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McChrystal: Time to think about bringing back the draft?
Hot Air ^ | January 13, 2013 | Jazz Shaw

Posted on 01/15/2013 12:24:20 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

General Stanley McChrystal is still making the rounds plugging his new book, as well as talking about any old issue of the day the media cares to toss his way. He sat down on Face the Nation this morning and hit a few of the standard questions on Afghanistan, gun control and Chuck Hagel, before Bob Schieffer decided to ask him whether or not it was time to bring back the draft. (H/T NRO)

When asked about his thoughts on implementing a draft on CBS’s Face the Nation, General Stanley A. McChrystal said national service would have a positive impact because it would “bind people to their nation” and “pull people together in shared experiences.”

Just to get it in context, here’s the video and a transcript of a few of the applicable comments for you.

(VIDEO AT LINK)

Schieffer: Would you favor a draft?

McChrystal: I personally believe that national service is important for the nation, and that’s having all young people serve a term of national service. Certainly not all military. But I believe those things do have two effects. One, those things that bind people to their nation are important, and another thing is that we’re also a nation that doesn’t get to know each other too well. Someone from one part of an inner city never meets another person from an upper class neighborhood. We need some things that pull people together in shared experience. We need to be ten years after the fact when they are meeting somewhere, ‘Where did you serve?’ begins a connection that allows them to move on because we are getting too fragmented in my view...

(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...


TOPICS: Government; Military/Veterans; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: conscription; draft; liberalgeneral; mcchrystal; military; selectiveservice
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To: smoothsailing

Murtha is dead so his views are irrelevant


41 posted on 01/15/2013 1:25:33 PM PST by slumber1 (Don't taze me bro!)
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To: ClearCase_guy

Considering there are plenty of Vietnam era vets and retired flag officers around, McChrystal’s comments are even more disturbing.


42 posted on 01/15/2013 1:26:19 PM PST by Jacquerie ("How few were left who had seen the republic!" - Tacitus, The Annals)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

They also ruled Dredd Scott was basically a stolen car, that separate but equal was legal, that forced busing was hunky dory, that abortion is cool, that forcing Americans of japanese ancestry into cencentration camps was legal, that Obama care can force us to buy a product, that growing grain to feed your own animals on the same farm is “interstate commerce”. And they are about to tell us that homo marriage is a right.
And they have shredded the 4th amendment for the war on drugs, and are fine with the government intercepting every email and text we send.

The supreme court has always been a joke, following the trend of the moment. During wartime, they decide anything the government does is fine. The famous “fire in a crowded theater” analogy was confirming that it wa fine to arrest a man who was passing out handbills opposing the draft.

The supremes have probably approved the draft, but they were lawless to do so.


43 posted on 01/15/2013 1:33:02 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: wrcase

I OK the draft under the following conditions:
1. No deferments at all! 2. All 18 year olds must go and do National service. 3. No Draftees (save for those who volunteer) would be sent overseas to fight unless we have a declared war. 4. Young people could serve in National parks, as CCC firefighters, Americore Red Cross workers, Teachers in inner schools, Build dykes and levees, restore historic sites and build monuments for the nation (Like the sitting bull statue)—All should serve in some way—the mentally retarded (they can pick up paper) The mentally ill (could sew socks and knit) every American—even prisoners could serve in strict labor battalions—stationed in Alaska. All serve for 2 years. let the volunteers do the hard stuff —draftees fill in and learn what they need to be citizens.


44 posted on 01/15/2013 1:36:43 PM PST by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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To: PeteB570

Vietnam was overwhelmingly a volunteers war while WWII was overwhelmingly fought by draftees.

When the US Army has to enlist 42 year old grandmothers and single moms to fight it’s wars after 9/11, then something is wrong.


45 posted on 01/15/2013 1:38:26 PM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I want to see a McChrystol book where he prints up the emails between him and the Tampa housewife socialite, part-time honorary korean ambassador.

Petraeus and Allen who followed him had thousands. Are we to believe McChystol who held the same post, and lived the high life with Rolling stone reporters, and dinner trips to Paris, while he deprived his troops had no email relationship (or more) with her?


46 posted on 01/15/2013 1:40:02 PM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Yes, bring it back, but like this...

Draft for National Service, military typing pool, hairdresser, band, etc.

Volunteer for combat.

Besides, I’m about to turn 64, you young whippersnappers need to get to work so you’ll stay off my lawn!


47 posted on 01/15/2013 1:41:46 PM PST by SaxxonWoods (....Let It Burn....)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“Bring back the draft?” For what, forcible sodomy and lifetimes of unemployment lines after enlistments end?


48 posted on 01/15/2013 1:42:02 PM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
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To: Forward the Light Brigade

National service for everyone is the left’s plan and their goal, their long time dream.

The draft should only be used to provide warriors for warfare, male warriors.


49 posted on 01/15/2013 1:43:24 PM PST by ansel12 (Cruz said "conservatives trust Sarah Palin that if she says this guy is a conservative, that he is")
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This is for the future.

Once we end up with an entire FEMALE JCS, women in submarines, the homos overrun the military, etc
VIRILE young lads will NOT be going in, so there will be no one to fight because the shes and he/shes will be afraid to break a nail or something.

Like one poster said, this is the 60 Hippys come full cycle.

Amazing, ‘we’ went and fought to allow them to ruin ‘us’ in the long run....

Probably should have taken them out way back when....


50 posted on 01/15/2013 1:44:24 PM PST by xrmusn (6/98 "It is virtually impossible to clean the pond as long as the pigs are still crapping in it")
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To: Jacquerie
Considering there are plenty of Vietnam era vets and retired flag officers around, McChrystal’s comments are even more disturbing.

I enlisted near the end of the Vietnam era and do NOT ever want to see conscription reinstated again! As others have posted to this thread, conscription = slavery!

51 posted on 01/15/2013 1:53:36 PM PST by rochester_veteran ( http://RochesterConservative.com/forums)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Bring down the political acceptability of war.

Wars used to be a lot more "politically acceptable" when we fought them to win, rather than farting around for a decade with one hand tied behind out back.

"Wars" of that latter type are obviously "unacceptable".

And should be.

52 posted on 01/15/2013 1:55:39 PM PST by Notary Sojac (Ut veniant omnes)
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To: SaxxonWoods

You may be an ambassador to England or France
You may like to gamble, you might like to dance
You may be the heavyweight champion of the world
You may be a socialite with a long string of pearls

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

You might be a rock ’n’ roll addict prancing on the stage
You might have drugs at your command, women in a cage
You may be a businessman or some high-degree thief
They may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

You may be a state trooper, you might be a young Turk
You may be the head of some big TV network
You may be rich or poor, you may be blind or lame
You may be living in another country under another name

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

You may be a construction worker working on a home
You may be living in a mansion or you might live in a dome
You might own guns and you might even own tanks
You might be somebody’s landlord, you might even own banks

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

You may be a preacher with your spiritual pride
You may be a city councilman taking bribes on the side
You may be workin’ in a barbershop, you may know how to cut hair
You may be somebody’s mistress, may be somebody’s heir

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

Might like to wear cotton, might like to wear silk
Might like to drink whiskey, might like to drink milk
You might like to eat caviar, you might like to eat bread
You may be sleeping on the floor, sleeping in a king-sized bed

But you’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

You may call me Terry, you may call me Timmy
You may call me Bobby, you may call me Zimmy
You may call me R.J., you may call me Ray
You may call me anything but no matter what you say

You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You’re gonna have to serve somebody
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody

Copyright © 1979 by Special Rider Music


53 posted on 01/15/2013 1:57:11 PM PST by SaxxonWoods (....Let It Burn....)
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To: DesertRhino

I am ambivilent on this subject...part of me says good idea, part says bad idea. This from someone who served in units that were both enlisted and drafted. Some observations about both groups: the enlistees tended to be older and middle class...the draftees tended to be from the lower class i.e. no schooling beyond high school and unskilled. The enlistees tended to be motivated...the draftees not so much so. Most of the real bums got cashiered out.

Lifers fall into a separate category..some love the military life where there are few choices every day and with rank they get to play their power games. Some are super patriots and to them I take my hat off. Some things never change though, the regulars draw multiple combat tours, the draftees when there was one, serve one tour.

Personally I did learn some things in the Army which aided me later. Foremost was the notion you had to get along with and rely upon others to do their jobs. Everyone was pretty much treated equally and fairly. The military was not an encounter group and at that time was not used for social engineering...not sure about that today.

FWIW, I don’t know how it is today but in the 60s, your Army service number began with two letters...US for drafted, RA for enlisted, and NG for National Guard.

And for those who do not know history, yes the Marines drafted during Vietnam.


54 posted on 01/15/2013 1:58:47 PM PST by Mouton (108th MI Group.....68-71)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
A draft might not be such a bad thing, in the sense that it will de-mystify the military and might actually make the average draftee who's gone through the system more right-wing. By demystifying guns, I think it would administer the coup de grace to gun grabbing as a viable political cause.

Israel has a universal draft with the partial exception of the haredim, and its population is much more right-wing that American Jews, to the point that 2/3 of Israeli Jews supported Romney, whereas 1/3 of American Jews did so. Minorities who go through the military end up being more right-wing than the rest of their demographic. I think it's an excellent idea.

55 posted on 01/15/2013 1:58:47 PM PST by Zhang Fei (Let us pray that peace be now restored to the world and that God will preserve it always.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

After the stoooopidity of talking to Rolling Stone, the gun grab comment and now this, maybe he needed to be fired...an idiot.
Will not buy his book.


56 posted on 01/15/2013 2:01:55 PM PST by matginzac
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

It’s time for this officer to use the freaking brain God gave him. And people wonder why I had a problem with officers in the Army.


57 posted on 01/15/2013 2:02:06 PM PST by jwalsh07
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.

Little too much posting here from people who want others to do the dirty work they feel they are too good for.

Bring back the draft.


58 posted on 01/15/2013 2:14:07 PM PST by oldbill
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

No. The draft is wrong and stupid.

do you want an army of people who don’t want to be there?

plus, in my mind, a draft is slavery


59 posted on 01/15/2013 2:32:38 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: wrcase

Why aren’t women required to register when they turn l8 just like men?? Believe me, I don’t want women in combat, but why aren’t the feminazies up in arms about that?

How do you spell “liberal”? Hypocrite.


60 posted on 01/15/2013 2:37:04 PM PST by Reddy (B.O. stinks)
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