US Military expansion

"Facts" (CSJ)

1. Army has an authorized strength of some 514,000 troops, with about 30,000 of that total a temporary rise approved by Congress in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. The Marine Corps has 180,000 personnel.
2. 700,000 National Guard and Army reservists, as of Jan 2004 -- Size of Military (PBS)
   
3. Each increment of 10,000 soldiers added to the Army costs just a tick over $1 billion
4. It would take at least two years to get them ready.

Draft (About)

1. President Franklin Roosevelt signed the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 which created the country's first peacetime draft
2. Before the lottery was implemented in the latter part of the Vietnam conflict, Local Boards called men classified 1-A, 18 1/2 through 25 years old, oldest first.
3. A lottery drawing - the first since 1942 - was held on December 1, 1969, at Selective Service National Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
4. In 1973, the draft ended and the U.S. converted to an All-Volunteer military.

Troop Deployment (PBS)

• 1969 - 3.1 M
• 1975 - 1.9 M
• 1977 - 2.1 M
• 1981 - 2.1 M
• 1985 - 2.2 M
• 1989 - 2.0 M
• 1993 - 1.6 M
• 1997 - 1.4 M
• 2001 - 1.4 M
  

"Links"

1. Bush's move to supersize US military Christian Science Monitor
   
2. Bush declares need for bigger army to fight extremists Asia-pacific
   

Church (state) benefits

1. Churches are automatically tax-exempt without the requirement of filing an Application for Tax Exempt Status (Form 1023). While other 501(c)(3) entities must report their financial status, activities, and compensation paid to directors and officers on an Annual Information Report (Form 990), churches are exempt from filing these annual informational returns.
   
   
2. a church can elect to exempt its employees from FICA.
   
   
3. any ordained, commissioned, or licensed ministers, priests, rabbis, members of a religious order, and Christian Science practitioners may elect to be exempt from self-employment taxes.
   
   
4. Churches (and religious organizations) are exempt from federal and state unemployment taxes.
   
   
5. ordained, commissioned, or licensed ministers, priests, or rabbis may exclude a housing allowance from their gross income,

Other links?