(Audio Only) Franklin Sanders at the 2004 Constitution Party National Convention (June 25, 2004)

Franklin Sanders delivers "I Feel a Draft" speech at the 2004 Constitution Party National Convention. This event was held from June 23-26, 2004, at the Valley Forge Convention Hall in Valley Forge, PA.Show more

BACKGROUND:
"Franklin Sanders grew up in Memphis, spent two years in the US Army, and attended graduate school at Tulane and the Free University of Berlin. In 1980 Mr. Sanders opened a gold and silver brokerage, and began publishing his newsletter, The Moneychanger. He has written or co-authored four books. In 1993 Mr. Sanders wrote (for Jim Blanchard) Silver Bonanza: How to Profit From the Coming Bull Market in Silver. He lives with his wife, five of his seven children, and five grandsons in Dogwood Mudhole, Tennessee."

TRANSCRIPT:
(As delivered at the Constitution Party National Convention 2004 and printed in The Money Changer, vol. 23, no. 4, July 2004.)

"Imagine that the year is 1795. You are a British subject, living in the port town of Plymouth. In the ordinary course of everyday life, one of the dangers you must always guard against is meeting a “press gang” on the street. Press gangs are parties of soldiers or sailors roaming the streets empowered to seize any able bodied man between 18 and 55 and force him to serve in the Army or Navy. By the way, already having served is no excuse. You might have been pressed into the military once, served five years, and then a few days after you are released you might be impressed again.

But “press gangs” weren’t limited to Great Britain. They were just as common in France and Prussia. And the British weren’t too fastidious about whom they pressed. Sometimes they just cleaned out the jails. In 1779 a general press of all “rogues and vagabonds in London” was ordered. All who were not too lame to run away or too destitute to bribe the constable were swept away.

The British did not limit the draft, however, to their own nationals. Between 1799 and 1812 thousands of British seamen signed up on US merchant ships. During the Napoleonic wars, the British insisted they had the right to board neutral ships on the high seas to search for “deserters” or British subjects liable to impressment. In fact, British boarding parties actually seized whomever they wanted, many US citizens among them.

It will utterly astound you to learn that in 1812 the United States of America went to war against Great Britain in part because the British Navy boarded American ships and impressed their sailors. Astounding, isn’t it, that a nation that once went to war to prevent impressment is today about to impose impressment on its own citizens -- men and women alike. Even at their worst, the British never pressed women.

Generally speaking, a draft or conscription seldom appears in republics. Where the commonwealth is healthy, and the people for good reason love their country, any invader will meet a host of patriot volunteers. No, a draft is usually the tool of empire, when imperial rulers want to wage foreign wars, wars of conquest, aggressive wars, and can find among their reluctant and sensible citizens no volunteers. Let me repeat that: a draft is not a tool of free nations and free people. A draft is the tool of slave states and totalitarian empires.

It is not coincidental that the United States never saw a draft until the War of Northern Aggression. That unpopular war was fought for the imperial goal of forcing the free and independent Southern states back into a Union they no longer desired. In the North the draft was so unpopular that in at least four Indiana counties sheriffs either called out the local militia against Federal conscription officers, or refused to allow them into their counties. In New York riots against the draft that broke out in July 1863 killed hundreds of innocent persons, most of them black. The riots could only be suppressed by the Army and Navy.

Now it may be that in times of emergency, when invasion threatens a nation’s survival, that it becomes necessary to mobilise every resource the nation can muster. Perhaps when the nation’s life is at stake, a draft in the name of national self-defence might be justified. From the most ancient times Anglo-Saxon law enforced a common obligation to serve in the local militia or the posse comitatus, the power of the county.

But even granting that exception, how can a draft be justified in a time of peace? Or for imperialist adventures? The plain answer is, it can’t.

To condemn a draft we don’t need to answer the abstruse, ethical lifeboat question of whether a national life-or-death situation justifies it. All we have to do is read the United States Constitution, and use a little elementary logic.

First, let’s look at the Preamble to the Constitution. We all know this:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It ought to be obvious that no one can enjoy any of these blessings unless he is alive. It simply doesn’t make any sense that the creature -- the government -- can turn and murder the creator -- the citizens, yet a draft does exactly that.

A draft, then, contradicts the most fundamental foundation of the constitution, namely, that the state exists to serve the citizen. In a 1979 column on conscription, the recently deceased President Ronald Reagan wrote,
“[The draft] rests on the assumption that your kids belong to the state. If we buy that assumption then it is for the state -- not for parents, the community, the religious institutions, or teachers -- to decide who shall have what values and who shall do what work, when, where, and how in our society. That assumption is [not] a new one. The Nazis thought it was a great idea.”

Paul Whitcomb said it more succinctly, that the logic of the draft is “that the right to govern is paramount over the right to live, that man is made for government, rather than that government is made for man.” (quoted in Charles L.C. Minor’s The Real Lincoln, Sprinkle Publications, Harrisonburg, Virginia.)

By its very nature, potentially robbing the citizen of his liberty and life, a draft utterly contradicts the purpose of the constitution and of all free government. A draft unarguably presupposes that all citizens’ lives belong to the state, and the state may dispose of those lives as it state sees fit.

But since the “state are people,” what does this mean in the end? It means that some people - presidents and representatives and senators and think tank operators -- have the right to condemn other people to death, merely on their say-so.

In the constitution’s Fifth Amendment we read that “no person … shall be deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law.” But isn’t a draft “due process of law”?

NO! NO! It is impossible that congress could make any valid law that contradicts the constitution’s purpose. On its very face, to expose unwilling citizens to destruction of liberty, limb, and life, overthrows the constitution.

It is most curious that the very people hottest for a draft are generally those who most bitterly condemn slavery. Yet they exercise a selective blindness, although the Thirteenth Amendment provides that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.” How very strange! In spite of their howling and moaning about the evils of slavery, nothing about the draft makes these same people gag.

FACTS
We’ve seen that nothing could insult the constitution and free government worse than peacetime draft. But wait -- the draft was discontinued in 1973. Carter revived registration only in 1980. How close is the US government to instituting a draft today? Am I just incurably suspicious, or are there grounds for suspicion?

CIRCUMSTANCES FORCE IT:
OVERSTRETCHED
Attempting to police the entire globe, United States military power has been stretched very thin, with troops scattered all over. 120,000 troops can never “pacify” Iraq. Iraq covers about 168,000 square miles, with 29 million people, the majority of whom oppose the American occupation. That’s an average of 173 people per square mile, but only 0.7 US military personnel per square mile, fewer than one-third of whom are trigger-pullers. Over 3,000 have been wounded, 800 killed, and around 7,000 have been evacuated for “non-combat” reasons in one year. About half the US military’s total ground combat strength is now tied up in Iraq.

In addition, the US is overstretched throughout the world: 4,000 troops in former Yugoslavia, 37,000 in Korea, 71,000 in Europe, not to mention troops in Liberia, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, Senegal, Malawi, Ethiopia, Mali, Columbia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Of 480,000 people in the US army, over 300,000 are now deployed overseas.

Another 40,000 troops are in Afghanistan, Kuwait, and Qatar, and the US intends to keep about 140,000 troops in Iraq through 2005. When the US fought the first Persian Gulf War in 1991, it had 10 ready-to-deploy army divisions at home in reserve. Today there is one single division remaining in the US that could be deployed to Iraq.

UNDERMANNED
Military manpower is already failing. On June 2, 2004 Army officials announced that thousands of active-duty and reserve soldiers who are nearing the end of their volunteer service commitments could be forced to serve an entire tour overseas if their units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. Congress authorised this so-called “stop-loss” policy after the Vietnam War, and it was first used preparing for the Persian Gulf War in 1990. Officials have extended the tours of 20,000 troops. Thousands of active-duty and reserve soldiers who are nearing the end of their volunteer service commitments could be forced to serve an entire tour overseas is their units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan. If this is not a draft, then what is it?

It gets worse. The Rocky Mountain News reported on June 14, 2004 that Army re-enlistments are dropping suddenly and dramatically where combat units have recently returned from Iraq. Some observers believe this lower re-enlistment rate could show growing discontent. “It sounds to me like the Army is voting with its feet, “said John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria, VA think tank.

OVERREACHING
More than that, the present aggressive foreign policy of the United States intends to enforce its will on the world or kill them in the process. That guarantees that eventually the US must reintroduce the draft. Not only has US Foreign Policy dug for itself a deep hole of resentment and revenge, it still cannot be satisfied to stay and home and mind its own business. Rather, Washington and its neo-conservative think tanks plan to remake the world after their own image. Unavoidably, this means war -- war for generations, all over the globe. No speculation is necessary here, because the administration is already bogged down in an Iraqi war that all by itself could last for decades.

WARMING UP THE MACHINERY
There are plenty more facts that point to a draft coming soon:

$28 million was added to the 2004 Selective Service System budget to prepare for a draft starting as early as June 15, 2005. Selective Service, dormant for decades, must report to Bush on March 31, 2005 that the system is ready for activation. http://www.sss.gov/perf_fy2004.html

The Pentagon has been quietly campaigning to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots. Currently, 13.5 million men aged 18 to 25 are registered with Selective Service.

Legislation been introduced into both the Senate and House of Representatives (S. 89, http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:S.89:, and HR 163, http://www.congress.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:HR.163:) entitled “The Universal National Service Act of 2003,” “to provide for the common defence by requiring that all young persons [age 18 - 26] in the United States, including women, perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defence and homeland security, and for other purposes.” Senator Hollings introduced the Senate version, and Representatives Rangel, McDermott, Conyers, Lewis of Georgia, Stark, and Abercrombie introduced it in the House. Presently these bills are sitting in the committee on armed services.

The proposed draft bill would roll back further the social progress Christianity has secured for women over the last 2000 years. For 20 centuries Christianity laboured to improve the lot of women, who were little better than slaves and chattel. From there Christianity exalted them to respect and protection. When the US government introduced women into combat units, it began to destroy those social protections around women. Is it any surprise that now women will get to enjoy all the freedom of being drafted? Now that is progress -- or is it regress?

Already in place at Selective Service is “The Health Care Personnel Delivery System”, a standby plan to draft health care personnel. If implemented, it would allow Selective service to draft doctors, nurses, medical technicians, and others with health care skills for military or civilian service. It would register all male and female health care workers between the ages of 20 and 45.

In May 2004 reports surfaced that Selective Service Chief Lewis Brodsky had presented several proposals to senior pentagon officials in February 2003, just before the US invaded Iraq. Brodsky wants to extend the draft registration age from 25 years old to 34 and register women. He acknowledged that they would have to “market the concept of a female draft to Congress.” Commissar Brodsky wrote, “In line with today’s needs, the Selective Service System’s structure, programs, and activities should be re-engineered toward maintaining a national inventory of American men and, for the first time, women, ages 18 through 34, with an added focus on identifying individuals with critical skills.” People with special skills needed in the armed forces would be required to “regularly update the agency on their skills until they reach age 35.”

I don’t know about you, but I find something deeply insulting and dehumanising about being included in a “national inventory of American men and women.” The draft reduces us, quite literally, to nothing more than “human resources.”

Of course, Selective Service covered its tracks by claiming that “these ideas were only being floated for Department of Defense consideration” and “food for thought.” Personally, I don’t [want] anybody to feed the bureaucrats. I prefer their minds be starved to death, before they think up some new way to oppress us.

DRAFT DODGING WILL BE HARDER
Canada will not be an option. In Dec. 2001 Canada and the US signed a “smart border declaration” which could keep would-be draft dodgers in. Signed by the Canadian foreign affairs minister and US Homeland Security director, Tom Ridge, the declaration’s 30 point plan implements a “pre-clearance agreement” of people entering and departing each country.

Education won’t bring much of a deferment. High school students can continue until 20, and then can be drafted. College underclassmen would only be deferred to the end of their current semester. Seniors could finish their year.

CONCLUSION
Preparations the government has made so far points to the draft being implemented in Spring, 2005. If George Bush wins the election, he would be a lame duck president, and therefore immune to the political backlash a draft would cause.

It appears that no matter how unconstitutional, how deadly to liberty and life, the federal government is about to impose a draft on us.

What can you do? Well, you can get your children passports and send them to New Zealand, or you can roll up your sleeves and make a political fight to head off the draft.

They want us to fight, and I think we ought to oblige them -- let’s fight."

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(Used under fair use, for commentary, education, criticism and satire.)

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ATTRIBUTION:
* Constitution Party. "Convention Speakers". ConstitutionParty.org, May 2004.
* Peroutka, Michael. "Franklin Sanders "I Feel a Draft" Speech". Peroutka2004.com, 17 Jul. 2004.