Topic: Iraq
The Backdoor Draft "Individual Ready Reserve" and the truth about America's "all-volunteer military".by Aaron Emery
(libertarian)
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
In 1940, President Roosevelt signed into law the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. This established the country's first peacetime draft and established the Selective Service System at the federal level. Men had been drafted from 1948 to 1973 in both peacetime and during conflict in order to fill positions that could not be filled with volunteers. The last time a military draft was active in the U.S. the Vietnam War was in full swing. A "lottery draft", the first since 1942, took place on December 1, 1969 and determined the order in which men would be drafted in the 1970 calendar year. Lottery drafts, a method of selecting 18 - 26 year old men by birth date, were also conducted in 1970, 1971 and 1972 for the years following.
These drafts caused outrage amongst the general populace and for good measure. According to the Selective Service over 10 million men were drafted during World War II, 1.5 million were drafted during the Korean War, and 1.8 million were drafted during the Vietnam War. These numbers add up to roughly 2/3 of all service members during World War II and Korea and 1/5 during Vietnam. Those are staggering numbers to anyone.
Many intense protests and riots took place during the Vietnam era and the draft was the central controversy surrounding these. In 1973, President Nixon wisely ended the draft due to public outrage. According to the influential John Locke a person has the natural right to life, liberty, and property. These rights are not given by any government; they are inherent and as natural as your right to breathe. Any way one may attempt to construe this, a draft is a direct violation of all the above. Forced service strips one of his life, if even for a short period. It is a violation of his liberties as he is not able to choose for himself what he will do, and it is a violation of his property as one's body is the ultimate form of private property. No property or possession is more important than that. Any draft is an egregious act against a person's natural rights and liberty and should only be viewed as that.
In a time of conflict a citizenry will naturally gravitate toward military service, so long as the people feel that it is in line with their values and that their service is justified. As such, it is a general indication of the level of support of the country. If enlistment levels drop during this time it should be viewed as a lack of support and belief regarding said conflict. Support amongst the people is always the telling tale of military intervention. Currently less than 3 million or fewer than 1% of Americans are serving in the military (active duty and reserves). If those numbers were to drop steadily over the course of a few years we could conclude that on average Americans do not support the cause, hence they do not join and serve. You can easily see why the draft has been a hotly debated topic throughout the past several decades, servitude has never been popular.
We've been fortunate to have avoided a draft in the U.S. since the early 70's (if you consider not having forced servitude fortunate). The federal government and white house take great pride in the fact that today we have an all-volunteer military. Well....sort of. All members of the Armed Forces upon enlistment join for a period of 8 years. The amount of time served in active duty or the reserves is subtracted from that time and, unless that individual reenlists, the remainder of those eight years is served in the Individual Ready Reserve, otherwise known as the IRR. The standard length of a military contract is four years, so someone who serves four years is still in the "IRR pool" for four more years. According to the U.S. Army Human Resources Command website; "Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) Soldiers are a group of trained, experienced military professionals who stand ready to individually augment Army units. IRR Soldiers live, work and study in the civilian community, but they are military members with an existing service obligation. The Army accesses the forces and capabilities of the IRR as necessary to fight and win our nation's wars."
What that basically means is that for the remainder of 8 years these individuals can be recalled and forced to serve again for a period of up to 24 months. This is covered under U.S. Code 12302.
As of March, 2009 orders had been issued to 26,954 members of the IRR since September, 2001. These numbers only reflect that of the Army, not the other services. Only 48% of those recalled have actually reported for duty.
The rest face punitive measures ranging from downgrading of discharge status to imprisonment. Technically, since we are in a time of "national emergency" they are considered deserters and are also subject to the death penalty. This is important to note because all of these individuals are veterans, many of whom have served overseas and in combat. This is not a group of naiive college kids protesting the war, these are our young men and women who have served and who now refuse to take part in our military interventionism. This should lend even greater clarity to the idea that America does not support this war. When our own veterans are against military intervention, maybe we should consider that.
The fallacy that we maintain an all-volunteer service should be blown apart. Recalling veterans is a "backdoor draft", a hushed way of coercing more people into service without publicly declaring a draft. Yes, all service members sign a contract upon enlistment and this provision is included. How many 18 year olds would decide not to serve due to this clause though? If you expect a kid to understand the implications of their actions, especially when joining the military, you are sorely mistaken. Had this been a civilian contract you can bet that it wouldn't stand, people would simply sue for entrapment and they would win. Fat chance of a soldier being able to sue the government though. The honest truth is that most soldiers don't even know what the IRR is and how it may affect them. If you were to ask a soldier a few years ago or even today about the IRR you would probably get one of two replies: "What's the IRR?" or "My recruiter told me I would only be recalled if World War III happened." The latter is a pretty common answer. Thank God World War III hasn't happened!
How do I now all of this you might ask? Because I am one of those recalled soldiers. I served on active duty for five years and was honorably discharged in June, 2007. Less than a year later I received orders recalling me to service with one month's notice and I am currently deployed in the Middle East. I was definitely not alone, serving with me are more than 70 others who were recalled. All had been honorably discharged and most had been out of service for two to four years. All of us were hesitant to come back and only did so through fear of imprisonment, loss of civilian jobs, or simply guilt. I can speak with authority when I say this IS a draft. A very convenient one in which veterans who no longer wish to serve can be discredited and their lives turned upside down if they fail to comply with "federal wisdom". This is how we treat our vets? Maybe we should consider the level of support for this intervention before coercing veterans, of all people, to serve again.
For anyone that may declare; "You knew what you were signing up for", the point is missed. For those who feel that mandatory service is a great thing, the notions of personal liberty and property are lost. For those who would say; "Better you than me", ignorance is their only haven. Let's recognize this for what it is and start holding our government accountable. Call it a backdoor draft, call it entrapment, call it obligation, but don't call it an all-volunteer military.
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A well written, informative and timely piece that touched my sentiments exactly! I was one of those Vietnam era young men that was drafted the year prior to the lottery. After trying to keep an exempt status, I was finally formally drafted and chose to enlist in the Navy in hopes of avoiding the ground war in Vietnam. I served almost four years and was honorably discharched at the beginning of 1972.
I have a brother less that a year younger that was part of the initial draft lottery. Unfortunately for him, he drew lucky number seven as a lotter number and was drafted for service almost immediately. He like myself, really had no interest in the war nor a stint of servitude in the military during the prime transitional years of our lives. Unlike me and with much consternation my brother elected to leave the country and headed to Canada to evade the draft. He is still there to this day and a long time Canadian citizen.
I at the time was aboard a ship in the Gulf of Tonkin that was providing air control for bombing missions over Hanoi. I never felt like what I was doing was positive or a duty to which I should have been obligated. That whole experience is another story that could easily be put into a book and combined with my brother's experience could certainly tell quite a story of the times as they relate to the subject you've written about above.
Liberty, now as it was then, is being compromised. Freedom through the eyes of those from which freedom has been compromised has been well hidden by our government. The freedoms that society accepts today are but an illusion as you've so elloquently stated above. An illusion perceived and maintained through blatant politics and policies designed by a political class destined to maintain themselves. This perception of freedom is the dangerous and underlying issue that must continue to be exposed till understood by all of the folks.
I appreciate people like you and Jake and the many others that are formally exposing this reality and vigorously shouting truth. I too have started to openly express my dissatisfaction with where we are and what our country has become and where it is being led. I don't think we are being misguided... but controlled down a certain path. I feel that there is a concerted strategy well beyond the beginning stages designed to take us further away from the vision of our founders and the Constitution.
Although the road ahead is rought with challenges I remain optimistic about the future. My optimism is fueled by people like Ron Paul, his consistent message, and others now that see that his message is honest, truthful and an answer to the madness we now see every day. But mostly my optimism comes from people like you, Jake, Walt and others that provide and promote the insight and information that supports the challenge we all have ahead.
Thanks for your kind words and above all for being a voice of reason. It is for all our past, present, and future vets that I wrote this article. It was really touching to read your comments. This type of human connection is the one that is so sorely missing from government. They cannot comprehend the very "human costs" of what they espouse to be saving (freedom). I feel that the only way to do that is not reliance upon the government but reliance upon ourselves to discredit their motives and actions and lead ourselves into liberty, for they surely won't. I'm sure I am joined by many others that would love to hear your story, it is an important one to tell. I am sorry to hear about your brother, this is a situation that should never have occurred. My sincerest sympathies to you and your family.
Although I agree with the article author's contention that any draft is forced servitude (and I am a retired Marine w/21yrs svc), the author's contention that the IRR is accurately described as a "backdoor draft" is stretching waaay too far.
Is the author aware that the eight year commitment has been standard for almost two decades now? And that it is actually up to the potential recruit to decide how much time will be spent active and how much IRR? They can go 2/6, 3/5, 4/4, even 6/2. I am unsure if there is an option for serving all eight years active and having no IRR obligation, but it would not surprise me.
It is IMPOSSIBLE for a potential recruit not to be aware of the eight year commitment when they have to choose the split. It says so on the contract that enlistees are required to read and acknowledge they comprehend upon signing. They have the contract to take home and reveiw, ask others, talk it over with friends, family, even lawyers if they want... nothing is hidden or even deceptively worded; it cannot be - it is a legal document.
Any ancedotes of, "I did not know, no one told me," are deceptive at best, outright lies at worst. Many times over throughout an enlistedmans active time, they are reminded of their eight year obligation, both by the chain of command and the "barracks lawyers" at their quarters.
Additionally, they are briefed a half dozen times about their obligation as they are approaching their end of active service, at the 12 month brief, 6 month, 3 month and 1 month remaining briefs (and those are the "officially required" ones, the Officers and Staff NCO's have their talks every six months with the enlistedman as well to try and encourage retention.) I was a Career Planner for a tour, and it was part of my job to do those required briefs.
Before someone chimes in that, "you're missing the point," let me say I did not really do a good job of stating my point...
It IS germaine to the point that, "You knew what you were getting into," because an enlistment contract is at its core a contract for services. It is not force servitude or slavery, nor is it optional, it is a LEGAL CONTRACT. So yes, there are penalties for ducking out of the contract if one decides not to report for IRR as called.
Be not mistaken, I do not support this war either - ever since the first 3 months passed and Congress "allowed extended operations" instead of officially declaring war or cutting out like they should have. They play fast and loose with the Constitution and its requirements and things just end up going bad... FAST.
The all-volunteer force is very aware of their individual inital eight year obligation. Regardless of whether or not they report for IRR duty, they were still volunteers.
Yes, absolutely we still have an all-volunteer force.
Let's just say some are just serving out their contractual obligation under protest.
Talk about missing the point! Yes there may be some contractural naivete expressed in Aaron's post. However, I think the real issue and point he was expressing was a libertarian perspective that illuminates the Constitutional issues that the subject represents. Why would one feel contracturally obligated to a situation where the morality of such is compromised by the very nature of the intended obligation?
The subject of service in a "voluntary" capacity to serve the public good within a republic or democracy, whether contracted or not, is not a matter of a contractual business perspective, but of a compelling service to a common cause and good. Is that the intention of those in our government that prescribed the conditions of that service to Aaron and other that are confused by their contractual obligation? Especially when that service requires a complete commitment of servitude, regardless of the context from which the intent of that service is prescribed. I think not or else...just stay bent over.
What is the real purpose of that prescription of service? To country? Religion? Or what...I feel Walt would be critical as I'm asking too many questions! I feel that service to country and liberty is personal as is LIBERTY. And should be framed within a context of that in reference to whatever is being committed to contractually or not!
Every military person or elected government official pledges themselves and their actions to the Constitution of the United States of America. Regardless of the fine print and detail, that is the nature of the expression of service and intent of those being asked to take that pledge. Let us be clear that the clearer that understanding the less relevant the validity of any question in that regard will be.
Honor those that have served. Respect the wishes of those that want or don't want to be compromise dof their interests for the sake of the "small print" in the IRR or whatever acronym is being cited against them. Liberty should be the final arbitor. Respect that... please! Mike
Have you seen an enlistment contract? There is no "fine print" regarding duration of service. This is not an us vs. them situation, so using language like, "whatever acronym is being cited against them," is unwarranted.
Is the point to change the service contract so that a soldier can walk away if in his estimation the assignment is unconstitutional?
If that is where the discussion is headed, we have seriously gone deep into Libertarian Utopia (not like I would consider that a bad thing anyway.) I just do not see that type of contract EVER being more than maybe laughed at.
Your only real integrity-filled option right now would be to refuse to partake, and let the light shine in whatever trial takes place because of it (and definately DO THAT if you are absolutely convinced of the unconstitutionality of the assignment; fraud, deception and lies despise the light.)
Perhaps being discharged whether honorable or not means more to some than others. Defining liberty within the context of what a service contract represents means far less than one having choosen and executed service to their country with their life on the line! Thus enlightened, it would be far easier to accept the constitutionality of the assignment, if the assignment is clearly constitutional. Some things become clearer once experienced. However, the empire must be fed! Feeding the empire transcends all else!
When I enlisted in the Army in '78 I was told about IRR. I was also reminded of it on my discharge papers. With all due respect, I don't think your argument holds up. Regardless, there's another reason the IRR idea is wrong. The Constitution specifically states that moneys can only be appropriated for the army for no more than 2 years. (Article I, Section 8 - To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;) This would seem to make a contract with the army for a longer period invalid. That said, good luck getting the courts to see it that way!
There are plenty of reasons to not serve, contract or no contract. Some are:
The fact that the military is paid for with stolen money (taxes). The fact that the wars overseas are aggressive wars. & the fact that serving in any post in the govt is supporting that tyrannical organization. See "Oaths, War, And Liberty" for more on this last point.
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