Posted on 06/24/2005 10:51:36 AM PDT by churchillbuff
With military recruitment shortfalls reaching a near-crisis, a new Gallup poll suggests further troubles, as far fewer American adults express support for their children enlisting. Gallup also has found that Americans opposed the return of the military draft by overwhleming numbers, with 85% against it, the highest level ever.
In what it calls a “significant decline,” Gallup found that by a bare majority, of 51% to 48%, parents would support a decision by one of their children to join the military. This is down from 66% positive to 29% negative in 1999.
Surprisngly, there is only slight difference among parents who have served in the military and those who have not. Just 56% of the veterans would support a decision to join the milltairy
Many back the idea of some sort of mandatory military training leading to joining the reserves after a kid reaches the age of 18. Some 35% back this notion, but this is still barely half the number in 1955.
I'd be willing to bet the percentage is even higher than that with mempbers of the G. W. Bush administration.
it's almost a given that before the war, these same "iraq was a pushover" people were predicting tens of thousands of us deaths in the invasion alone.
They always change their tune to whatever sounds the most frightening. I wonder how it feels to go through life a sniveling coward?
This is an out and out lie. Admit it or prove it. The US military is actually down 27% overall on recruitment but only 1.2% on optimum manning levels.
This is because the retention rate, reenlistment rate, is at an all time high. Further since the experienced people are taking up the shortfall in manpower it is likely that the overall quality of the available manpower is actually up from two years ago.
If you are going to make things up at least try to do it better or with some subject that you know something about.
You are absolutely right. I'm dead set against conscription. If America is unable or unwilling to field the military force to protect ourselves then we deserve to go the way of the Byzantines.
The reality is the Lefty-Libs only trumpet conscription because they hope it would give them some temporary political power. Proving yet once again that they do not care what happens to Amnerica or her citizens as long as they are sitting around the plush halls of power in Washington.
The Roman Daily Trinunus
Pontius Secola editor.
Rome, Ides of March, 300 A.D.
A poll taken of Roman citizens indicates the lowest support ever for enlisting in the army. "Hire the barbarians to do it." exclaimed Marcus Julius Portus,
"I don't want myself or my kid going to the borders!!"
Meanwhile, the Goths, Vandals, etc. are continuing their unimpeded progress throughout the Empire. Rumor has it the number of barbarians inside the borders has reached the unprecedented number of 3% of the total Roman citizen population.
Meanwhile, followers of an obscure religious cult from Palestine are urging people to welcome the barbarians with open arms, abandon the use of weapons and give up execution of criminals.
Today's scores in the Collossum:
Lions 300 Christians 0
Lucius Manlius is strongly favored over Crispus Alba in the gladiatorial combats and all of Rome is expected to attend the grand gladiatorial finale tomorrow.
Ave atque Vale
Pontius Secola
Is the Israeli Army unprofessional? How about the Koreans? The army that fought Bastonge, Tet and Pusan?
I'd say day care centers, time lost for pregnancy and lowered standards/quota's to accomodate the fairer sex is unprofessional.
Did I miss something? What draft?
...or looking for college money or a job.
If there was a real threat to this country, like Hitlers germany, then I would join up, and so would millions of others. However, I really dont think that my joining up would bring peace to the middle east, nor would it prevent an Iraqi invasion force landing on the shores of Florida - apparently, neither do others think so.
They always change their tune to whatever sounds the most frightening.
I'm glad you brought that up, flashbunny, because a lot of people may have forgotten the dire predictions that were being bandied about before the invasion. There really were people saying 10,000 US KIA, and the people who were saying it were using this prediction to justify their positions against the war.
Now, as you correctly point out, it's the same crowd telling us how impotent Saddam's forces were (earlier in this thread his army was being called a "5-world" force), how his military really didn't pose any kind of threat to the international order, and that therefore the war is wrong.
Your anti-war types will be anti-war no matter what the situation: when they thought Saddam's army was "too tough," they didn't want to fight it. Now they think Saddam's army was "too weak," so it means we shouldn't have fought it.
Instead of an opinion being modified by facts, it's a case of facts being spun to conform to a fixed opinion.
- ThreeTracks
the draft is not compatible with freedom.
that being said, if you're going to draft males, you have
to draft females.
all's fair in war and gender equity.
Why would you want him to take the name a member of the UK Conservative Party?
There is no need for anyone to worry about a draft.
A good chuck of those billions that are appropriated for the war effort are being used to BUY a civilian army.
“A startling fact has emerged from the battlefields of Iraq, providing powerful evidence that the conduct of war has been radically transformed over the last 15 years. In the 1991 Gulf War, 1 in every 100 soldiers deployed by the US-led coalition were mercenaries hired by private military companies. Today in Iraq, more than 1 in 5 coalition soldiers are mercenaries. Since the mid-1990s, the private military sector has been the fastest growing industry in the world. With the US as its biggest client, the industry was worth $100-200 billion per year even before the invasion of Iraq.
There are currently 130,000 US soldiers, 9000 British, and 15,000 other coalition soldiers operating in Iraq. With estimates of more than 30,000 private 'security experts,' mercenaries now compose the second largest military force in the country. The vast oil resources and uncontainable resistance have made the country a magnet for mercenaries. War profiteers such as Bechtel and Halliburton hire private armies to protect their assets, paying mercenaries up to $1000 a day for special assignments quelling uprisings in Iraqi cities”
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=7376
U.S. Submarine Service ... specifically, USS Patrick Henry SSBN 599G ... 1967-1975
ah, very good...thanks for your service- we have many Submarine Service veterans attending here at ACC- one of my work study veterans was a Submariner...
Oh, I'm so glad you weren't around in WWII. You are the Neville Chamberlain of Free Republic.
"Iraq didn't have an air force..."
Funny, they were flying high-performance aircraft right up until we got near Baghdad.
"I'm glad that the enlistment numbers are falling short of expectations. It tells me that the people who are enlisting are highly motivated and the nancy-boys that are being talked out of it by their mommas are not the ones we want anyway"
Holy crap, your entire response nailed it!!!
Conscription would destroy our military. For those of you who might say " Well what about WWII? The military was populated heavily by draftees." That was a different time, most Americans grew up with a sense of duty to country. That is not the case today. If you were to dump a bunch of kids into the military now that didn't volunteer, you would destroy our combat effectiveness. Moral would go down the toilet, criminal activity would increase in the barracks, and you would lose alot of good people who don't want to baby sit. I know I don't want any Marines in my unit who don't want to be there, I want Marines who are warriors, Marines who know and understand what their commitment requires of them. That is what we have now. The draft would destroy that in a heartbeat.
What if WMD's happen to be stunbled across ?
How much/many would it take to be counted as WMD's?
A refrigerator full of stuff ?
A wharehouse full of stuff ?
Not found and not there are two different things.
The trade-off between quality and quantity cannot be avoided. Countries like the ROK and Israel have to err on the side of quantity, given the massive and immediate threat to their national existence. We are not so threatened, and can afford to err on the side of quality. Putting a bunch of less-motived and less well-trained draftees into body-bags won't help in the War on Terror. That said, Bush was a fool for not using the post-9/11 environment to expand the size of the US ground forces.
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