Draft?
Truthout, one of the blogs I read, has a piece today suggesting that, things being what they now are, it is nearly inevitable that the invluntary draft will have to be reinstituted in order to carry out the administration's wish to push its agenda around the world.
A military man I know tells me that, following Viet Nam, Congress changed the structure of the army so that medics and essential non-combatant support troops would be moved mostly into the reserves. The purpose was to require people who were not career military to have to be called up in the event of shooting war, so that the nation as a whole would have to both sacrifice and decide whether it supported the war.
I have been against our Iraq adventure from the start. Four of my five childre are draft age (18-35).
And something in me believes that we ought to require every person to share the burden of the nation at war. My fervernt hope is that such a move would make it much more difficult, politically and practically, to wage war unless we had been threatened as clearly as we were by Pearl Harbor, and unless we could identify the enemy as clearly as we could Japan.
Presidents from George Washington to Dwight Eisnehower warned against the federal government gaining the power to make war without the consent of the nation.
A military man I know tells me that, following Viet Nam, Congress changed the structure of the army so that medics and essential non-combatant support troops would be moved mostly into the reserves. The purpose was to require people who were not career military to have to be called up in the event of shooting war, so that the nation as a whole would have to both sacrifice and decide whether it supported the war.
I have been against our Iraq adventure from the start. Four of my five childre are draft age (18-35).
And something in me believes that we ought to require every person to share the burden of the nation at war. My fervernt hope is that such a move would make it much more difficult, politically and practically, to wage war unless we had been threatened as clearly as we were by Pearl Harbor, and unless we could identify the enemy as clearly as we could Japan.
Presidents from George Washington to Dwight Eisnehower warned against the federal government gaining the power to make war without the consent of the nation.
posted by Blayney at 10:58 AM
7 Comments:
Every full time army division has a complete compliment of full time regular army medical personnel.
The possibility of a draft is almost impossible in today's professional, adequately paid military.
The draft "scare" was Kerry canard.
We are presently threatened by facist rerrorism "as clearly as we were by Pearl Harbor." They just don't have a flag to fly.
It may be true that every full time army divison is fully manned, but it is undeniable that our Iraq adventure has placed unusually heavy demands on the reserves. Were there to be a shooting war begun that we got involved in elsewhere, we would be seriously under staffed.
Fascist terrorism may be as clear a threat as Pearl Harbor, but it is also clearly different, requiring different tactics, since we can't quell it by defeating another nation in war.
The question I intended to raise was more about the power of the executive branch of government, along with the Pentagon, to take the nation to war with little to no congressional opposition or public debate.
Some believe the present situation requires that. If so, the terrorists have already succeeded because they have crippled the mechanisms of democracy in which the military is under the authority of the civilian (political) arm.
A draft, especially if children of the rich and powerful could not evade it, would test the willingness of the people to support the war.
Blayney -
Two points:
- There was little to no congressional or public debate because we, the voter and citizen, allowed that to happen. The press was quite organized, as were a few Democrats (Byrd & Biden), about shining a light on the prospect of a unilateral war based on WMD. The neo-cons were also quite organized. The rest of us lived up to our billing, again, of the silent majority.
- I believe that all citizens should perform some service in support of their country - like the Israelis & Swiss. Be it Peace Corps, Service Corps, military, I don't care. But we should all give back to our country. In my time, the draft was one such means.
Victor
Anonymous -
The draft was neither a "scare" tactic nor canard imposed on us by Sen. Kerry. During the campaign, he was pointing out that tghe "stop loss" policy imposed on soon-to-be mustered out soldiers and the enforced longer and repeat tours of duty by active duty and reserve soldiers was like a "back door draft." Sen. Kerry used those very words. The draft and stop loss policies and involuntarily extended tours of duty all share a common attribute - enforced & involuntary duty in the military.
"With George Bush, the plan for Iraq is more of the same and the great potential of a draft," Kerry said during a meeting with Register reporters and editors before headlining a rally at the Iowa State Fairgrounds. [The Des Moines register]
If Kerry doesn't mean to imply that Bush would invoke the draft, why does Bush's name seem to end up in sentences concerning possible draft implementation due to Bush's policies so often? And all this so soon after the Democratically sponsored draft bill was just soundly defeated in the Republican controlled House of Representatives. Who's fooling whom here?
Those Kerry quotes were well before the Democratic convention, at which time and after which Kerry talked about a back door draft. Perhaps we can say that the great potential potential for a draft became this back door draft. As long as there is a substantial component of involuntariness about military service, we're talking about a form of draft. Specifically, the military has unilaterally abrogated and reneged on its previously negotiated length of tours of duty with its stop loss policies, etc.
Kerry also proposed a mandatory service plan for high school students—then recently removed it from his web site three days later (10/04).
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