Senate Testimony: Draft May be Necessary

[Chicken Little]

Marine Corps Times

quote:Testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee from Lawrence Korb, a former senior Pentagon personnel official now affiliated with the Center for Defense Information and the Center for American Progress.


"If the United States is going to have a significant component of its ground forces in Iraq over the next five, 10, 15 or 30 years, then the responsible course is for the president and those supporting this open-ended and escalated presence in Iraq to call for reinstating the draft."

[iplaw]

I hate to rain on your parade again, but did you bother to see who it was that was testifying before the committee, and who was the generator of this opinion?  I'll give you a hint, the name Podesta is involved.

[cannon_fodder]

This rhetoric has been brought up time and again since the 1990's and at least yearly since 2001.  Other than the fact that the public doesn't want it, the service members don't want it, the Pentagon officially doesn't want it, the President doesn't want it, and the Congress doesn't want it - it has a chance of coming to fruition.

The most common way this is brought up is by war opponents who think reinstatement of the draft would force an end to the war.  It may, but it would also degrade the quality of our military while greatly increasing costs and further militarizing our society.  Funny how many of the same people that burned draft cards and cried out against it are now in favor of it because they think it will achieve their ends.

and yes, I fully realize this was a retired pentagon official.  In the article he also says that

quote:"It is better to take a smaller force than to lower your standards,"

He used the threat of a draft to drive home the point that our all volunteer army is being severely taxed.  Most of the men and women in the service see it as a job and want to be able to live as normal a life as possible outside their job.   Being in Iraq for multiple deployments over 5 or 6 years has really put a damper on that.  I agree with his premise that something needs to be done or we risk harming our military machine for years to come - but a draft is not a good solution and not one that will come to fruition.

[Chicken Little]

quote:Originally posted by iplaw

I hate to rain on your parade again, but did you bother to see who it was that was testifying before the committee, and who was the generator of this opinion?  I'll give you a hint, the name Podesta is involved.

No umbrella necessary.  It should be made clear to readers that the Center for American Progress, while non-partisan, has a progressive agenda.

N'ertheless, I'd like to know how YOU think we can fight a protracted war.  We're running out of men and materials.  

You can talk the talk, a la John Warner-R:  "We must, at all cost, preserve the all-volunteer force," Warner said.

But when you walk-the-walk, you start to realize that we have an untenable situation on our hands:  

quote: Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, an international relations professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., described what he sees as the "disastrous state" of ground forces, a broken commitment to troops because of broken equipment, missed training and his sense that the 95,000 increase in Army and Marine Corps personnel planned over the next five years isn't fast enough to provide relief.

Who's gonna fight this war?

[iplaw]

Probably the same military that's fighting it now who isn't in favor of a draft for the same reasons CF mentioned...as for supplies, I suppose they're a bit like Doritos...blow 'em up, we'll make more.

[Chicken Little]

quote:Originally posted by iplaw

Probably the same military that's fighting it now who isn't in favor of a draft for the same reasons CF mentioned...as for supplies, I suppose they're a bit like Doritos...blow 'em up, we'll make more.

Do volunteers work like the Doritos thing, too?  It doesn't look like it.

[iplaw]

Why? The services are keeping up with recruiting goals...

[cannon_fodder]

A volunteer army is part of a market economy.  As our economy continues to boom it SHOULD get harder for the military to hire qualified persons.  Just like everyone else.  Especially when private markets are willing to pay private soldiers $100,000 a year or more to do the job they do for uncle Sam for $28,000.

With that in mind and a war on, I'd have to say they are doing an impressive job recruiting.

[shadows]

Few persons are alive when the draft and rationing was in effect.   A country that is as short lived as ours will dispense in today's war great amounts of our youth.   We have a hardship maintaining four years of war with an unknown enemy like the past two policing [wars] we fought to a draw.

We are playing games with the population pitting them against experienced warriors with thousands of years experience.   What our propaganda would lead us to believe is not reveled in the flag draped coffin.

To reinstall the draft in view of our immoral society made of many societies will bring this nation who want to lead the world to their knees.

We have reinstalled the exiled government so we are the victor and now is the time to  get out and start protecting our home lands.