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 ...
Nobody is pushing a draft except for dumbass charlie rangle.
Really, who mentioned it?
Hillary will.
I remember Rush telling us what a soldier had said to him: "We all have our roles.."
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.
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!
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.
;^)
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?
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.
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.
At the time you served you could still shoot deserters and traitors.
Nuff said?
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.
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.
In addition, your units never needed to worry about gender norming, nondeployability because of pregnancy, day care centers, etc.
Could we have won WWII with volunteers alone?
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.)
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