Posted on 09/15/2012 1:11:26 PM PDT by vet7279
Whatever one thinks of the morality of the draft, I believe that the war will continue to drag on as long as upscale Americans see it as an abstract issue that has little relevance to their day-to-day lives. Unless their toilet overflows, these denizens of the Nike and Chablis milieu of our society seldom have any meaningful contact with, or concern for, the strata that furnishes the bodies to be killed or mutilated in our military crusades.
(Excerpt) Read more at fairfaxtimes.com ...
Huh? Someone who regrets not serving can only guess how it would’ve been. Someone who was drafted knows what it was like, at least anecdotally. There is no balance there.
To put it as simply as I can, Congress has no authority to declare whomever it says is a militia member. Militia members did not include all able-bodied males in colonial America, nor at the time of the Constitution’s ratification. Plus, those who do not volunteer for the militia cannot be forced to serve because of the 13th amendment.
HERE is the LAW AS WRITTEN.
CHAPTER 13 - THE MILITIA
-HEAD-
Sec. 311. Militia: composition and classes
-STATUTE-
(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are -
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.
Basically our Dear Leaders starting from the Clinton Terms continuing through W's terms and Obamas terms have been closing bases and decommissioning ships. {our Navy is at a low number of ships unseen since pre-WW1.}
So if we have a draft anyone got ideas as to where they will train and be stationed? Right now the military due to the economy can pretty well have it's pick of volunteers. The 1982 Recession was how we went from undermanned under Carter to all services manned under Reagan.
There was a time when you could train a man for two to four months and then deem him combat-ready and ship him out. With today’s high-tech combat, those days are long gone.
If we keep the 2-year commitment of my draftee days, we will spend most of the two years training up to basic functionality. It makes no sense to pay people for 8,12, 16 months of training and then put them in a combat unit for a year (or less). Inclusive of trainers and support, 70-80% of the Army would be in training or supporting training, and about 5-8% would be actual combat troops.
“HERE is the LAW AS WRITTEN”
Hello! I don’t care. There’s a law called Obamacare that says you have to buy health insurance under such and such conditions, but that doesn’t mean it’s legal. Congress has no authority, or no unilateral, final authority, to say who is and who is not in the militia. Certainly it has no authority to say all able-bodied adult males between so and so ages are militia members. And it absolutely cannot press into service men who did not volunteer per the 13th amendment.
Reinstatement of the draft is an old Demwit goal, going back to Carter (who actually got draft registration reimplemented). It’s only appropriate during wartime. Thanks justiceseeker93.
“And the people that want to reinstate it almost universally want to destroy the magnificent military we have now.”
Exactly.
You don’t go to a draft as an end to keep us out of conflict. Because when we do go to a conflict you don’t have an elite military any longer.
We’d need to ramp up to 16 Divisions again, to play the attrition game.
To explain how not all able-bodied adult men were not militia members in the colonial era, follow me. Colonial legislatures called the militia in times of trouble, setting a quota in line with the needs of the campaign. Local militia members recruited volunteers and if necessary drafted members of the community to fill the quota, though that was not normally necessary.
Now, I ask you, how do you draft someone into the militia if they’re already militia members? Hie does that work? I’ll tell you how: they weren’t in the militia until they volunteered or were forced in. Priorto that they were merely members of the community and the pool out if which militiamen were drawn.
You cannot redefine the pool as the militia. It doesn’t work that way.
The only ones demanding a draft are those who want it to self destruct.
“HERE is the LAW AS WRITTEN”
***Hello! I don’t care. ***
You might want to care. This has been used to prove that the 2nd Ammendment does allow ALL CITIZENS to own private firearms, even if they are never called up for military service.
The only thing appropriate in this day and age is downsizing the number of “boots on the ground” and investing more in high technology, and a commander in chief who doesn’t mind getting blood on his hands.
No use wasting lives needlessly. Just waste the perps by remote control.
Cause if there really was a need, I think the amount of volunteers would be overwhelming.
Here.
http://academic.udayton.edu/health/syllabi/bioterrorism/8military/milita01.htm
***You cannot redefine the pool as the militia. It doesn’t work that way.***
The LAW of the US defines what is a militia man, not me.
I should care because an unconstitutional law has been used to misinterpret the Constitution? That law is unnecessary since the 2nd amendment clearly states it is the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Every other place it says “the people” it is referring to all the people. If SCOTUS denies that in the case of the 2nd amendment it is yet another illegal ruling.
I find it utterly disgusting that I would be forced to choose between the draft and the right to bear arms or nothing.
By the way, how on earth did they use it to apply the 2nd amendment to ALL CITIZENS if the law only coveted able-bodied males of such and such an age? That would leave out cripples and women. So you see howarbitrary SCOTUS is.
“The LAW of the US defines what is a militia man, not me”
By “you” I meant “one,” as in Congress. It can’t be redefined that way is the point. Whatever “militia” meant at the time of ratification is what militia means for constitutional purposes. Congress cannot give it new meaning.
I see, finally, a reason why you defend the law. Is that why you’re arguing for the draft power through the militia backdoor? Because you find it useful for shooting libs down on the 2nd amendment?
“The military doesn’t need a bunch of functional illiterates.”
Those illiterates include the likes of Alvin York, Medal of Honor.
Wholeheartedly agree.
Create a new Service akin to the Coast Guard. Call it the Border guard and everyone serves one year right out of high school. Build bases every 15 miles on the borders with and a 20 foot high wall on both borders patrolled 24/7.
6 weeks of training should be plenty being the only responsibility is to shoot anyone who enters the no man's land that stretches 250 yards out from the wall and to maintain the wall and bases.
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