Joan Vennochi, a columnist at the Boston Globe, wants to draft you.
REINSTATE THE military draft and see how quickly the United States ends its war in Iraq.
If we feared our children were next up to be gutted like fish, we might be less likely to shake our heads at crazy antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan. If turning 18 meant your kid’s boots on the ground, a resolution to pull troops out of Iraq by a certain date might grab more than six votes in the US Senate.
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Last February, US Representative Charles Rangel, a Democrat from New York, did so, introducing the Universal National Service Act of 2006. It requires all people in the United States, including women, between the ages of 18 and 42, to perform a period of military service or period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security. The proposal was referred to the House Subcommittee on Military Personnel.
At the time, Rangel said he did not expect the bill to pass; he intended it as a reminder of those who have died and suffered injuries and will continue to do so in Iraq. A news release posted on Rangel’s website noted, “Right now, the only people being asked to sacrifice in any way are those men and women who, with limited options, chose military service and now find themselves in harm’s way in Iraq. A draft would ensure that every economic group would have to do their share and not allow some to stay behind while other people’s children do the fighting.”
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Either this war is worth every citizen’s effort, or it’s not worth any soldier’s life.
Well, someone woke up on the radical egalitarian side of the bed this morning. It’s not enough that our military consumes 4% of the national GDP, and has about 1.3 million members, who in six years have conquered two formerly hostile governments and established free societies in their place –what our military really needs to be successful is proportionalism!
Aside from the absurd application of social justice here- what would “ensur[ing] that every economic group would have to do their share and not allow some to stay behind while other people’s children do the fighting” really accomplish? Does a military’s strength reside in the fact that every soldier in the field is proportionally represented by the populace of its home country? -I must have missed that in Von Krieg. Our volunteer army is why we are winning!
Do we really want to model our army on, say, the USSR? When they invaded Afghanistan with an Army of conscripts (using the “big footprint” strategy vice our SECDEF’s “small footprint strategy in Iraq) they had entire divisions securing LOCs, hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed, and many soldiers dies due to bad training, bad leadership, ill discipline, and other age-old problems of filling the ranks with men against their will. In today’s Army, everyone wants to be there and believes in the mission.
Driving on –there are about 54 million women and 54 million men in the US who are within the range of drafting. How many people should we draft? How should our new conscript army look? The problem with the draft advocates (Rangel voted against his own bill, btw) is that they are more focused on things like social justice than fielding an operational, deployable, and lethal fighting force.
His logic, if you can call it that, is absurd. How does this sound?
“When a house fire starts, right now, the only people being asked to sacrifice in any way are those men and women who, with limited options, chose to work for the fire service and now find themselves in harm’s way in a burning building. A draft would ensure that every economic group would have to do their share and not allow some to stay behind while other people’s children do the fire-fighting.”
“A draft would ensure that every economic group would have to do their share and not allow some to stay behind while other people’s children do the fighting.”
I wonder what his thoughts would be if his children decided to join the military.
“A draft would ensure that every economic group would have to do their share and not allow some to stay behind while other people’s children do the fighting.”
And when the draft notice came for his children, what would his reaction be?
We won’t need draftees after the next mainland terrorist strike.
The recruiters will have to hire temporary help.
Papa Ray
The answer to all your hypotheticals such as ‘Do they really want to model our army after the USSR?’ is yes.
They want our army to lose.
Americans can be ignorant, but we’re not stupid.
The only way the US has lost a war is by giving up, and Bush won’t do that.
Greetings,
Sorry for the late posting but, I have just found your site.
I went RA, airborne, just as nam was winding down and ended becouse it was something I always wanted to do. My parent (correct, one) was not happy with it becouse she didn’t want to see her son possably get killed. No parent does but, she was very proud of me none the less.
If there were to be a draft, I wouldn’t want my son or daughter to go but, I sure wouldn’t be sending them to Canada eather!
My son has already said, “If push comes to shove, I’m joining up in a heart beat.”. That didn’t sit to well with my wife but, like my mother, you could see the pride in her face when he said it.
Dam! I’d re-up too! I still remember how to do a whole host of things and could instruct trainees how not to get themselves killed but, I doubt if they’d take an old one legged gimp like me, who’s had one triple by-pass already, even as a civilian employee.
I wonder if any readers here have seen the movie “Starship Troopers”. Set in the future, “citizenship” is dependant on federal service (military service) and gave those who served certain rights or “perks” others didn’t have. One of which was the vote. I think another was a right to bitch and moan about issues.
What a wonderful system. Wish it were in place here alot of times.
Rick
I susepect and all draftee service would end up with MORE abuses and killings than we see now.
You know, if people would just do their duty and enlist when able, there wouldn’t be any need for a draft or any of this talk.
And did that columnist ever volunteer? No?
Didn’t think so. I always notice that the people usually calling for a draft never served.
I love the rationale behind lines like REINSTATE THE military draft and see how quickly the United States ends its war in Iraq
Could just as easily say “Arm our soldiers with NERF and see how quickly the United States ends its war in Iraq.”
Both have been rejected (though the NERF proposal is still in committee), as bad ideas.
So yeah, if we decide to do something we’ve already done and rejected as being a bad idea, then yes, we might get a different result.
These twits whining for a reinstatement of the draft have NO clue.
A modern military does not need much manpower, it needs money. Wads of cash, with which to buy advanced weapons and first-rate training. From a purely military standpoint, many people are worth more as taxpayers funding the military than as active-duty troops fighting for the military.
But this is all about left-wing politics – and the obsolescence of left-wing thought.
Rick:
Read Heinlein’s Book. Only 208 pages written in 1959. The movie was a joke by comparison.
As a Viet Vet (USN 70-71 PBRs)and my son an Iraq vet (1/26th Inf Regt 1st Inf Div) I take umbridge to this moron’s thinking. As for “no option” there’s a NYFD Firefighter that was one of the three that raised Old Glory on the remains of the Twin Towers,he was killed in action in Iraq.Too bad he had no option!
Warchild
So what the Democratic party is looking for here is hostages, right?