Posted on 07/05/2012 11:51:33 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top commander of international forces in Afghanistan, said this week that the United States should bring back the draft if it ever goes to war again.
"I think we ought to have a draft. I think if a nation goes to war, it shouldn't be solely be represented by a professional force, because it gets to be unrepresentative of the population," McChrystal said at a late-night event June 29 at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival. "I think if a nation goes to war, every town, every city needs to be at risk. You make that decision and everybody has skin in the game."
He argued that the burdens of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven't been properly shared across the U.S. population, and emphasized that the U.S. military could train draftees so that there wouldn't be a loss of effectiveness in the war effort.
"I've enjoyed the benefits of a professional service, but I think we'd be better if we actually went to a draft these days," he said. "There would some loss of professionalism, but for the nation it would be a better course."
(Excerpt) Read more at thecable.foreignpolicy.com ...
How so?
Do you mean some attachment to the land, like burial grounds of our ancestors, or to my fellow citizens, with whom I share a common culture, moral philosophy, and history?
My understanding is that this is true for blacks, but that Special Forces are heavily White Southerner and Hispanic.
2DV- have you ever been to the 7th Gp area? There are quite a few Hispanics assigned there.
Jeff- Ha-ha! There are a lot of Yankees in Special Forces, city-folk also. Blacks have generally not been attracted to SF for a variety of reasons. Mostly, they come from an inner-city background and do not like the idea of humping a ruck. There are those who do make it through training and into Group, but they are the exception.
Really??????
I catch cold in drafty places.............
McChrystal is an a$$clown. He hampered our troops ability to close with and destroy the enemy in Afghanistan. It’s no wonder he was fired.
The Marines lost 6800 dead in 36 days, I am aware of the US losses during the air campaign in WWII, 30000 dead in 994 days of combat operations in Europe. The dead from Iwo were 2% of the total American dead from the war.
My “yeah” was meant as sarcasm. I too do not believe in the draft because, as history proves in most cases, wars are fought to expand the power of the world’s oligarchy and as a means of reducing the human population. The focuss of killing for peace should be against the oligarchs.
McChrystal is exactly right. Our all volunteer military has not and will not conclusively win any wars. It has nothing to do with the ability to fight and everything to do with the will.
There is currently far too much disconnect between the war fighters and the society they represent. The best we can hope for these days are trillion dollar, decade long stalemates.
Its easy to blame the leadership, but the problem is far deeper than them. It’s in our society. The cheap and easy answer we came up with was to divorce society from warfighting, and give a small number of troops higher pay and better training in exchange for not asking the rest of society to contribute anything to the wars we fight. It’s created a fantasy version of bloodless war for our civilians, and reduced our military operations to kabuki dance rituals.
The sooner we can re-introduce society at large to the reality of war, the sooner we might win another one (and likely, the less often we’ll go).
The Imperial Japanese Army positions on the island were heavily fortified, with a vast network of bunkers, hidden artillery, and 18 km (11 mi) of underground tunnels. The Americans were covered by extensive naval and air support, capable of delivering an enormous amount of firepower onto the Japanese positions. The battle was the first American attack on the Japanese Home Islands, and the Imperial soldiers defended their positions tenaciously. Iwo Jima was also the only U.S. Marine battle where the American overall casualties exceeded the Japanese, although Japanese combat deaths numbered 3 times that of Americans.
Of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers present at the beginning of the battle, only 216 were taken prisoner. The rest were killed or missing and assumed dead. Despite heavy fighting and casualties on both sides, Japanese defeat was assured from the start. The Americans possessed an overwhelming superiority in arms and numbers; this, coupled with the impossibility of Japanese retreat or reinforcement, ensured that there was no plausible scenario in which the U.S. could have lost the battle.
US casualties: 6,821 killed/missing; 19,217 wounded.
During this one-month-long battle, 27 U.S. military personnel were awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions, 13 of them posthumously. Of the 27 medals awarded for the actions at Iwo Jima, 22 were presented to Marines and five were presented to United States Navy sailors; this was 28% of the 82 Medals of Honor awarded to Marines in the entirety of World War II.
The latter - IMHO, the nation is made up of its citizens far more than its government, which should be the servant of the citizen (note the qualifier).
So I have some secular obligation to serve my fellow citizens?
Care to explain the basis of that obligation?
I don`t blame you one bit for feeling that way. I would never recommend the post-DADT military to anyone.
“I think when you graduate from high school everyone should enter the military and spend at least two years. I also thing that all officers should have to serve time as and enlisted person.”
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I know a lot of kids who got their lives turned around by going into the service. I know that is not the purpose of the military, but I’m wondering if the wrong path the country is taking lately is not due to a populous that is dominated by people who have had it too easy for too long, who don’t know what sacrifices have been made for them. I don’t think that a nation that had shared the responsibility of military service would have elected Obama.
I bet there were a lot of “undependable draftees” who were hero's in WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam!
Actually you’re wrong. Blacks are under represented in combat arms. Hispanics are a bit over represented. As it has always been the evil white grunt is well represented in combat arms , KIA and WIA lists. But go ahead perpetuate myths if you must.
Vietnam shoots your thesis to hell and gone.
with that in mind I also think that no one should serve congress who has not served in the military
That's why Rangel always wanted the draft back. He wants more war protests. No thanks!
I generally don’t look at deeper obligations from a secular viewpoint. I think that being endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights creates concomitant obligations on the part of the society which enjoys them to protect and defend those rights.
I’m not perpetuating myths, Walsh. I apologized for my oversight after Kabar’s post. If you read the entirety of the thread, you would see that I reneged on my oversight.
I fell victim to the MSM propagating the myth that blacks and Hispanics are disproportionately overrepresented. I know better now.
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