I hate to say thie but america needs a military draft .

[REWahoo]

1 - wow! Were you drafted?

Yes...and no. It's like this:

Actually I wasn't a 1, I never made it that far. I got drafted in 1969, five months before the lottery began, just as I was graduating from college. Although I got a draft notice, as I said in an earlier post I was accepted into the Air Force version of OCS on the Friday afternoon before I was to report for induction on Monday. The friendly AF recruiter failed to notify the Selective Service office of my enlistment, and when I didn't show up that Monday morning, they notified the county sheriff who paid me a visit. Lucky for me Barney Fife knew how to read my enlistment papers.

 

[HFWR]

No draft in '72...

 

[lets-retire]

It's interesting the main people who seem to keep saying there's going/needs to be a draft are those toward the left, not the side who are actually fighting the war.

 

[donheff]

It's interesting the main people who seem to keep saying there's going/needs to be a draft are those toward the left, not the side who are actually fighting the war.

I think it would be dumb to reinstate the draft but I have to question your conclusion about who is fighting the war. Do you so radically project your own views into the world around you that you actually believe that all of the soldiers fighting this war are right wingers? Think again.

You would be correct if you had finished with "..not the side who are actually sending our young men and women to fight the war."

 

[Patrick]

You would be correct if you had finished with "..not the side who are actually sending our young men and women to fight the war."

Both sides are sending them.

 

[lets-retire]

I think it would be dumb to reinstate the draft but I have to question your conclusion about who is fighting the war. Do you so radically project your own views into the world around you that you actually believe that all of the soldiers fighting this war are right wingers? Think again.

You would be correct if you had finished with "..not the side who are actually sending our young men and women to fight the war."

It seems the mantra of the left is this is the right's war. I'm also talking about the leadership not the rank and file.

 

[2soon2tell]

IMHO its much better to have a volunteer military rather than a draft. I have read that the quality of todays military is as high as its ever been. It's much better to have motivated troops who want to serve their country compared to those who are serving against their will.

That being said I'm not sure I would have joined the Navy without the threat of being drafted in the Army. My three years of active duty were a good experience for me even though I was injured and ended up with a medical discharge. To date I have had five surgeries on my injured shoulder and suffer chronic pain but I'm glad I served.

Again just my two yuan.

2soon

 

[Patrick]

When I see the Islamofascists coming up my driveway, that will be soon enough to take up arms against them.

Have you forgotten 9/11 already?

None of the major WW1 combatants ever again reached their pre-war level of military or economic or lifestyle excellence.

France, England, Germany?

 

[Patrick]

Ha, my dad used to say as long as the Commies stayed off his lawn, he didn't care what they did

Do you understand what nuclear weapons do? You will not have a lawn (or a city for that matter).

 

[dusk_to_dawn]

Right on, Sistah!! I feel the same way.

When I see the Islamofascists coming up my driveway, that will be soon enough to take up arms against them.

By then it's too late.

 

[dumpster56]

Bottom line, the womd reason for the attack on Iraq was bogus, many saw thru the bad information and yes EVERYONE saw the info saying saddam had womd, yadayadayada.

We marched into Baghdad and let the Iraqi army GO HOME! we never defeated these guys we never secured the ammo depots, we allowed militias to run wild, remember sadir??

We must agree that the military DID NOT DO everything right, in fact bumbled a whole heck of alot.

That said when I hear how the military is better today as an all volunteer outfit I disagree, my father who was drafted into the Korean war and other draftees at that time were college educated, doctors other professionals, there were really no deferrments like Vietnam. So your assumption that the all volunteer army is better is well wrong. They may take orders better and hey I guess that is what counts. Follow what you are told even if it is the wrong thing to do.

 

[Patrick]

That said when I hear how the military is better today as an all volunteer outfit I disagree, my father who was drafted into the Korean war and other draftees at that time were college educated, doctors other professionals, there were really no deferrments like Vietnam. So your assumption that the all volunteer army is better is well wrong. They may take orders better and hey I guess that is what counts. Follow what you are told even if it is the wrong thing to do.

Did you get this from John Kerry's joke writer?

 

[lets-retire]

That said when I hear how the military is better today as an all volunteer outfit I disagree, my father who was drafted into the Korean war and other draftees at that time were college educated, doctors other professionals, there were really no deferrments like Vietnam. So your assumption that the all volunteer army is better is well wrong. They may take orders better and hey I guess that is what counts. Follow what you are told even if it is the wrong thing to do.

That is a stretch. There is no doubt the voluntary military of today is much more effective, efficient, and lethal than our military in the passed. If you don't believe it ask those who served during the draft years and within the last couple years. I only have the second hand stories form the old timers hen I joined. The difference in professionalism between the draftees and the current military is like night and day.

 

[Nords]

That said when I hear how the military is better today as an all volunteer outfit I disagree, my father who was drafted into the Korean war and other draftees at that time were college educated, doctors other professionals, there were really no deferrments like Vietnam. So your assumption that the all volunteer army is better is well wrong.

I don't suppose you're able to provide links to some objective evidence that today's volunteer military is worse than the Korean War draftees? Or is this limited to family anecdotes?

Does a deferment imply that an unwilling educated draftee is somehow "better" than a willing (uneducated or educated) volunteer?

As long as our fathers are determining our evidenciary conclusions, my father was 16 in 1950 and was deferred for every one of the years that he was a college student. However when he graduated he reported for infantry recruit training, achieved the skill level of guarding a tank at night without hurting himself or his fellow soldiers, and was released early to continue his career as an electrical engineer. Somehow the Army was persuaded that his college-degree engineering skills were more important than guarding tanks.

They may take orders better and hey I guess that is what counts. Follow what you are told even if it is the wrong thing to do.

Having worked with quite a few of those volunteers, I can vouch that orders are questioned at least as much by them as by any civilian. They may not take orders any better, but their questioning & thinking outlook helps make those orders better. And I don't think any court in the land, or any military institution, espouses the "just following orders" defense. Oh, yeah, here it is: "... and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice."

BTW some of those "volunteers" enter the military with more bullet wounds, knife scars, & tattoos than many of the veterans. If they have that experience before they take the oath, then why the heck do they still volunteer?

 

[LRS]

Patrick and D-to-D, the evil booger who masterminded the 9/11 attacks is still at large. We quit looking for him in order to invade Iraq, a stupid, pointless waste of time, money and human life.

I think more and more that the "islamofascists" will win without another attack on the U.S.--all they have to do is wait and watch while we blither around wasting money on the current war. When our economy tanks, they win.

 

[dumpster56]

Patrick and D-to-D, the evil booger who masterminded the 9/11 attacks is still at large. We quit looking for him in order to invade Iraq, a stupid, pointless waste of time, money and human life.

I think more and more that the "islamofascists" will win without another attack on the U.S.--all they have to do is wait and watch while we blither around wasting money on the current war. When our economy tanks, they win.

That is one reason the republicans LOST!!

Bush has failed, Bin Laden is free the guy who STARTED THE WAR!!

Saddam. please, he was givin mixed messages from Bush I before he invaded Kuwait, oh yea when we went to free Kuwait the kuwaiti men went to vacation in Spain and other places.

we really are darn stupid.

 

[Patrick]

Patrick and D-to-D, the evil booger who masterminded the 9/11 attacks is still at large. We quit looking for him in order to invade Iraq, a stupid, pointless waste of time, money and human life.

We did not quit looking for UBL. And you see nothing positive from the Iraq war? Deposing Saddam? Giving the Iraqi people a chance for democracy?

I think more and more that the "islamofascists" will win without another attack on the U.S.--all they have to do is wait and watch while we blither around wasting money on the current war. When our economy tanks, they win.

What makes you believe that a downturn in the economy will cause our ruin? We did quite well in WWII after the greatest depression in the country's history.

 

[dumpster56]

We did not quit looking for UBL. And you see nothing positive from the Iraq war? Deposing Saddam? Giving the Iraqi people a chance for democracy?

Drinking republican koolaid?

Iraq democracy, ok, sure sunnis, shia who hate each other tribal garbage, kinda like the old yugoslavia, which does not exist anymore. The strongman Tito died and poof so goes the fabric that kept the place together, a strongman.

Saddam, was a secular strongman, Nuts as all getout, But he stoped playing ball with america because he was nuts.

Now these people will keep killing each other for years to come.

Sorry find Bin Laden, He started this mess, not saddam.

 

[mountaintosea]

[

Just had to add my 2 cents. The well connected/rich/powerful ARE NEVER DRAFTED! NOT THEIR CHILDREN NOR ANYONE ELSE IN THEIR FAMILIES NADA!!
THAT'S THE WAY IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE! :

I don't care what kind of provisions you put in the legislation to try to stop that from happening. When you create a draft you are drafting the middle class on down and any other not so well connected people. Just take a look at our current president.

 

[eridanus]

Just had to add my 2 cents. The well connected/rich/powerful ARE NEVER DRAFTED! NOT THEIR CHILDREN NOR ANYONE ELSE IN THEIR FAMILIES NADA!!
THAT'S THE WAY IT HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE! :

I don't care what kind of provisions you put in the legislation to try to stop that from happening. When you create a draft you are drafting the middle class on down and any other not so well connected people. Just take a look at our current president.

Troof.

“I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well placed ... managed to wangle slots in Reserve or National Guard units." -- Colin Powell

"WAR is a racket. It always has been." -- Major General Smedley Butler

 

[Gumby]

..

 

[BarbaraAnne]

What a disingenous comment! By wanting to reinstitute the draft you ARE putting my sons in harms way! It is an easy solution for those without draft-age children, like you, since they have no skin in the game. Remember, the volunteers in the military CAN make other choices. They CHOOSE to join.By bringing back the draft, you are giving my sons no choice but to fight in this ridiculous war. And by the way, we are neither "rich" nor "powerful" , just pawns in the system like most of the middle class.

Don't sacrifice my beloved sons for your political purposes!

 

[Gumby]

..

 

[BarbaraAnne]

We absolutely agree about the war! I have been against this war since it started. I believe the changes in the power structure due to the elections will be instrumental in starting the process. It was gratifying to see that the system work and those in power get the message. Americans have finally had enough!

 

[dumpster56]

We absolutely agree about the war! I have been against this war since it started. I believe the changes in the power structure due to the elections will be instrumental in starting the process. It was gratifying to see that the system work and those in power get the message. Americans have finally had enough!

But I want to see Bin Laden caught, remember Bush and his dead or alive comment. well we are pushing 5+ years since 9/11, and he and al zwahiri are still walking the planet.

But we are minding a civil war in Iraq.

Nuts.