From: dunnjj@ucsu.Colorado.EDU (DUNN  JONATHAN JAMES)
Subject: Re: ABOLISH SELECTIVE SERVICE
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 42

muellerm@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Marc Mueller) writes:

>Considering that Clinton received a draft notice and got out of it (he admits it) the political feasibility of him abolishing it is not something he would
>be inclined to risk any extra exposure on.

As a libertarian (with a small l) who voted for Clinton, I think that he
should abolish the Selective Service and the draft.  If his conscience
forbade him to go to war in Vietnam, it should forbid him to perpetuate
this system of government-sanctioned slavery.

>Agreed. Congress took money from NASA and FHA to fund the second Seawolf.
>The shipyards are still building Los Angeles Class submarines and there
>is a lack of ASW foes to contend with. The Navy is considering reducing
>the number of attack subs to 40 (Navy Times) and that would entail
>getting rid of or mothballing some of the current Los Angeles class.
>Politically, General Dynamics is in Connecticut and we will get
>Seawolf subs whether we need them or not.

If our government would pay attention to SERIOUS domestic issues (the ECONOMY)
and choose to stay out of other people's wars (Iraq, Bosnia, Somalia),
we would not be in this fix.  An anyway, couldn't the jobs be replaced by
improving our domestic situation?  (I'm not for continued deficit spending,
but if Clinton and Congress want to spend, I'd rather they improve the 
infrastructure than fight other people's wars.)

>In addition, more bases need to be closed. Probably Long Beach Naval Station
>and others. The Navy is talking about three main bases on each coast being 
>required to home port a total fleet of 320 ships.
>The question is whether Les Aspin and Clinton will be able to face down
>a pork happy Congress.

A novel idea:  Getting away from naval bases, what about refurbishing
decommissioned Air Force bases as airports?  This would be SO much cheaper
than building them from the ground up (Denver's new airport is one of the 
most appalling examples of pork-barreling and cronyism I have seen in
my lifetime).  Even if no more airports are needed, I'm sure Bill Gates
or Ross Perot would LOVE to have their own private airfields, and the
money from their purchases could be applied to the public debt.

>Jon Dunn<

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