that's WAY... above his pay grade!!!
Posted on 08/10/2007 4:12:40 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday. "I think it makes sense to certainly consider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
"And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.
President Nixon abolished the draft in 1973. Restoring it, Lute said, would be a "major policy shift" and Bush has made it clear that he doesn't think it's necessary.
The repeated deployments affect not only the troops but their families, who can influence whether a service member decides to stay in the military, Lute said.
"There's both a personal dimension of this, where this kind of stress plays out across dinner tables and in living room conversations within these families," he said. "And ultimately, the health of the all- volunteer force is going to rest on those sorts of personal family decisions."
The military conducted a draft during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. The Selective Service System, re- established in 1980, maintains a registry of 18-year-old men.
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has called for reinstating the draft as a way to end the Iraq war.
Bush picked Lute in mid-May as a deputy national security adviser with responsibility for ensuring efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are coordinated with policymakers in Washington. Lute, an active-duty general, was chosen after several retired generals turned down the job.
Bad idea.
Note to the bashers: I enlisted in the Navy in 1990.
The draft made it too easy for LBJ to ratchet up a war we should never have been in.
This guy clearly isn’t a politician. He shouldn’t have suggested that it was even being considered. The MSM vultures and the Dems will go after this like fresh meat.
Not only do we want the best, brightest and most qualified, but the military needs those who really want to serve and defend the US. I wouldn’t want a moron watching my back in a crisis.
I think it’s a good idea. Right now you’ve got the luxury of training them thoroughly. Later we may very well be in too much of a hurry for that. We need a bigger military. The answer to a stretched out force is not to back off from our obligations, but to build up what we need.
I think we’re re-activating 3-4 divisions at Ft. Bragg, so that’s a good thing.
Memo to Rangel: Soldiers exist to fight, not to protest.
Why do you say we should have never been in Vietnam? Should we leave the S. Koreans to the same fate we left the Vietnamese? The Taiwanese? The Iraqis?
You see the problems we had with just one Beauchamp,, now imagine hundreds of them.
Because of the technology used in a lot of the services now, it would take too much time and effort to train some draftee—who didn’t want to be there and would fight every step of the way.
Bad idea.
The only time a draft would be useful is if we were engaged in a land battle in Asia. And what idiot would do that.
With Hillary tying to take the reigns, a draft would be a bad idea. ............. With Hillary, it’s going to be a recruiter’s nightmare. Then again, we may not need anymore troops since they’ll be withdrawn from everywhere.
The Gulf of Tonkin incident was a complete fabrication. Why should we have been there? The only thing accomplished was obscene profits for the military industrial complex, and 58,000 killed. The end result was the same as if we had never been there.
Lute knew going in he was to be thrown under the bus at the first moment necessary by the Bush inner circle.
The guy is brilliant for coming out with this, it increases his post-retirement speaking fee value considerably, and makes him much much more visible going into the ‘08 election season, one which he is absolutely certain he will be a working as a civilian well before the general election.
Lute is thinking outside the box, he’s probably hoping he gets fired for discussing bringing back the draft, so he doesn’t become the whipping boy for some worse situation thatwas actually outside his control.
“Because of the technology used in a lot of the services now, it would take too much time and effort to train some draftee—who didn’t want to be there and would fight every step of the way.”
Yeah, you got that right, just like they did in WWI WWII and Korea?
Hillary would insure our troops end up dead.
Warrior Queen Hillary, even the thought of it makes me gag.
True, those who are in the military against their will don't make good soldiers, I witnessed that first hand.
First question: Why give an interview to NPR? Second question: Didn't Democrats pull this from their playbook during a previous election?
Sure. If you want every young person under 25 to hate the Republican Party for the rest of his life, go right ahead and start up the draft...
I was drafted at the age of 22 by JFK in 1961 after that wall was constructed in Berlin in 1961. I was far from happy about it at the time as I had other plans. But I must say that the discipline in basic training at Ft. Leonard Wood (little Korea) did wonders for my crappy attitude and my eventual service with the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery gave me excellent preparation for later life. I highly recommend a few years of military service for every young American, voluntarily or involuntarily as a mighty fine life experience. The GI Bill paid for my college education and now VA is providing me with the best medical care I have ever received.
Lute and the Bush staffers didn’t bring out this cultural third rail without planning through it beforehand. This is a diversionary media tactic, to keep the media away from asking about Lute’s other dossiers or some other military problem that the media is building a story on... (Remember, this guy was supposed to partially take over Rumsfeld position of the front man who beat the media over it’s collective heads with big Clue Sticks)... The Bush White House is playing the same game Rangel has been playing with the idea. Neither are being honest, both hope to stir things up and keep constituents in a frenzy, and both wave it around to beat up on ideological enemies.
It’s not believable to assume that Lute brought this out without consultation with the Bush media PR teams, which means Bush is doing another round of “beat the crap out of your core Constituency to promote Republican failure during the 2008 general election” campaign again. This is Amensty Bill Redux for the elitist cliques that control the Bush White House and GOP Senators.
However, they did not have predators, they didn't have tanks that looked like spaceships.
AND, they had a clear enemy.
As a friend of mine who is going back for the third time soon, said to me: “The first time I was there the enemy was in front of me, and the troops were behind me. The second time, it wasn’t that clear.”
And he digs this stuff.
I cannot imagine some of the dopey guys in my daughters’ classes making it through boot camp. Of course, it would do them some good, but they would need to get the crap kicked out them a couple of times.
Finally, just talking about a draft is going to drive the campuses nuts this fall. Nothing like a couple hundred thousand braless protesters to get congresses attention.
Can’t you just feel the sixty-something boomers getting the tie-dye shirts and bell bottoms out of the closet for a good ole Viet Nam moratorium bash?
It is an idea, but political suicide.
They do it every time.
that's WAY... above his pay grade!!!
The draft is constitutional in that the our constitution gives the Congress authority to call out the “militia.” At such a time, the president is the Cdr in Chief of all forces, to include the militia.
As many of us gun advocates have painstakingly pointed out over the years, the militia is NOT the organized military of the US, whether active or reserve. It is “every able-bodied citizen.”
The purpose of such a call by Congress would be in response to all-out war declared by Congress. It would be a dire circumstance.
The trouble, imho, with this war is that it is not prosecuted as vigorously as it should be, certainly not as single-mindedly as we prosecuted WWII. In WWII we mobilized the nation. If you weren’t in the military, then you were part of the war effort.
The goals of WWII were clear, the nation was 100% focused on them, and this nation fought a 2 theater war and brought two of the world’s major powers to their knees inside of 4 years. It was a phenomenal accomplishment.
Aided by the draft (calling forth of the militia), our military subjugated our enemies. Any serious state must reserve the power to defend itself in extraordinary ways in extraordinary times.
Is this an extraordinary time?
If you believe that the Islamic goal is an Islamic Caliphate stretching from Algeria to Indonesia and thence to world domination, then it is such a time.
Our government, on the other hand, is not prepared to execute such a clearly focused war. In the same way they were not prepared to allow Patton to attack the Soviets. Patton was correct in his assessment of communism. They were not prepared to allow MacArthur to attack the Chinese. MacArthur was correct in his assessment of Chinese communism.
We are not prepared to take down Iran, Saudia Arabia, Pakistan, and Islamic Africa. Therefore, we have no need of a draft.
An Idiotic idea that is the very antithesis of a free people. Either increase the standing size of the force or reduce military committments that’s stretching said force.
Watch the moonbats go absolutely bugf*&k over this.
Oh,its ok if Charlie Rangel proposes a draft. But if ChimpyHitler suggests it, watch the LW blogs and nutroots go bananas.
You’re right of course... I’d rather see us double the military budget, pay the troops better, and attract many more recruits with enlistment (and reenlistment) bonuses. People who don’t understand technology always seem to overestimate the technology vis a vis the individual human being. You can’t eliminate the human... without the human there IS no technology. Tech can be made to perform amazing things, but it’s always complicated, always difficult, and always prone to failure. It’s the prudent combination of human and technical that can make us invincible. But nothing will ever replace a will to win.
I think this story at least slightly misrepresents what he said. Of ~course~ a draft always has to be considered. It needs to be there as an arrow in the quiver for the time it is truly necessary. But even in this interview he said it wasn’t necessary or desirable now.
I had this same discussion with a group of dems last week. They wanted the draft because, and I use their own words, “It would weaken the military so much that Bush would have to stop his insane war.” I responded with a question, “So you support weakening our military in the time of war?” I never got another response from any of the 4 dems in the email discussion. They quickly changed the subject.
Obviously you don’t think stopping communism is a worthy cause for which to go to war. You reveal yourself, sir.
Re-instituting the draft would severely increase the number of liberals serving in the Armed Forces, and I can’t see how that makes us stronger as a nation...unless we use them strictly as cannon fodder on the front lines.
The OPTION is always “on the table” — so what?? It is just that - an option.
There is nothing to even suggest that it will be used. Remember the big draft scare and the results of the vote back in 2004
Could you please explain what our inovlvement in Viet Nam did to stop, or even slow the advancement of communism?
Stopping communism would require flushing the communists out of the State Department, and the covert operatives from the CIA.
You should do a bit of research, rather than swallowing the kool-aid put forth by the media, and the government propagandists.
A lousy idea. Barring a national emergency far greater than the one we’re in, a draft is incompatable with a free society.
Also, it’s no secret that the overwhelming majority of the officer corps believes this about enlisted men- if they don’t want to be here, we don’t want them here!
On NPR... hmmm...
Didn’t we have around 18 Army divisions less than 20 years ago, with an all-volunteer force? I would think there are ways to increase recruitment without resorting to the draft, which has a number of problems.......
This General’s a liberal darling...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/15/AR2007051501612.html
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3176644&page=1
No wonder he’s giving interviews to NPR.
“There’s both a personal dimension of this, where this kind of stress plays out across dinner tables and in living room conversations within these families,” he said. “And ultimately, the health of the all- volunteer force is going to rest on those sorts of personal family decisions.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The General makes a good point here,,,and,,,It was posted on FR that enlistees are being given larger bonuses because
the Army has missed it’s monthly quotas for the last three months or so,,,
Frankly, I’ve yet to see a good recruitment campaign that actually tells young men that we are at war and that their country needs them. That would be a good start.
On the other hand, wars are hard on the military. The fact that fighting this war puts stress on the services shouldn’t be a surprise or a call for alarm. War is different than peace and rotations are what they are. What was the ‘rotation’ or tour in WW II? There wasn’t one except for Army aircrew and that was set to be longer than the statistical chances of survival.
Bush has repeatedly said he’s against a draft for a variety of reasons. Sure the option is on the table. But asymmetrical warfare doesn’t require massive numbers of troops and hardware like the wars of the 20th century. And this General resisted the surge so I find it strange that he’d seriously push for a draft now. More than likely it was something that NPR wanted to talk about to...um, stir up the masses with an election coming up.
You make some excellent points about recruitment honesty as well as difficult rotation schedules.
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