"He also said Saddam Hussein would have been stronger. That is just factually incorrect. Two-thirds of the country was a no-fly zone when we started this war. We would have had sanctions. We would have had the U.N. inspectors. Saddam Hussein would have been continually weakening."
--I've had one position, one consistent position, that Saddam Hussein was a threat.
-- He needed to be disarmed.
--I will make a flat statement: The United States of America has no long-term designs on staying in Iraq.
--I have a plan for Iraq. I believe we can be successful. I'm not talking about leaving.
--We can do a better job of training the Iraqi forces to defend themselves.
--And our goal in my administration would be to get all of the troops out of there with a minimal amount you need for training and logistics
I'll have to go through it more thoroughly tomorrow... As for the whole draft thing...scare tactics, I think. It's ironic how Republicans are the ones being accused of this practice. Ask anyone who has tried joining the military recently how difficult it really is to get in. Never mind the physical prerequisites, old parking tickets raise eyebrows in the recruiting office.
They want quality, not quantity. This might help explain some of the effort to hold on to the already trained & experienced, I'm not sure. Of course, after being away from family and convienience for 7 months it is hard to say good-bye to it all again.