senate committee this spring. "The last thing we need is a draft. We just don't."

"I've learned never to say never," said Dan Amon, a public affairs specialist with the Selective Service System. "But the real indicators aren't there. The budget is still there. The Secretary of Defense says no. Congress says no."

Amon said the Selective Service budget for the coming year is $25.6 million, down slightly from the current year's $26.1 million. The White House budget shows the system losing five people, dropping from 161 to 156.

In Oregon, only one person, state director Gary Lockwood, draws any pay for his work for the system.

"It's a very part-time position," said Lockwood, a Salem attorney. "I get 12 to 15 paid days a year."

Lockwood said the state has 25 local boards, each with five members. The local boards correspond roughly to county boundaries, and a statewide appeals board handles cases in which draftees -- if there were any -- object to being inducted. Board members meet once a year for training, but otherwise, don't have much to do.

Stephen Johnson, who serves on a draft board in Lane County, said last year's training was the first time the appeals board learned a little about how the Selective Service handles objections from draftees with certain kinds of medical training. Doctors aren't supposed to be combatants, for example, and nobody is allowed to plead not to be drafted because their incomes would be reduced too much.

The only other draft board communications, he said, are occasional letters from Lockwood, and e-mails about potential training dates.

Men aged 18 to 25 are still required to register for the draft, which they can do on the Internet, through the mail or at their high schools. Some states, but not Oregon, combine draft registration with the issuance of a driver's license. Lockwood lobbied for such a system in Oregon last year, but later withdrew his proposal. He said he hopes to try again with a bill that would allow driver's license applicants to "opt out" of draft registration.

Despite that, Oregon's compliance with the requirement to register is relatively high, in the low 90 percent range.

With the increasing political conversation about the draft has come increasing talk about how to resist it.

"The draft is a very real possibility," said Bill Galvin, counseling coordinator at the nonprofit Center on Conscience & War in Washington, D.C. "They just don't have the people they need."

The center's officers have been giving talks on the likelihood of a draft and how to avoid it. They have noted that the requirement to register for the draft forces some people to violate the dictates of their consciences by cooperating with the nation's military policy. That's why the center opposes the automatic, driver's license-related registration.

"Registration is a serious issue, and people need to think about it," Galvin said.

The center is helping to highlight the regulations about the draft, such as the fact that if people are drafted and pass their physicals, they have only a brief time -- 10 days -- to give notice that they object to being drafted.

Johnson, from the Lane County board, holds a Ph.D. in sociology and has added a scholarly voice to peace-related debates, such as arms control. But he said his personal feelings about war and peace don't conflict with his service on a draft board.

"I thought draft boards in the Vietnam War acted very capriciously," said Johnson, who is old enough to have had friends who were killed in the war. Wanting the local boards to operate fairly, he said, "doesn't mean I support the draft."