This is getting old. NO ONE WANTS A DRAFT.
Soldiers don’t want the draft.
The Army leadership don’t want the draft.
Our government don’t want the draft.
The potential draftee don’t want the draft.
BUT!!!! Some hippy scare tacticians in the media sure like to talk about it.
There is no need for a draft as numbers are being met through other means. A conscripted Army is a $hitty Army.
Do you want inexperienced, poorly trained people who do not want to be there and have no initiative, courage or discipline to bear arms? Then instate a draft.
You will NOT send a unit like 1AD to Iraq for 15 months, loose quiet a few people (One brigade had 24 dead and 211 wounded) and maintain retention goals and have no real morale or discipline problems if you used drafted soldiers. The quality of the soldier will take a dive and it is the NCO and junior officer who is fighting this war in Iraq and Afghanistan. While the brass self ingratiates itself in the media there is no need for a Corps HQ in Iraq. It’s all small unit fights as was the case when 3ID and Marines rolled through Baghdad or Fallujah. The quality of people DOES matter and we need to let the market run this as we do everywhere else in our nation. Pay these guys more, give bigger bonuses and so on. It’s already working. What you want is qualified people who volunteer.
Red6
"There is no need for a draft as numbers are being met through other means. A conscripted Army is a $hitty Army."
I agree with the first part. Here's an article that includes FY 04 recruiting stats.
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/joiningthemilitary/a/2004recruitgoal.htm
The only concern is in the National Guard who have been overused (IMO) and possibly the percentage of delayed entry enlistees lining up to enter in FY 05.
I would support a draft if the need was great. The attitude of the draftees would depend on how great the need was. Their attitude would make all the difference in how well they would integrate into the force.
Draft or no draft, we need a larger army to keep up with the current level of deployments.