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Gen. Abizaid: No draft please
tribune-review ^ | mike Wereschagin

Posted on 10/31/2007 3:51:17 PM PDT by Salena Zito

Gen. Abizaid: No draft please By Mike Wereschagin TRIBUNE-REVIEW Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The military is stretched thin and the tangle of problems in the Middle East will take generations to unravel, but the former top U.S. commander in that region said this morning he still thinks a draft is the wrong way to go. "Young people need to figure out how to serve the country," said retired four-star Gen. John P. Abizaid, who spoke to the Trib this morning before a speech at Carnegie Mellon University.

(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; US: Pennsylvania; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: abizaid; airforce; army; conscription; draft; gatheringofeagles; iran; iraq; islam; marines; murtha; navy; pennsylvania; pittsburgh; recruitment; terrorism; usmilitary; wot
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1 posted on 10/31/2007 3:51:17 PM PDT by Salena Zito
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To: Salena Zito

Nobody is pushing a draft except for dumbass charlie rangle.


2 posted on 10/31/2007 3:52:41 PM PDT by Graybeard58 ( Remember and pray for SSgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: Graybeard58

Really, who mentioned it?


3 posted on 10/31/2007 3:55:57 PM PDT by doodad
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To: doodad

Hillary will.


4 posted on 10/31/2007 4:00:01 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Salena Zito
Winning will require the two things that work - a Declaration of War and the draft. No committing the nation + no overwhelming force = no win.
5 posted on 10/31/2007 5:24:30 PM PDT by ex-snook ("Above all things, truth beareth away the victory.")
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To: Salena Zito
"Young people need to figure out how to serve the country,"...

I remember Rush telling us what a soldier had said to him: "We all have our roles.."

6 posted on 10/31/2007 8:06:56 PM PDT by Just Lori (There is nothing democrat-"ic" about democrats.)
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To: Billthedrill
HI, BILL!!!!!

7 posted on 10/31/2007 8:09:52 PM PDT by Just Lori (There is nothing democrat-"ic" about democrats.)
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To: Graybeard58

I like the idea of a draft at all times.

I think the militia can be called out by the Congress at any time, and that they are not the Active or Reserve Standing Army.

Wouldn’t hurt to require them to get a little training.


8 posted on 10/31/2007 8:23:09 PM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain. True support of the troops means praying for US to WIN the war!)
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To: ex-snook

Winning will require the two things that work - a Declaration of War and the draft. No committing the nation + no overwhelming force = no win.


Have you ever served? No insult intended but just curious.

I am on active duty as a Senior NCO. I do NOT want a draft!

At least the problem children we have now WANT to be in!


9 posted on 10/31/2007 8:28:05 PM PDT by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
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To: Grizzled Bear
Why not a couple battalions of drafted anti-war Liberals, send them into combat first!

1. They refuse to fight and the enemy kills them.

2. They try to defect and the enemy kills them.

3. The successfully defect and are killed later by "real soldiers."

4. They finally wake up and fight for their country.

;^)

10 posted on 10/31/2007 9:22:43 PM PDT by DTogo (I haven't left the GOP, the GOP left me.)
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To: Graybeard58

The liberal reasons for a draft should be too obvious to remark on but here goes:

For one thing, a draft paralyzes the military by filling it with unwilling conscripts.

For another, a draft will bring back those happy golden years of “Hell no we won’t go!” riots on college campuses and kumbaya rallies.

Makes sense?


11 posted on 10/31/2007 10:03:46 PM PDT by sinanju
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To: sinanju
For another, a draft will bring back those happy golden years of “Hell no we won’t go!” riots on college campuses and kumbaya rallies.

A poster, somewhere, noted that anti Vietnam war protests virtually stopped as soon as the draft ended in 1972. His point was that most liberal protesters didn't give a damn about the war's morality, they just wanted to avoid its dangers.

I think that's true (I can't remember well enough to be sure and don't want to do the research). Assuming it is - we don't want such people in a modern army but, as a society, we have to address the issue sooner or later.

12 posted on 11/01/2007 4:27:17 AM PDT by liberallarry
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To: Grizzled Bear
"Have you ever served? No insult intended but just curious."

I was a draftee Combat Infantryman in WW II. The draftees won Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge and controlled the occupation because the Regular Army men were about all gone. I was glad we had overwhelming force. It's the way to win quickly and completely. Tell me why you don't.

13 posted on 11/01/2007 8:19:18 AM PDT by ex-snook ("Above all things, truth beareth away the victory.")
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To: ex-snook
Look at the difference between your generation and the Viet Nam war generation.

At the time you served you could still shoot deserters and traitors.

Nuff said?

14 posted on 11/01/2007 5:35:58 PM PDT by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
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To: ex-snook
I was a draftee Combat Infantryman in WW II. The draftees won Normandy, the Battle of the Bulge and controlled the occupation because the Regular Army men were about all gone. I was glad we had overwhelming force. It's the way to win quickly and completely. Tell me why you don't.

No disrespect intended, but that was a different war in a different era.

Today we're fighting not armies or states, but groups whose ties to governments are shady at best, who don't fight according to the Geneva Convention or any other internationally recognized ROE.

What we need is quality, not quantity. But thank you for your service in our nation's time of need.

--Fellow VFW member
15 posted on 11/01/2007 5:41:21 PM PDT by OCCASparky (Steely-Eyed Killer of the Deep)
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To: Grizzled Bear
"Look at the difference between your generation and the Viet Nam war generation."

Perhaps, but I would add the absence of a Declaration of War [not assumed]. If the President and the Congress don't officially unite the nation behind a war, then the nation will waver, then and now. The nation was united in WW II with shared sacrifice and that left no doubt in the young. I think it would be so in Korea, Viet Nam, Afghanistan and Iraq.

16 posted on 11/01/2007 5:54:42 PM PDT by ex-snook ("Above all things, truth beareth away the victory.")
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To: Grizzled Bear

Actually, I’m not sure about that. We really have a recruited army as opposed to a volunteer army. The military of WWII was just as professional as the one we have now. Actually, given the day care centers and nondeployability rates I see, perhaps more so.


17 posted on 11/06/2007 5:46:02 PM PST by MSF BU
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To: ex-snook

In addition, your units never needed to worry about gender norming, nondeployability because of pregnancy, day care centers, etc.


18 posted on 11/06/2007 5:47:45 PM PST by MSF BU
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To: Grizzled Bear
I am on active duty as a Senior NCO. I do NOT want a draft!

Could we have won WWII with volunteers alone?

19 posted on 11/06/2007 5:57:02 PM PST by Age of Reason
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To: Grizzled Bear

Half the problem is people have grown up believing someone else would always do the fighting.

So they were free to grow up in a pacifist dream.

I think American voters would be infinitely more attentive to government, were they to know the futures and lives of themsevles and/or their loved ones would be more directly involved in what the government decides.

It would make for a more mature and wiser population.

(And if women expect to have equal rights, then draft them too, and put them in the front lines. They can’t have it both ways. They should either hold the stirrup or go where the men go.)


20 posted on 11/06/2007 6:02:53 PM PST by Age of Reason
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