Janine Hansen of Reno heads Mothers Against the Draft, a group that has started a campaign urging students to opt out of having Social Security numbers, grades, e-mail addresses and ethnicity shared with the military.

New group hopes to stop any effort to bring back conscription

Mothers against the draft (MAD) launches their nationwide effort to inform American about their organization and why they are against conscription of America's sons and daughters on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2005. Due to concerns over the branches of the military unable to meet recruitment quotas and the "back door" draft method now being used to keep soldiers beyond their separation time, mothers and grandmothers alike decided to put their time and talent in an organized effort they named Mothers Against the Draft.

With the backing of conservative leader Phyllis Schlafly, Janine Hansen, as national chairman, yesterday launched Mothers Against The Draft.

On Valentine's Day a new nationwide effort was launched to squash any momentum toward a military draft before it even starts. But don't think Mothers Against the Draft is just a bunch of left-wing radicals. Should Congress make a move toward conscription, MAD says that it "will come to a very real and personal understanding of the meaning of the old saying, 'When momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!'" These women mean business.

In February, the Army missed its recruiting goal for the first time in nearly five years. The Army missed its March goal by 32 percent while the need for soldiers is on the rise. The United States Armed Services have announced a new plan to solve their recruiting problems – convincing parents to get their children to enlist. At the same time, parents are organizing to ensure the military draft does not return. The battle lines for the bodies of America's youth are beginning to take shape.

In the meantime, Hansen, M.A.D.'s national chairwoman, says the organization's first priority is to distribute a survey and pledge to every member of Congress. The survey is designed to gauge Senate and House members' opinion on the draft and peripheral issues, such as the growing number of countries hosting American troops. The pledge is designed to get them to sign a kind of contract with the American people that they will not, under any circumstances, reinstate the draft.

Many on the policy left, as a recent article supporting the draft in the Washington Monthly, showed are sold on the draft. The only thing that's needed is support from the neoconservatives, which would then guarantee it happening. Except that the nation's mothers have already anticipated that move, and have responded accordingly. Mothers Against the Draft or MAD, is a group that has organized itself to fight against what they many others (including this writer) believe is an oncoming draft.

Mothers Against the Draft (MAD) is organizing to pre-empt a return to conscription. Unlike those who burned draft cards or fled to Canada during the Vietnam War, MAD isn't defying an existing (albeit unjust and unconstitutional) law; it's seeking to prevent the passage of that law by forcing Congressmen to go on record before the measure finds traction in the House. The focused activism of 100 mothers in a given congressional district would be sufficient to compel a Congressman to oppose any measure reinstating the draft in any form.