Posted on 07/05/2012 11:51:33 AM PDT by Timber Rattler
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the former top commander of international forces in Afghanistan, said this week that the United States should bring back the draft if it ever goes to war again.
"I think we ought to have a draft. I think if a nation goes to war, it shouldn't be solely be represented by a professional force, because it gets to be unrepresentative of the population," McChrystal said at a late-night event June 29 at the 2012 Aspen Ideas Festival. "I think if a nation goes to war, every town, every city needs to be at risk. You make that decision and everybody has skin in the game."
He argued that the burdens of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan haven't been properly shared across the U.S. population, and emphasized that the U.S. military could train draftees so that there wouldn't be a loss of effectiveness in the war effort.
"I've enjoyed the benefits of a professional service, but I think we'd be better if we actually went to a draft these days," he said. "There would some loss of professionalism, but for the nation it would be a better course."
(Excerpt) Read more at thecable.foreignpolicy.com ...
I was at civil war reenactment thing in Charleston recently and one of the participants went through that very thing.
He was a marine artie along with a lot of his unit got to do foot patrols and the like.
The information by state is more useful than the region grouping. WA, OR, AK and HI are all overrepresented individually, then they are thrown in with low ratio CA to make an “underrepresented” Pacific region. Doesn’t make sense.
Leatherneck: “We got a saying in the Marines. The most dangerous thing in the world is a green officer in the dark with a book of matches.
Wet Suit: “Amen to that brother. Amen to that.”
http://gijoe.wikia.com/wiki/The_Most_Dangerous_Thing_in_the_World
Couldn’t agree more !
A free country doesn’t need a slave army.
VOLUNTARY US Army vet.
FIRST - Investigate whether one Baraq Hussein 0bama registered as required by law.
Your idea of national service (in the military) and our federal governments ideas are quite different. The military is letting people go, what do you think they would have all those extra people doing?
Giving politician and generals easy access to manpower makes war MORE probable.
Here’s the universal draft they have planned. 1 million get put in the military. 8 million get shipped to Federal make work and indoctrination camps.
“I think when you graduate from high school everyone should enter the military and spend at least two years.”
Military service is an honor not an endenture, if you don’t want to serve, I don’t want you to.
“I also thing that all officers should have to serve time as and enlisted person.”
Do you think that would make the military more fair?
And "they" were right when it came to taking down Afghanistan & Iraq. Of course when you end up occupying both countries for ten years, then you run into a real need for the infantry that you don't have.
“I don’t think the state has the right to take a couple year of your life absent a true national emergency. The idea that we all inherently owe something to the government is very distateful to me.”
First, thanks for your service and Semper Fi.
Second, I want to be clear that my feeling is that every citizen owes fealty and service (if required) to his NATION, not to his government. I see a distinct difference.
Better than what?
At the height of the daytime air war over Europe. American airmen deaths dwarfed Iwo Jimas entire USMC losses. They were staggering - sometimes thousands per month.
Why not eight? That way since they are stuck the malcontents among them might decide if they are in for eight they might as well do what the are supposed to do. Four or eight, we would have a big if not necessarily competent military with compulsory service, just like the ChiComs.
We’ll at least find out how many illegals are in the country by the sounds of the stampede south....
I appreciate every veteran and service member’s service to his country.
With that being said, I don’t want to be forced to do ANYTHING. Even dying for your country, should be a choice. And I especially want my son to have the same Liberty.
Skin?
The people don’t decide if to go to war, power brokers and politicians do. We don’t have elected reprentatives, we elected authorities that are controlled strictly by those with money and power. Don’t believe that? Then watch 25,000 of your fellow citizens write your congresscritter and ask for something...then watch a power broker hand him a $25,000 bribe, I mean, ‘campaign contribution’, at lunch to ignore your demands.
I see it not as war is discussed carefully because everyone has skin in the game during a draft but that if we are an all volunteer force then no one has to enlist when the power brokers demand it. That is the real throttle to war.
I have read many times on this forum, that our “all volunteer” force would never fire upon U.S. civilians, nor would they go door to door confiscating legally owned firearms. Do we feel the same level of confidence when the forces in question are conscripted?.
I for one, do not.
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