Posted on 07/04/2023 6:45:51 AM PDT by Antioch
Fifty years ago, one American faced Independence Day having just lost much of his personal freedom. Dwight Elliot Stone, the U.S. military’s last draftee, was inducted into the United States Army on June 30, 1973. Private Stone served not in Vietnam but in the safer yet equally humid swamps of Fort Polk, Louisiana. His 17 months in uniform brought down the curtain on the draft. Stone was the last of more than 17 million men conscripted into the U.S. military.
Those who joined the American military in July of 1973, and in the five decades since, have been part of what is known as America’s “all-volunteer force,” or AVF. For most Americans, the AVF is something to be celebrated, but foreign to their daily lives. The AVF gave most Americans the freedom to be indifferent to their military, shifting the burden of service to a smaller, self-selected cohort of citizens.
The AVF receives endless accolades; American politicians often refer to it as “the finest fighting force the world has ever known.” But despite 20 years of war and military interventions with mixed results, the all-volunteer force has been subject to little debate about whether it’s still the right force for America.
When these discussions do occur, most focus on democratic accountability. As President George W. Bush quipped about the Iraq War to a group of Oval Office visitors in 2006: “If I had to do this with a draft army, I would have been impeached by now.” The idea that misguided wars might be prevented by a more engaged population has its appeal, but the AVF also faces more
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Russia isn’t
China probably isn’t. At least not here
You haven’t seen anything yet, a female military, female officer corps, female generals, female congress, female voters on foreign policy, a largely democrat voter military, will lead to turning the military into just another unionized federal job with pay, benefits, health care, and comfort and safety becoming the primary concerns of what used to be hard-living, organizations of hard men living hard adventurous lives with little pay and little interest in the ‘quality of life’ issues when budgets were spent on bullets and bayonets, and meager paychecks on booze and hookers and living on base or onboard, living the soldier or sailor’s life.
The VA and military budgets are going to be overwhelmed with female vets and their self-absorption and disability
claims.
The military life used to be the warrior’s life, and it attracted warriors, and was filled with warriors.
Typical American PROPAGANDA. No mention of the Woke Indoctrination regarding the military - for example, was there any ‘recruiting crisis’ BEFORE Biden’s handlers took over? How about being sent to the front lines in Ukraine to fight a futile war, since Ukraine is nearly out of cannon fodder?
Actually, I have mixed feelings - I think having the draft is a good idea, but ONLY if the military is used to further US INTERESTS, rather than start and then fight useless, and usually futile, wars. But as long as the Hormone-Driven Leftists (Ukraine War supporters) remain in power, NO THANKS to the draft.
You might re-word it....competent and capable people not seeking recruitment. By lowering standards (giving weight waivers to people who are entering bootcamp, finding ways to overlook convictions or drug-use in the past, etc), you are ending up eventually with someone who is more of burden, than an asset.
The problem I see...it’s not 2023 you should be worrying about. The trend absolutely continues and intensifies in 2024 and 2025. It also drifts across to officer recruits...so you end up with some junior officers who would have been denied entry in the past decades.
A AF Lt Col ends up as a squadron commander in 2024....only to arrive and discover that nine of eighty-eight billets are unfilled. A ship commander arrives to take charge...finding that of the 244 folks who should be there...there’s 18 vacant positions. A army Lt Col arrives to find that of 920 folks there (instead of the thousand)...he’s got fourteen folks on some mental profile for crazy behavior, and forty folks who simply can’t pass the fitness test and barely a year out of basic. All of this drives the better officers to leave service early.
Even if Biden leaves in 2025...with either RFK or Trump, I don’t see how they can reverse this trend without massive legal challenges pressed upon them. We are simply motivating ourselves to downsize the military over the next decade, probably by 30-percent. The reserve/national guard picture is probably even more dismal.
We have petty, corrupt, woke ideologues in DC, pretending they are still running a republic, who stay in power through printed money and massive debt.
The people are already wise to reality.
Used to be a warriors life but have you seen the latest army recruiting ads? Almost as sad as the ultra woke CIA recruiting ads.
Reinstitute the Draft and use Affirmative Action for Trans....!!!!
Nailed it!
The military was never intended to be a laboratory for social experimentation or a safe harbor for weirdos and deviants. It’s being destroyed by detached elitists who haven’t the foggiest idea what they’re doing. Being drafted was probably the best thing that ever happened to me because it forced me to grow up and shed the foolish ideas I might have carried throughout my whole life. We need it now, desperately. And the military needs to be distanced from the notion that it’s just a job like any other, because it isn’t.
I heard where a lot of females are complaining that shoving a bullet into the chamber of a firearm is a sexual act that offends them. Don’t know if it’s true or not.
I can only see two legitimate US military interventions today: 1) the occupation and stabilization of the southern border and 2) the invasion of Baltimore, New York, Portland, Seattle, San Fran Feces, and other Democrat -occupied war zones.
We waste too much on the military anyways that does very little to benefit America so hopefully even less people decide to join up.
The US doesn’t stand for anything good anymore.
He was a smart man. We were at IGMR at the time.
“”””for example, was there any ‘recruiting crisis’ BEFORE Biden’s handlers took over?””””
Yes, there sure was, decades of it.
Not just the feminization of the military leadership, but also the perversion of the leadership with perverts able to serve openly.
One of the reasons I got out in 1976 after 5 1/2 years of service is that I concluded that there’s always an idiot or an asshole who outranks you. Now add that there’s very likely someone who is openly perverted and without morals who supports Marxist ideology who outranks you. Many, many, many are saying “No thanks”.
People don’t want to risk getting blown up to make gay marriage legal in some foreign country ?? Shocking
“Yes, there sure was, decades of it.”
Back then it was QUALITY of recruits, not quantity, not even the dregs want nothing to do with Neocon conquests.
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