I think we need the draft

[Comrad]

We're going to have to break a few eggs to make this omelette. Remove the kidd gloves and make it so painful to their communities that harbor and support them that no one will allow ISIS safe haven again. That means civilians but guess what, war has always included civilians. Pearl Harbor, London, Germany, Japan, better theirs than ours. This tip toeing around isn't getting it done. The world may not be happy they aren't too happy now either.

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

Easiest way to avoid the draft is to eat more Twinkies! Kids today are too fat to pass the physical, plus many can not even read and write to the standards we had years ago. We would be in dire straights if we needed to draft kids to fight for us. We would be better off getting the old ex-miltary "Geezers" to once again answer the Call to Duty.
"Call to Duty"....kids today have no concept of the term!

http://cdn.missionreadiness.org/MR_Too_Fat_to_Fight-1.pdf

Lenny Bernstein - Too fat to fight? Military recruits and obesity

Creative Minority Report: Detroit "Pleased" that Kids Can't Read or Write

Detroit Public Schools: 93% Not Proficient in Reading; 96% Not Proficient in Math

 

[Old TexMex]

"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of fight in the dog."
We can build a bigger army, we can train them on electronics to great proficiency, we can spend trillions on equipment, but these Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines must be led.
Leadership for our forces, top down, has been detached, distracted, or ultimately decommissioned.
Anyone interested in a deep study of the present problem might read Mark Moyar: "A Question of Command".

Those who are willing to not only run toward the sound of the guns, but to lead men into what might be their last actions are who we as a nation are sorely lacking. There are the willing and able, but far too often those are discarded for political expediency and agendas of dubious origin.

 

[Donn]

Dream on.

One of the main reasons why the opposition to the Iraq/Afghan wars never got much traction was because everybody who went volunteered. Start grabbing up people's kids and press-ganging them into the Army and the tolerance for foreign military adventures will evaporate.

^^^ Precisely ^^^ That, and the draft's been gone 40+ years. Today's kids don't have the sense of duty of previous generations. If they did, more than 1% would be in uniform.

 

[GatorFarmer]

Nothing says freedom and individual liberty quite like being forced at gun point to serve your government and also forcibly restructuring an economy to a war footing in order to eliminate unemployment.

What was that military industrial complex thing that Eisenhower warned about?

We can not afford the military that we have now, let alone one ten or twenty times as large. Peak mobilization in 1944 was 16 million, the population is twice as large now, though less fit, but calling up both sexes you would have what, fifty million under arms?

And for what? To further muck around in Afghanistan aka the graveyard of empires? To muck around in Iraq which we destabilized to begin with? Or to fight ISIS which we created, financed and armed?

We do not even take care of the veterans we have now. The foster a vet program is being eliminated for lack of funds. But the Navy is getting new carriers and the USAF new bombers...

 

[rog8732]

All those in favor of forcing YOUR son or daughter to go to Iraq or Afghanistan to do whatever the hell it is we are trying to do over there please "step up".

 

[03hemi]

The truth of the matter, our military is being reduced by 10% each year.

 

[Lee in Quartzsite]

The truth of the matter, our military is being reduced by 10% each year.

...and thanks to the fact that every thing we buy is "Made in China" China is building a military force that will soon be second to none. But why should we care, China is our friend!

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2015-03-19/chinas-double-digit-defense-growth

At the double | The Economist

The Growth of The Chinese Military

 

[Leatherman-Cowboy]

I received my notice to register for the draft--I did.
Never got called to server-------------------- I volunteered and served for 3 years.
The draft WILL make all who serve come to value and appreciate this great Nation-- USA.
By serving you will earn the respect of others that also served, and most important--the ones that never made it home.

As for some of the other points mentioned, that could be a long debate for sure.

Thank you,

Henry

 

[the ringo kid]

Most of the young I've seen ''educated'' in the last ten years, are brainwashed in school and not taught to think or research for themselves. I saw many from u.t. in Austin and heard them ramble at how much they hate this country. I ain't commenting further.

 

[Leatherman-Cowboy]

Most of the young I've seen ''educated'' in the last ten years, are brainwashed in school and not taught to think or research for themselves. I saw many from u.t. in Austin and heard them ramble at how much they hate this country. I ain't commenting further.

It pains me to say I also have heard that kind of talk. Makes me wonder what the -- )*%(^(&& -- is wrong with people. That kind of talk would make my grandpa turn over in his grave. And also my Uncle Preben that was in a concentration camp WW2.

Thank you

 

[Laketime]

Harry Truman knew how to deal with those who would mount a sneak attack on us.

Actually it was Eisenhower who pinned down Truman to react or he would regarding dropping the bomb.

 

[TTSH]

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein

 

[wbraswell]

Thank you, Gen. Westmoreland.
Go take a poll of 18-28 year olds, and see how your idea floats with them.
We don't have a war, per se, so no draft. We've seen what we can do with a volunteer force, in a week, in Kuwait. If we use air power right, we can mess things up enough that we don't need boots on the ground. Just scan it with satellites and drones.
Plus it would make the VA the new welfare system. If everyone is a vet then the gov't takes care of all of them. How's that going to work. People who are bums before service will be bums after it. We don't need a military state.

 

[vytoland]

strong military force....why bother... we haven't had a win since 1945.....

 

[finesse_r]

I would consider the draft a disaster and something that should be considered illegal. No government should have the right to force it citizens into military service and then send them off to be slaughtered by the tens or hundreds of thousands. It is far worse than enslaving someone and forcing them to work while caring for them. It was done to me in the late 1960's and to my father back in WWII, but that does not make it right.

I would oppose the effort to reinstate the draft with all my resources. It is certainly not a lack of military might that is systematically destroying this once great nation.

 

[M3Stuart]

I think if we had the draft, the U.S.' penchant for fighting wars in the "graveyard of empires", aka the middle east, would decline appreciably.

 

[Practical]

Such a large force and so poorly trained drawn from large pools of individuals who are NOT mentally or physically prepared for the rigors of military service and whose parents and families would instantly call on their elected representatives to NOT go to war would make us a pacifist nation and be deadly to our armed forces personal who have the ability and drive to carry out the war mission.

Such a force would be deadly to our service members and deadly to our national will.

You have identified the best way for ISIS to win.

We proved this doesn't work during the vietnam war.

A large low tech army is NO match for a high tech well trained well equipped and funded professional army.

 

[don5]

Now I realize that most of the people kind of look down on the younger kids because of video games. Let me tell you something that most of you do not realize. Our military has also evolved.

Now we are all aware of the military drones which require operators. But here is something that I learned a long time ago while watching a 10 year old play the new Call of Duty X box game at Walmart. Now this game had not been out very long when I saw this. This kid made it through some serious urban combat scenarios without getting killed. I was amazed. I will also say that had this kid been older and graduated from basic, his DI would have been proud. These games teach kids tactics to use in certain combat scenarios. This promotes critical thinking and instant decision making. I highly doubt these kids are going to get themselves killed in real life by doing something that got them killed in a video game.

I urge all of you that have family members to sit down and watch one of these kids play a video game. Watch them closely and remember what I posted. They are pretty savvy about combat. I know I won't play any kid under 15 because their reflexes and skills are honed pretty sharp.

BTW- Our military had incorporated the video games into quite a bit of their training as well. Also I know the kid I watched was young but I have no idea how old he actually was. But what I do know is that kid could shoot pretty good on the move.

 

[LVSteve]

I think many here forget, or maybe never realized, that the Cold War was not won just by training, technology and readiness. It was won by the side that could appear to sustain the arms race longer than the other. It has been said that the USSR was functionally bankrupt as early as the late 1960s, they just weren't prepared to admit it until Gorbachev came to power. I believe even the most casual perusal of the accounts of the US government during the final years of the Cold War show that the game of economic brinkmanship was a dangerous business.

....

We can not afford the military that we have now, let alone one ten or twenty times as large. ......

We do not even take care of the veterans we have now. The foster a vet program is being eliminated for lack of funds. But the Navy is getting new carriers and the USAF new bombers...

I'm so glad a native born American stood up and made the first point I quoted above. As the "Johnny come lately" around here, I have often been told "Oh, you don't understand..." when I have questioned the ability of our country to pay for the military it has and the massive procurement programs that are ongoing.

When I left the UK the military there were in the middle of several expensive equipment procurement debacles. For decades the answer had been to shrug and say, "Oh well, these things always end up more expensive than originally quoted". Finally, the UK government realized that this was no longer sustainable. The new reality was that if the costs of a project got out of hand, the Ministry of Defence and the contractor had better get things back on track or the project was gone, simple as that.

The level of government debt here may have brought us to a similar tipping point. The military industrial complex will fight like tigers to prevent it, but you cannot keep on paying for stuff when doing so makes you broke. That is the stark reality of the 21st century, priorities must be decided and that means certain things won't be purchased and costs will be cut in many painful places (like base closure) to afford new equipment, capabilities and to service existing commitments.

Speaking of existing commitments, the second point I highlighted from Gator's post is a perfect example. The VA services a vast number of people to whom we owe a great debt. That commitment must be met before a single round of ammo is bought or the first piece of a ship's keel laid down. Without doubt, VA benefits for new recruits will likely be less than previously based on costs. Again, welcome to the new reality, MONEY IS FINITE.