If you Register for the Draft, then why not Register to Vote?

The Draft. It’s been gone since Vietnam. But we are hearing it from the politicians like never before. John Kerry says we can expect a draft if the President gets re-elected. Republicans claim that it is the Democrats who really want the draft.

As President Bush and Senator Kerry are struggling to create a workable strategy for the future of Afghanistan and Iraq, troop commitments are increasingly a volatile issue. Army officials are increasingly concerned about “running out of crucial specialists in the Reserves who can be involuntarily called up for duty.”

Since more than 75% of all US casualties in Iraq are between 18 and 30 years old, the draft certainly lends credence to saying, “Vote or Die.”

The draft ended in 1973. Since 1980, however, all males age 18-25 have been required to register with the Selective Service, the organization that implements a draft when it happens.

If the government is going to make you, your friends, your family, register for the draft, then you sure as hell better register to vote. It’s the only way you get to talk back—if you don’t vote, your opinion really doesn’t matter to the politicians.

Can you really afford to take that chance?


Alex Sherman