will there be a draft after the midterms?
- Thread starter evince
- Start date
Gaffer
Sanctimonious Prick
Good assessment of things. I don't think there would be need of a draft for iran though. It would mean a lot more redeployment of troops tho. there's plenty in europe to draw on yet. And you didn't figure in the Navy carrier groups which pack a serious punch in any theater.
It would be even better if iran attacked us and we could draw NATO into it as well. I doubt there would be boots on the ground until the iran air defense and shore installations are nullified. Hopefully a good pounding of the islamic guard units would inspire an uprising and the people take back their own country.
There has been no shortage of infantry enlistments, there are a lot of young idealistic guys signing up for just that. One old retired sergeant I know always says "only infantrymen are real soldiers". The idealists either stay in as hardcore NCO's or they transfer to other jobs to get behind the lines.
Gaffer
Sanctimonious Prick
That's pragmatic ass to you. Now crawl back under your rock.
I think even he is being to recognize we are at war with islam. And iran is the head of it. When iran falls you will find OBL.
I pray you become better informed, and don't mislead us into the wrong war, against the wrong enemy....again.
FYI: Bin Ladin is an extremist sunni. There are deep divisions between the shia and the sunni. Bin Ladin himself has recently called for sunni to kill shia (through his agents in Iraq, like Zarqawi), and has called the shia "traitors" and "agents of the americans". There is deep hatred for the shia, in the extremist sunni sects.
Iran is a shia state, who remains an enemy of the sunni arab states. The taliban, were in fact, the Iranians biggest enemies, after Saddam Hussein.
A smart, clever president, with a nuanced view of global geopolitics, would be able to exploit the divisions between shia theocrats and sunni extremists.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/01/binladen.message/index.html
uscitizen
Villified User
NO, cause you are already under there with dixie in a love clench
Sir Evil
Megalocon, The Evil Dick
NO, cause you are already under there with dixie in a love clench
LOL, whoever has an opposing view is related to dixie! this poor guy had to come to the damn interent to find long lost relations.
maineman
Banned
students of good government know the difference between a bill and a resolution...
their ranks, obviously, does not include YOU.
Well, there is a back door draft going on now...is what they are saying?
By SCOTT CANON and RICK MONTGOMERY
The Kansas City Star
This was the plan in 1973: Dump the draft. Count on volunteers. When something big comes up, rely on the reserves and National Guard.
A special commission had told Richard Nixon the country could suffice with a smaller all-volunteer, active-duty military unless something really big came up.
Only in the case of a long-term, large-scale foreign deployment — define that as more than six months and 100,000 troops — would there be any need to bother with a draft again.
Now three-plus years since tanks rumbled into Baghdad, with more than 150,000 U.S. troops deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan, the Pentagon is making do with thinly stretched volunteers.
Most recently, the Marine Corps announced the involuntary call-up of 2,500 troops in the individual ready reserves — people clearly obligated to fight if called but also expecting that their days in uniform were behind them.
“Up until now the Marines were able to recruit plenty of people and get them to come back just by asking. They’re the most gung ho of all the services,” said Lawrence Korb, who specialized in manpower issues as an assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration. “The fact that they’re forcing some Marines back into service is indicative of how military and former military people feel about this war.”
In a word, tired.
Already, the Marines had called some 5,000 troops voluntarily back into service. The Army has called back 5,000 soldiers from the ready reserves, most of them involuntarily, since Sept. 11, 2001.
In addition, so-called “stop loss” policies that protect the Army from losing people in high-demand specialties are freezing more than 10,000 soldiers in the service involuntarily and indefinitely. At times during the Iraq war, that number has risen to nearly 14,000.
Korb and others refer to it as a “back-door draft” — a means of putting enough boots on the ground without having to impose conscription on the general military-age population.
Nor are recruitment targets being increased to account for the 500 or so troops lost to battlefield deaths and injuries every month, he said.
“We can’t put in that factor because it would be too hot politically,” he said of the casualties. “It’s like the draft.”
While a few lonely voices call for a draft to spread the burden of military service and to force a national referendum on the occupation of Iraq, conventional wisdom in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill holds that such ideas will go nowhere.
Some in Congress have pushed to significantly increase the number of active duty troops, which the Bush administration has consistently resisted.
continued at: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/15345565.htm
By SCOTT CANON and RICK MONTGOMERY
The Kansas City Star
This was the plan in 1973: Dump the draft. Count on volunteers. When something big comes up, rely on the reserves and National Guard.
A special commission had told Richard Nixon the country could suffice with a smaller all-volunteer, active-duty military unless something really big came up.
Only in the case of a long-term, large-scale foreign deployment — define that as more than six months and 100,000 troops — would there be any need to bother with a draft again.
Now three-plus years since tanks rumbled into Baghdad, with more than 150,000 U.S. troops deployed to either Iraq or Afghanistan, the Pentagon is making do with thinly stretched volunteers.
Most recently, the Marine Corps announced the involuntary call-up of 2,500 troops in the individual ready reserves — people clearly obligated to fight if called but also expecting that their days in uniform were behind them.
“Up until now the Marines were able to recruit plenty of people and get them to come back just by asking. They’re the most gung ho of all the services,” said Lawrence Korb, who specialized in manpower issues as an assistant secretary of defense during the Reagan administration. “The fact that they’re forcing some Marines back into service is indicative of how military and former military people feel about this war.”
In a word, tired.
Already, the Marines had called some 5,000 troops voluntarily back into service. The Army has called back 5,000 soldiers from the ready reserves, most of them involuntarily, since Sept. 11, 2001.
In addition, so-called “stop loss” policies that protect the Army from losing people in high-demand specialties are freezing more than 10,000 soldiers in the service involuntarily and indefinitely. At times during the Iraq war, that number has risen to nearly 14,000.
Korb and others refer to it as a “back-door draft” — a means of putting enough boots on the ground without having to impose conscription on the general military-age population.
Nor are recruitment targets being increased to account for the 500 or so troops lost to battlefield deaths and injuries every month, he said.
“We can’t put in that factor because it would be too hot politically,” he said of the casualties. “It’s like the draft.”
While a few lonely voices call for a draft to spread the burden of military service and to force a national referendum on the occupation of Iraq, conventional wisdom in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill holds that such ideas will go nowhere.
Some in Congress have pushed to significantly increase the number of active duty troops, which the Bush administration has consistently resisted.
continued at: http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/15345565.htm
Oh please Mainman! You don't believe him do you? Never have I see such a long line of repukes who are all just dying to get into the military but have all been turned down! I had people like this on my old board. Remember that wing nut guy Cypress? Oh, they're all packing their little bags in the morning, all gung ho, well honey, I'm off to fight the A-rabs for apple pie, virginity and Lockheed Martin! Wish me luck, I'll write! And they finally get to the recruitment office after walking 12 miles through three feet of snow, and what do you think happens? At a time when they are so desperate for people that they're enlisting retards, these guys get turned down! And so, our heros, crestfallen, turn back around, spurned, but still heroic, and go back home to rejoin the 101st fighting keyboardists, with the battle cry "Well at least I tried to join!"
They are so full of shit I would not want to be walking behind them, I can tell you that.
I read an article today, I don't remember where, but a bunch of vets were interviewed in it, it was a veteran's group I think, and they said that this is the last resort before a draft. It didn't look good to them.
Sir Evil
Megalocon, The Evil Dick
Well, never much cared for apple pie, we know you ain't no virgin, but would fight for the martini!
T
TRGLDTE
Guest
It's not unusual.
Hi! You came, yeeeaah.
I'm glad. It's fun here. A lot of serious debates, some of which are even smart, and a lot of off topic really fun stuff.
evince
Truthmatters
Gaffer
Sanctimonious Prick
The Marines are calling up special MOS.s. They are not just pulling in guys to run a combat patrol. These are highly trained individuals in communications and things like that. They will be used in training the new troops. A lot of these position might be going unfilled because they are REMF jobs and the Marines in now prefer being in the action.
Thomas L. Knapp
Infuriating Blowhard
Care4All,
You write: "Well, there is a back door draft going on now...is what they are saying?"
There's no "backdoor draft." When you enlist in the armed forces, the contract clearly states the conditions under which you can be called up from the Individual Ready Reserve.
Until the first Gulf War, of course, none of us ever believed that would really happen (I went IRR in September of 1990, but managed to get back into my unit instead of waiting to be called up from IRR to a "casualty replacement company" as many of my friends were), but it's not like it's a secret. Do a search for the standard enlistment contract. There are two IRR callup provisions in it (one for when the president declares a state of emergency, the other requiring congressional authorization). The enlistee has to initial next to each one to signify that he or she understands and accepts it.
Regards,
Tom Knapp
You write: "Well, there is a back door draft going on now...is what they are saying?"
There's no "backdoor draft." When you enlist in the armed forces, the contract clearly states the conditions under which you can be called up from the Individual Ready Reserve.
Until the first Gulf War, of course, none of us ever believed that would really happen (I went IRR in September of 1990, but managed to get back into my unit instead of waiting to be called up from IRR to a "casualty replacement company" as many of my friends were), but it's not like it's a secret. Do a search for the standard enlistment contract. There are two IRR callup provisions in it (one for when the president declares a state of emergency, the other requiring congressional authorization). The enlistee has to initial next to each one to signify that he or she understands and accepts it.
Regards,
Tom Knapp
Sir Evil
Megalocon, The Evil Dick
It was made clear to us all that it was an 8 year contract with 4 active, and 4 Inactive Reserves... I fully understood that I could be called back after I was released.