Congress pushes for larger military

USA Today ^ | Posted 12/12/2003 12:21 AM | By Tom Squitieri, USA TODAY

[11th_VA]

WASHINGTON

[11th_VA]

Can wait to hear the French & Germans react...

[DreamWeaver]

Do you feel that draft ?? Common sense will tell you that it is in the making..That's a fact.

[squidly]

So what gets cut to make room in the budget for more defense spending? Or are we just making the deficit bigger again?

[11th_VA]

I didn't want to mention that part ...

[Bella]

Do you feel that draft ?? Common sense will tell you that it is in the making..That's a fact.

Faster than what was thought..Well guys, it's here..What's the plan now?

[Bella]

So what gets cut to make room in the budget for more defense spending? Or are we just making the deficit bigger again?

It was already figured in the budget already..

[squidly]

It was already figured in the budget

Good. Since Congress won't let Rumsfeld restructure the way he wants to, I'm glad to see they're stepping up to the plate to do what needs to be done.

[Fledermaus]

And how do they propose, beyond a draft, to accomplish this?

Maybe they ought to enforce the law ignored by the leftists on our campuses that illegally won't allow the military to recruit or have an ROTC program.

Come on Congress. Cut their funds.

[Fledermaus]

Here's a novel idea. Bring our troops home from Germany, South Korea, Haiti, Bosnia (the ONE YEAR Clinton said they'd be there expired 5 years ago), Kosovo, Okinawa, etc.

That's got to be close to 150,000 right there.

[Bella]

DRAFT. How many people in this forum are draftable age?

[goodnesswins]

You mean we're going to refurbish the MILITARY which the Clintons DECIMATED?......GOOD....

[WackyKat]

Do you feel that draft ?? Common sense will tell you that it is in the making..That's a fact.

I doubt it. That will be a last resort because of the social upheaval it would cause and its unpopularity with the elites whose own children would be exposed to it.

[Fledermaus]

Not me. I would happily volunteer now but they won't take me at my age in the middle 40's. And I don't need to see combat, I'm happy to free up other military personnel to be used by doing administrative and other work.

[Steel Wolf]

This bill won't bring the military back to the size it was 10, 15 years ago. If we didn't need a draft then, we won't need one now.

In fact, they could easily solve the retention problems with a few strokes of the pen, mostly in eliminating Cliton era BS. More troops would help reduce overdeploying our resources. There's lots of dead end places like Germany and the Balkans that we could pull out of as well, and shift forward closer to the action.

[Bella]

From what I read, they said they would be drafting medical people to the age of 45, engineers, computers, and a few other needed..You can bet your bottom dollar there's going to be a lot of unhappy campers.
Remember the thread about the type of injuries that they weren't prepared for?--more BRAIN injuries than what was anticipated. This is NOT good one bit!

[Let's Roll]

Yep, that's what they're really pushing for - they know the draft is the quickest way to put an end to any vigorous defense of this country if not an end to the military itself.

[Tacos]

I also think that there is great worry that they are going to lose a great deal of Guard and Reserve forces (primarily Army) if they use them at the first conflict that comes up, and for extended periods of time (like 12-18 months). Of course, some joined and never thought they'd get called up (wont miss these people), but a lot knew they could get called up...just not to this degree, especially if they become peacekeepers.
We need a larger active force...I don't think we need to go back to the 2.1 million during the Cold War, but we do not have enough now. I would like to see more troops taken out of Europe...keeping strategic airbases is probably of more value I would think...

[Bella]

I would like to see more troops taken out of Europe

They're not taking any troops out of anywhere. They're trying to get more troops worldwide, and from somewhere I read about the increased amounts of suicides in Iraq and how many guys were taking off. Things aren't good.

[Tacos]

I would like to some troops taken out of Europe, but I still think we need a larger active force, some from taking excess troops out of places like Europe but mostly through increased recruitment levels.
Morale is something to be concerned about of course.

[truth_seeker]

"Yep, that's what they're really pushing for - they know the draft is the quickest way to put an end to any vigorous defense of this country if not an end to the military itself."

Upon what evidence or reasoning do you base such a supposition?

In spite of the relative unpopularity of Vietnam, most conscripts reported and served out their obligations. I did, alongside many others. (I worked in personnel, where I saw the records.)

I expect that if a draft was deemed necessary to defend against the muslim terrorists, most would once again comply and serve well.

The fact of 9/11/2001 is compelling. Thus far military leadership has NOT deemed it necessary. Another 9/11/2001 attack could change that.

I would then expect pre-emption to take on entirely new meaning. Justifiably.