They just don’t quit, do they?
Apparently the new line is that Bush’s secret plan for the war on terror requires expanding the military, and there is no possible way to expand the military without a draft. Notice that these guys refuse to even discuss the possibility of recruiting extra soldiers. (Not that Democrats were ever big on recruiting soldiers as opposed to conscripting them…)
(All this talk is making me wonder if we will have a draft – through the refusal of Congressional Democrats to raise the military’s authorized strength without one… while pushing the line that Bush is endangering us by resisting this obviously needed move.)
I wish we had expanded our forces two years ago, to give us more of a reserve for dealing with contingencies (like mullahs getting uncomfortably close to posessing nuclear weapons) and to finally kill, once and for all, the odious practice that Jefferson Davis introduced to these shores by showing it to be completely superfluous (at best). I’m pretty sure an expansion is going to have to happen within the next few months, and I’m confident that when that time comes, we’ll all get to see just how full of it these scare-mongerers are about George W. Bush.
Conscritption is a ridiculously bad fit with the modern military. Training soldiers is far to expensive and time consuming to waste it on kids who do not want to be there or who are unwilling or unable to absorb it.
If Bush is re-elected (and I believe that he will be), and if the Pentagon wants more men under arms, which is not clear to me, the way to recruit them, if they are not forthcoming would be to increase pay for the military. Bonuses for signing up should be increased.
Reserve and Guard members could be given perks like tuition and health care benefits for themselves and family members.
It would be better to limit tuition benefits to service members than to pass them out at random to all warm bodies that wander by.
Kerry will have to go to the draft, since most of the military doesn’t respect him, we’ll see how many volunteers actually want to re-up if he’s CIC.
There is not going to be a draft. The military does not want it and will resist it. It was overwhelmingly voted down recently. The people proposing don’t even want it, they want to put it in place, or pretend, to galvanize opposition to the military and to foreing wars. This whole discussion is pure political posturing from the Donks. Once the election is over, no matter who wins, we’ll hear no more about it.
Sandy, Kerry will not put a draft in. He couldn’t even if he decided he needed to. If enlistments fall, he’ll just withdraw our troops from Iraq and elsewhere faster.
Raising the issue of draft is a political gambit by Democrats to turn Iraq into Vietnam in the eyes of young voters. Remember that all the protests died down in early 70’s after the military became an all-volunteer force.
Don’t I know it, Lex.
It’s shameless fearmongering, and once those kids, years from now, realize how their emotions were manipulated during this election by “Rock the Vote” and the Democrats, they’ll be even more cynical about participating in an election than they already are. It’s causing real harm, long term harm.