“Why, as long as we are meeting our recruiting goals? And, we are.”
With smoke and mirrors. Changing (lowering) standards. Like drug conviction. Like sex conviction. Like education waiver.
A friend of mine volunteered for the draft in 1965 and retired 37 years later as a 3 star.
Draftees served in Civil War, WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam.
So don’t let anybody tell you draftees can’t be good soldiers.
I’m not saying that draftee’s could not be good soldiers.
One of our boys is in charge of a part of the recruiting programs for one of the services. Not only are they meeting their goals, but are not lowering standards as some have reported. Last month the goal was met early.
We have been a military family for many, many years.
I too wonder about the accuracy of the representations of how we meet the recruitment goals. It is clear that we will hit a “wall” in the spring of 2008 as far as our ability to keep the surge going.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070809/ap_on_go_pr_wh/iraq_attitudes
I’m somewhat confused by your post. What do you mean by “volunteered for the draft”? Was he drafted, or did he volunteer because he knew he would be drafted anyway? If he volunteered because he knew he would be drafted, hoping to get some leverage by playing the system a bit, he was certainly a more strategically aware person than most, probably superior in many areas.
Often the people currently in the military seem to feel that draftees with minimal qualifications won’t be able to handle the technological requirements. I do think that given the current controversies over women and gays serving in the armed forces, a draft would be fraught with legal problems.