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Reagan's Word on Registration

By VVAW

Underlining the fact that even as President he's a bad actor, Ronald Reagan decided that his promise to end draft registration wasn't worth the breath he had taken to utter it. Registration stays, with a short period of "grace" for those who have not rushed to register. The official reason for this change of mind is that abolishing draft registration would "send the wrong message to the Russians," Perhaps they would think that all the bluster going on in the State Department and elsewhere in the government is just "bluster."

Over the past several months the military has been able to say that they have finally reached their quotas; with unemployment over 9 million it's hardly surprising that the "economic draft" has been hard at work and that faced with the choice between joining the military and being on welfare (which is about to be cut off), many young men and women opt for the military.

Despite an increase in enlistments, however, all is not well with the U.S. military. Skilled enlisted people are still bailing out after their first enlistment term despite huge bonuses being offered to stay in. The fact that there is still no real GI Bill and that the government's track record in dealing with vets is horrible does not inspire young people with some of the qualifications that the military wants to join up. And military planning for the next war suggests that there may be a need for large numbers of troops fed into the machine very quickly.

So American 18-year-olds are still faced with registering for a draft which is sure to come as the military tries to use all the fund now being channeled into it. Hundreds of thousands of 18-year olds refused the last registration, seeing no reason to put their bodies on the line for the profits of corporations or the fumings of a few politicians. There's no reason to believe that more will sign up this time around.

NO DRAFT—NO WAR!