Posted on 01/25/2005 11:46:20 PM PST by neverdem
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www.washingtontimes.com
Increasing our ground forcesPublished January 26, 2005This is the first in a series of editorials on the state of the American military.
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(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
ping
It's deja vu time again.
This is almost exactly what the successors of Septimus Serverus proposed - to increase the army from 33 to 50 legions. In the face of rising costs, a falling tax base, and the increasing sophistication of the barbarians, they tried very hard.
The military result of their failure was the Battle of Adrianople. The fiscal result was the incremental collapse of the economy of the Western Empire, as the taxpayers abandoned their fields and factories.
Do we? Or do we a different force?
The main problem IMHO during the 90s was Clinton's wretched leadership; the reservists I knew then were not going to re-up because of him, and said that everyone they knew who was not going to re-up said that also.
The all-volunteer armed forces work fine, but obviously when there is a long war going on (with 1/400 in the armed services having died from it; Civil War death rate was highest, at 1/20 or thereabouts) there will be pressure on manpower by those who don't want to re-up in (for example) the reserves for fear of being called up for Iraq duty. Particularly if they were more interested in the reserves in order to get college money.
FWIW, I'd oppose a draft under most circumstances, and our current circumstances isn't one of them when I wouldn't.
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