The Draft

I’ve had several people mention to me that they’ve heard that Congress is working on reimplimenting the draft. They all cited an article on Congress.org, which I looked up today.

Congress.org: Pending Draft Legislation Targeted for Spring 2005

The article starts with the alarming headline The Draft will Start in June 2005, and goes on to explain that there are two pending bills in Congress (twin bills: S 89 and HR 163) that would reinstate the draft.

Now, being a skeptic, my immediate reaction was congress.ORG? Who are they? The real website for Congress is House.gov, using the .gov domain, as all official government websites do.

Congress.org is “a service of Capitol Advantage” - it is not Congress itself. That means it’s a private institution with its own agenda.

So my next stop was Snopes.com, the best source for information on urban legends and other misinformation. Their opinion on the draft is that it’s probably not going to happen.

Basically, what it all boils down to is this:

• The bills in congress are real.
• The bills don’t have much support.
• The bills don’t do exactly what congress.org is claiming¹

It certainly looks like these bills are going nowhere, and I don’t think anyone should be alarmed about it. But if you are concerned, the best thing for you to do is to write to your state representatives and let them know that you don’t want them to support these bills. It will never hurt you to get involved, and then when the bills don’t pass, you’ll know you did your part to help.

When you hear a story like this, especially if it seems alarmist, the best weapon in your arsenal is common sense. Check the source of the story, and try to confirm it elsewhere. Once you do, you’ll generally find the truth is a little different from the alarmist version.

¹ - Based on what snopes.com has to say.