pudge's Journal: Draft

THERE IS NOT GOING TO BE A DRAFT. There are no plans to reinstitute the military draft. The military generals don't want it. Even if they did, the Congress would need to approve it, and they don't want it. Therefore, it is not going to happen. Stop saying there is going to be a draft: you're wrong. You're being manipulated by Bush-haters and conspiracy theorists into believing a ridiculous lie.

There is some confusion because of one bill, and one other circumstance.

First, Charlie Rangel -- a very partisan Democratic congressman -- introduced a bill to restart the draft, because he is against the draft and the war in Iraq. It's not common to introduce a bill you disagree with, and most people in DC tend to look on it as being disingenous (because, well, it clearly is). You know that when a bill is opposed by its sponsors that it doesn't have much of a chance, and this bill -- being opposed by the military and civilian leaders of the military and an overwhelming majority of Senators, Representatives, and citizens -- is no exception.

Second, there's been a push to fill up vacant draft board seats. You see, under the system that began in 1979, draft board members served 20 year terms. Therefore, since 1999, there's been a lot of vacancies, and a push to fill them. Especially at a time of increased national security, you want to make sure all your procedures for emergencies are in place, and this is one of them. It does not mark a push to reinstate the draft, but to fill seats left vacant the last few years.

No one is moving to reinstate the draft. It is not happening. There's nothing to see here. Move along.

Though there may be no draft

[ObviousGuy]

I find this whole idea of a draft quite unfortunate. The armed services is a branch of government that could use some influx of new blood. Whereas the NSA and other branches really do well with older, more experienced personnel, the armed services has developed a system of training the bejeezus out of new recruits and getting them into peak performance in the shortest time possible.

While the draft remains the dream of the anti-military left wing, the concept of mandatory military service for all high sch

Re:Though there may be no draft

[cascadefx]

That's all well and good, but it is our "freedom loving" government that has put many many of those despots in power in the first place because they were pro-america, while the "freedom choosing" republics of those same areas were clamoring for their own governments that may not have been so pro-america.

So, you see, when America says that it loves freedom, it kind of falls on deaf ears in all those places (Columbia, Iran, Iraq, Panama... ) that we propped dictators up in.

"Freedom is ok for us, but you mus

Correct

[buffer-overflowed]

Isn't going to happen. No one wants it to happen. No one needs it to happen.

It isn't going to happen.

We like our all volunteer army and our all volunteer army likes that it's an all volunteer army.

We'd need to embark on quite a few more military escapades at once before we'd even need to look at the possibility of a draft. At which point, well, we have bigger problems.

The MichaelMoore-athon on the front page

[FortKnox]

Pudge... being an editor and all... what's your opinion on the front-page Michael Moorathon going on... "There is a lot of truth in there..."?? Sounds a bit bush-hating to me.

Re:The MichaelMoore-athon on the front page

[pudge]

I had no compulsion to even bother reading it. I stopped caring about Moore long ago. It's clear he massages facts to fit his version of truth; I don't care for such people, regardless of their political affiliation.

Re:The MichaelMoore-athon on the front page

[cascadefx]

I saw the movie and the most compelling scenes have no Moore in them.

They are of soldiers in the 18-24 year range.

One of them, who is clearly broken up, says that he thinks a bit of your soul dies every time you kill someone and it looks like he has had to do a lot of killing. Other scenes in Iraq show young soldiers talking about how excited they were to be entering the fray until they came into cities after initial artillery and air strikes and saw the after affects of these attacks... burning and bloat

Re:The MichaelMoore-athon on the front page

[pudge]

None of that sort of thing has any effect on my beliefs about the war, whatsoever. I have no illusions about war, and I don't support it lightly.

Everything you've mentioned could have come from almost any war, including the European theater in WWII, which was the most righteous war we've ever fought, and pretty much everyone today believes we were morally obligated to fight there. I cannot look at the results on the ground, the women and children and other victims, to instruct my beliefs about a given wa

Re:The MichaelMoore-athon on the front page

[cascadefx]

To believe we are doing more than just creating more hatred for the United States is just a suckers dream.

To pretend you can know that is a delusion.

So, you're seriously stating that those children and fathers (and mothers) of family members in Iraq that have come under either (at least) mistaken harassment by US troops (a recent nightly news show showed US/Iraq soldiers trying to track down an insurgent and breaking into the wrong home and arresting the wrong people because of a misunderstanding abo

Re:The MichaelMoore-athon on the front page

[pudge]

So, you're seriously stating that those children and fathers (and mothers) of family members in Iraq that have come under either (at least) mistaken harassment by US troops (a recent nightly news show showed US/Iraq soldiers trying to track down an insurgent and breaking into the wrong home and arresting the wrong people because of a misunderstanding about the street name... with the tag that this is a pretty regular problem), mamed (kids with amputated arms and legs due to US air and artillery strikes), or

Oh, don't forget

[GMontag]

Selective Service was brought back by the COngress at the request of James Earl Carter III, another Democrat.

Nixon persuaded the COngress to eliminate the Draft and began the All-Volunteer Services. Regan brought that back, but the Congress never ended Selective Service.