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Offline Antonescu

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Bringing back the draft?
« on: August 12, 2007, 01:26:41 AM »
Knew the representative from NY has been trying to get it back for awhile (says it would end the war in Iraq ???) but now the Defense Secrectary is saying it might be worth a look. So in a calm, cool, collective way what do you think about it? I see the pro's and con's myself but as for moving along with it still do not know. Here is the article below:
Bush War Czar Says Draft Worth a Look
By RICHARD LARDNER,
AP
Posted: 2007-08-11 05:04:48
Filed Under: Nation News
WASHINGTON (Aug. 11) - 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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Offline tleve

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Re: Bringing back the draft?
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2007, 12:24:09 PM »
ok ? Maybe i'm mising something but how does anyone think a daft would end the war ??? anyway , if reports are right people are still jioing the millitary . if people are still feeling the need to jion with out being told that they have no chioce , then why change it. a draft would just make people who don't believe in the fight , have to fight . and i feel that , THAT would weeken the millitary.

Mt Grandfather jioned the army ( Lieing about his age ) during WWII because he beleived in the cause . I would reather have someone like that fighting for my country .
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Offline Antonescu

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Re: Bringing back the draft?
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2007, 07:55:45 PM »
For Iraq I don't think it would be a good idea. However the war in Afghanistan was directed against those who supported and harbored terrorists. This "forgotten" are might be a more successful choice to use the draft.
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Offline Philonivs Maximvs

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Re: Bringing back the draft?
« Reply #3 on: September 09, 2007, 06:13:16 PM »
No, just pull out of Iraq tomorrow and go into Afghanistan!! Root them out there. Then come home. Hell, Bin Laden is probably in Cambodia for all we know... or just dead. Who can really tell. And those videos? Well, they created Gollum/Smeagol (Lord of the Rings) with computer graphics........
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Re: Bringing back the draft?
« Reply #4 on: September 09, 2007, 06:28:59 PM »
No, just pull out of Iraq tomorrow and go into Afghanistan!! Root them out there. Then come home. Hell, Bin Laden is probably in Cambodia for all we know... or just dead. Who can really tell. And those videos? Well, they created Gollum/Smeagol (Lord of the Rings) with computer graphics........
Alas, if we pull out, it'll collapse. Think helicopters on the roof ala Saigon. I remember that. It would be frakked up. Do I have a solution? No. I don't. All these folks were for it at the time -- okay the hippies and MTV crowd wern't, but mostpeople were. THe problem is we got away from the mission and started trying to be PC and appease the media.

As for Bin Laden, personally, i think they captured his ass, 3-4 years ago and have him in a cage somewhere. Why? Well, if we kill him, he's a martyr, if he is a prisoner, every sandperson on the planet is gonna go nuts and start doing shite to secure his release. Better we appear incompetant and he is just missing. I hope they zap him w/ a tazer though, EVERY day! Hey "Saamy" wake up ZAP! Don't forge tto shave there... ZAP! Hey, what's wrong w/ them pork and beans? Zap! You get the picture.

As for the draft, I remember it. A: Rangel's an IDIOT! And B: it's a baaaaaaaaaaaad idea! BAD! Why not just do what w enee dto to win, make Iraq safe and stable and get the hell out. Yes, we might need to be mean and kill terrs. Oh yeah, and when our troops do heinous shite, like raping and murdering... turn them over to the locals. I have no sympathy for that shite. iIt makes US look bad.
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Offline Philonivs Maximvs

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Re: Bringing back the draft?
« Reply #5 on: September 09, 2007, 07:00:17 PM »
Saigon, maybe. But what are we going to do, stay there and let 2-10 soldiers A DAY get killed?? I know, it's nowhere the loss of life as say, the eastern front WW2, but it will wear us thin psychologically if not in numbers (which is already happening, with suicide rates and mental problems in general). I truly do hope that our presence there has made a positive impact to people of Iraq... they must have. But there will always be those that hate us, see us as the invader.

Maybe that's why Afghanistan hasn't been the big target of American deployment all this time... they might very well have him. True, he would be a martyr!

We pulled out of Saigon, and the world didn't end. People in South Vietnam had to weather a couple decades of oppression, but they're starting to climb out of it. The US weathered it's own civil war too, without outside intervention (what would have happened if the Brits came over to "babysit" us in 1861, then rebuild us??). I think the Iraqis can do the same themselves.
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Offline groomporter

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Re: Bringing back the draft?
« Reply #6 on: September 10, 2007, 10:27:02 AM »
Bringing back a draft would just bring back major anti-war protests as we saw during Vietnam. In a discussion of the draft on public radio earlier this year they reported that when things were at their worst during Vietnam there were even cases of drill sargents anonymously beaten in the middle of the night by draftees during basic training. The army would prefer to continue on with a volunteer force that -wants- to serve/defend their country even if they don't agree with the current administration.

At least when we pulled out of Saigon we didn't have to worry about the Viet Cong coming to our shores to attack us here, but  if Al Qaida, and/or the Taliban gains a foothold after we leave Iraq it is a larger worry. So as far as maintaining some kindof peace  we are "stuck between Iraq and a hard place."
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