Someone warn Canada to stock up on video games, all the Young Republicans will need something to do during the winter.
I made it back home very early this morning (Northwest Airlines really really sucks) from my class in Pennsylvania. After Dragonwife and Miss Wiggles pulled out for work and daycare I broke out the paint and brushes and began working on the master bedroom trying to get it finished. My entertainment was the Friday NPR news shows all day and during my time slinging paint I heard the report from Bush's newest patsy, I mean war czar, that a draft was an option always on the table. Now to honest I have always felt that a draft would solve several little itty-bitty problems with our global "War on Terror". Right off the top of my head the first thing that comes to mind is that it would force all the brave lip service patriots who could not find a recruiting office all this time and actually enter the service and go fight all those evil government approved bogeymen that would come over here and force Brittany Spears, Nicole Richy, Paris Hilton, and assorted others to wear a burka and follow strict Taliban-like guidelines. Excuse me for a moment as I take a time out and and chuckle to think there would be some cruel justice to that idea because of all the stupid publicity stunts those banal young ladies have pulled on the country .
But anyway, if a draft was enacted it would also resurrect the stillborn anti-war college protest movement along with being a huge boon to the Canadian apartment market as young college age boys realize that making love not war is the thing to do as they pack up the PS3 and rush to the Great White North, this time with mommy and daddy's blessing and money. On a side note I wonder where Mitt's Romney's boys would fall on this draft issue since service to daddy's presidential campaign would no longer cut it as service to the country. But as I ponder the question it would be far too much to ask his boys to go serve with Billy Joe Bob from some poor rural Alabama town, Tyrone from the Harlem streets, or Juan from East Los Angeles. They are future presidential candidates themselves and can't be placed into harms way.
But despite Bush's belief in the unitary executive bringing back the draft would have to be done by an act on Congress. And the Democrats control both houses of Congress and asking them to do that would be like asking them to approve Bush's plans for legalizing warrant-less wire tapping and we all know that would never do such a thing. To hell with this silly rambling, Doctor Who is on Sci-Fi and he has a new hot female companion. But just for shits and giggles here is the General Lute stuff:
Bush war adviser says draft worth a look
By RICHARD LARDNER
© 2007 The Associated Press
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WASHINGTON — Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday.
"I think it makes sense to certainly consider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."
"And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.
President Nixon abolished the draft in 1973. Restoring it, Lute said, would be a "major policy shift" and Bush has made it clear that he doesn't think it's necessary.
"The president's position is that the all volunteer military meets the needs of the country and there is no discussion of a draft. General Lute made that point as well," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.
In the interview, Lute also said that "Today, the current means of the all-volunteer force is serving us exceptionally well."
Still, he said the repeated deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan affect not only the troops but their families, who can influence whether a service member decides to stay in the military.
"There's both a personal dimension of this, where this kind of stress plays out across dinner tables and in living room conversations within these families," he said. "And ultimately, the health of the all-volunteer force is going to rest on those sorts of personal family decisions."
The military conducted a draft during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. The Selective Service System, re-established in 1980, maintains a registry of 18-year-old men.
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has called for reinstating the draft as a way to end the Iraq war.
Bush picked Lute in mid-May as a deputy national security adviser with responsibility for ensuring efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are coordinated with policymakers in Washington. Lute, an active-duty general, was chosen after several retired generals turned down the job.
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6 comments:
Beach, you know a lot more about this than I do, but the vast majority of military opinion I have read and heard of suggests to me the the officer corp believes in the all-voluntary army. The place where it has broken down is that military service looks so unpromising, what with Iraquagmire. The can whip up $50,000 enlistment bonuses all they want, but when character and education standards are allowed to go by the way side, officers know it's not the professional army it was intended to be. The fact that the draft is being discussed at all demonstrates how desperately broken our armed services are. Bush's endless occupation has pressed us to the breaking point, IMO.
Vigil, first let me say I'm sorry about not getting to your site lately, things are really busy.
As usual, you are right about the officer corp NOT wanting to return to the draft. Forcing someone into the service decades ago when the draft was still in effect a great deal of the time did not make for a happy soldier. Only tradition and honor kept most in order so they could serve out their term and receive a honorable discharge which not receiving could utterly ruin the rest of your life.
While Bush has shown no regard for what he has put the military through with his misadventures I do believe that even he and the "real brain" of the group Cheney realize that they can't run a perpetual war without fresh bodies to replace the ones that are both physically and mentally broken after repeated deployments. While returning the draft would be akin to little green men landing at the White House and making first contact I was astonished that the Demo's dropped their collective pants, bent over, and begged Bush and Gonzo to have them again with the warrentless wiretapping issue.
But to be honest like Rep. Rangel I would welcome a return to a draft that would pull many of the Military and History Channel armchair warriors out of the Lazy-Boy and into uniform. It is because so many in this country are completely disconnected the military and from the affects of this war that no great protest movements like the one in the 60's has developed.
When does Mr.Bush retire?
Keshi.
Despite the mental meanderings of Bush's latest butt-boy there will be no draft as long as the puppet and the pacemaker have anything to say about it. The last thing the American people want is the draft and it will be the first thing they will protest most vigorously if the ferret even tries it. It won't happen, although I think it should. I am a firm believer in national service in one form or another. It is good for the individual and it is good for the country.
Beach, as I said before, your my go-to man on the subject of the draft.
Great post...
thanks for sharing...
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Melvin
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