Rep. Rangel will seek to reinstate draft

AP via Yahoo! ^ | November 19, 2006 | AP

[PeteB570]

There is a difference between draftees/numbers and trained units.

Size of the military is a function of spending. Congress controls that.

Once Congress funds the additional slots and equipment the military can recruit the warm bodies. But they must be trained on the basic/individual tasks (Basic & AIT) and then once shipped to the unit are trained again in the unit tasks.

A large scale expansion requires stripping some units of experienced leaders (officers and NCOs) and forming the new unit's cadre, bring in the privates and then train the unit. This could take +/- two years.

Somebody more up to date could add in here but most units run on a 2 year training cycle. Where a private just getting out of initial training would go through the cycle and get out or be promoted to the next level and go through the next cycle at the higher level. Little bit more complicated than that but I gave the condensed version.

We maintained the large Cold War Army during the late 70s and early 80s with a volunteer Army.

Congress just needs to open the purse, create the slots and the rest will follow.

[Defender2]

#180. Or fill the Military with more backstabbing, grenade throwing Akbar's!!!!:-(

[pandoraou812]

Well I think its something we all better think about.

[Bush Revolution]

Good point. I just got out of the Navy after 10 years of service, due to wanting to stay home with my family. My husband is still in and will stay until his future retirement. I would think that making someone serve would cause all kinds of problems throughout the ranks. It seems to me, that if someone doesn't want to be there certain missions could be compromised. What was it like when you served with men who were drafted? Were there many problems?

I do understand your point, but if the recruitments are met, why have a draft?

One last point, the Navy and Air Force are forcing people out right now by lowering the higher tenure. I am completely perplexed on this issue. There are so many people I knew that were great Sailors and got forced out. In a time of war I do not see the reason for early retirement and forced separation.

P.S. A lot of the kids today for a prospective draft would be eliminated because of Ritalin use, which is not a bad thing,

[processing please hold]

Then you're a better person than I am. There's a whole $hit list of people I don't like. And day by day it grows.

[Night Hides Not]

Speaking only from my personal experience, I am strongly against the draft.

IMHO, the greatest untold story of the 20th century is the history of the American military, post-Vietnam to the end of the Carter Administration.

Despite the inept leadership under Jimmy Carter, and the social experiments played during that rudderless administration, the effort and leadership displayed by tens of thousands of young officers & non-coms made it work, somehow.

Looking back on my experiences, I keep asking myself, "how did we make this damn thing work?" Our equipment was aged and growing more obsolete by the day, we had shortages of funding for training and maintenance, and the standards for new enlistees were far below that required today.

As I reminisce about the absolutely superb officers & NCOs I worked with every day, I'm reminded of the words of the final scene in "The Bridges of Toko-Ri": "where do these men come from?"

It's only my opinion, but a return to the draft would undo all that was accomplished by all of those fine soldiers.

[Mo1]

Well .. they are going get slapped with reality because we don't have republicans #'s to block the dems

Just another lesson learned I guess

[Sacajaweau]

I think Rangel's point would be the imbalance a draft would cause, i.e.,single, non-working (lazy)poor would show up significantly.

It may be a good thing...showing that family and work and school rank right up there with duty!!

You have to go back in his speeches. He originally said the volunteer army was im-balanced...poor blacks etc.. He ate those words royally when the stats were published.

[freedomdefender]

What a novel way to sidestep the real issue: is freedom "free"?

The poster I was responding to wasn't advocating a draft to defend our country against an external threat to freedom, but rather to force certain kids into doing something else with their time (he didn't approve of their x-boxes or whatever). In other words, he wanted a draft to abrogate their freedom to spend free time in ways that he finds "frivolous".

[Sooth2222]

"A draft doesn't have to be limited to military personnel. Draftees good be put into police departments, federal or state forest services, the Border Patrol, Homeland Security, TSA, etc."

"Of course. Government can force people to do a lot of things, and a lot of jobs, if government assumes dictatorial control over people's lives. They did it in the Soviet Union for 70 years - telling people what jobs they had to take for the "good of the fatherland."

Rangel's constituents, some of whom might have some difficulty passing the educational and drug screening thresholds for the US military -- perhaps his constituents who fail the educational and or drug screening could be utilized to harvest crops in California for $76/month, now that illegal aliens are more difficult for California farmers to find and hire. I thought I read that crops were rotting in the fields because there's nobody to pick them. How can we let this happen? Remember, it's all for the "common good".

[redgolum]

So, two weeks after the election we are going to have a draft and amnesty.

This should be interesting.

[Bush Revolution]

LOL

[wtc911]

Isn't it just like Rengel's generation of socialist democrats to protest the most when they were of draft age, but as soon as they have power, insist younger generations give more than they did?

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Rangel saw combat as a draftee in Korea so what are you talking about?

[PeteB570]

You, like me, must have had a VOLAR rug, VOLAR bedspread and VOLAR rug in our VOLAR barracks.

The VOLAR beer machine in the day room didn't last long.

[RobbyS]

Is Charlie saying that if we had not had a draft that Truman would have never contributed troops to the "police action." in Korea? IMHO, the basic problem was the troop levels established during the Clitnon administration. But, as Rumsfeld surely noticed, raises in troop levels do not automatically translate into more boots on the ground. Indeed, since world War II, the Army has become fixated on the the idea of a force with too much brass, too large a rear echalon, and machines rather than men. My guess is that if you look at the force in place in Southwest Asia that there are many officers and noncoms who are there just to punch their tickets.

But Charlie also forgets that the draft did not result in distribution of serve among the classes during the Vietnam War. The rioting about the war came because college men didn't want to leave the comforts of home and do their time. So I guess his desire is to prevent another "Iraq." by in effect diminishing our ability to go to war for any cause.

[wtc911]

I would support a draft on these conditions....

No college deferments.

Draft women too.

Draft primarily to non-combat roles, leaving volunteer enlistees free to fight.

[right-wingin_It]

The last time Rangle had sponsored a re-instatement of the draft, he ended up voted against it -- his own bill!

He's obviously one of the elite few idiots in congress that tries to out-do that other flip-flopper (which doesn't need naming).

[petkus]

Let Charlie's bill go for a vote in the House and the Senate & lets see what happens?

Will Casey Jr, Obama, McCaskill and any other of our great Senators vote for the draft?

[chemicalman]

This is like the 3rd or 4th time he trys this.

[Cvengr]

Thank you