Posted on 03/24/2006 7:29:27 AM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
Three years after the invasion of Iraq, the United States does not feel much like a country at war. Nearly 20,000 American soldiers have been killed or injured to date, but the more comfortable among us find it shockingly easy to forget about the conflict for weeks at a time. Most middle-class professionals, academics, and journalists don't have relatives or friends serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. We have not been called upon to make any sacrifices, financial or otherwise. We hear less and less about the occupation on the evening news, and even in big cities it is unusual to encounter an anti-war demonstration. The third-anniversary protest staged in New York last weekend was an especially shabby assemblage of moth-eaten radicals.
The main reason that the war remains so remote from the lives of middle-class Americans is the absence of a military draft. This is a subject that no one seems to want to talk about. Supporters of the war definitely do not want to talk about it. President Bush and Vice President Cheney react angrily to any suggestion that a draft might be needed, because they know that the prospect of conscription would make their decision to invade Iraq even more unpopular. Having lived through Vietnam and shirked the draft themselves, they understand that if people anywhere near their own station in life were forced to fight, any remaining support for wars of arguable necessity would dry up and blow away.
Nor does the military want to discuss a draft, even though it is increasingly overstretched, required to rely on declining enlistment standards and "stop loss" orders to maintain even the current, insufficient troop levels. The Pentagon's reason for avoiding the subject is its probably accurate assumption that conscription would yield a less pliable and effective fighting force.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Veterans are not near as numerous as they used to be. A citizen could pick up some erroneous idea from the MSM and never meet anybody who would correct their misapprehension. This general lack of military knowledge makes the citizenry vulnerable to enemy propaganda and MSM bias.
Military technology has moved beyond conscription. Political Correctness forbids the military from using the proven methods of motivating relunctant draftees who don't want to be there. The draft isn't coming back, but some way must be found to educate the general population on what the tiny percentage of its sons and daughters in the military do, and why it is important.
The state stealing two years of a life is fair? Resorting to a draft if an admission of societal failure.
The truth is that the draft is not needed, but the desire for the draft to be implemented by the libs is to give them the "poor man" or "minority" argument in opposing this war. They also know the war would become unpopular and cause a Vietnam style reaction, which was of course their moment of being valid.
A day, heck, almost a single moment does not go by without the MSM reminding us the failures of our war. The comment that people forget it for weeks at a time is simply a lie by slate.
Maybe they have forgotten but we have not.
There are about 130,000 troops are in Iraq and about 300,000,000 people in the country. If each person has about 100 close relatives and friends, the average person has about 4% chance of being close to someone in Iraq. Even if you increase that to include those in Afghanistan and those rotated out, I wouldn't be suprised that most people don't know anyone in the war.
As for the draft, those supporting it the most want it so that the anti-draft (mistakenly called anti-war) protests of the Vietnam War are started for the War on Terror.
Hell I had enough trouble keeping volunteers motivated for a year. Don't get the wrong impression, I love my troops and they did an outstanding job, but they required the occasional kick in the ass. I don't even want to think of what it would have required to motivate drafties.
Instituting a draft in order to raise awareness of military issues is like chopping somebody's leg off to make them sensitive to the issues facing the handicapped.
We don't need a draft. The military does not want a draft. The last thing we need is a bunch of people in the Army who do not want to be there.
How can the current system be unfair absent compulsion? Can it be unfair to offer an opportunity to somebody who willingly accepts it?
Amazing how hard the anti-American, Bush-hating left will twist itself in knots to make a political "point". Noodle-men all. They wouldn't know an honest thought if they stumbled over one.
What an a**hole. If the US still had a draft or was proposing a draft, this meathead would be moaning and groaning and complaining about how unfair the draft was.
It's tough to turn an all-volunteer outfit into a fearsome societal boogeyman that needs to be melted down into socialized medicine and government cheese.
Everytime I hear a liberal whine about people not makign sacrifices, I ask them what they are willing to give up to help the ar effort. Hazelnut syrup in their Starbucks? Bannining Ipods one day a week? Batteries for the Blackberry? And NONE of 'em are willing to give up anything.
Total horse hockey. I am an attorney and know personally at least three people, no four, who are officers over in Iraq, two attorneys and one officer from another country, and two LTCs whose branches I can't remeber. The all volunteer force has provided the best trained most dedicated professional force the world has ever seen, so the MSM's version of the presumed "truth" is nothing but vapor.
I wouldn't mind a system like Israel has, you serve your time, you get a free college or vocational education. Thing is, we just don't need that here.
I can't imagine anything worse for the military than opening it up to whinny liberals who will have nothing to do but whinem mug for the cameras and sue. If we had to install the draft for a big war - we needed a sudden surge of troops - then the liberals would be too busy staying alive to whine and sue.
There is the real truth to what this clown believes. None of us, who support our efforts to stop/end terrorism, are smart enough to know that capitulation is the only way to deal with continued attacks against our society.
Thank you Chamberlain, thank you Carter, thank you Clinton, thank you DNC.
I know many who have been there; several MOPH recipients...I talk to these men and women everyday- I've taught them in my classes, and they work for me as VA workstudy students...they are very interesting people...
These libs kill me....Anything to undermine and cast aspersions on the military. If they aren't demanding the draft, they complain about lowering standards!
There was a good article last week about the hoops recruiters have to jump through making goal. By the time you weed out the obese, the low test scorers, the ritalin addicted, the non high school grads, the criminal record holders and druggies only 25 percent of the nations 18-24 year olds qualify for military service. I imagine a high percentage of nonqualed misfits come from "Blue areas".
He does bring up a good point, there will be fewer veterans among the US population as a percentage. Once the WWII and Korea vets die off, only 1 in 25 americans will be a veteran.
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