the draft

[Greenblaster]

How does everybody here feel about the possible reinstation of the military draft?

[DanseMacabre]

I think it would be a horrible idea, and it might drive me out. An all volunteer military is still a very frustrating place to work, and conscripts would not make things any easier, nor are they needed. Rangel needs to STFU and leave this alone. IIRC, if the draft were started tomorrow it would take roughly a year for the first deployable troops to hit the ground. Anyway, we're not in such a crisis that we can't handle our work with the folks we have on hand. On my last tour we were pretty much available for anything that came our way and we wanted more work.

[White-Pinnacle]

I don't think it's going to happen. Unless something really drastic happens . . . like invasion of Iran . . . I find the draft scenario highly unlikely. My opinion is that most troops will be out of Iraq around 2008 during the election time frame. The government missed a golden opportunity right after911 to really expand the military. I know there's been a huge expansion of the special operations personnel which makes sense but the regular army should have been expanded as well after 911. The Bush administration was working on the assumption of quick and easy victory in Iraq which it was but didn't consider the post-war effects and the tribal and religious differences.

You have to consider for the invasion of Iraq, the US military had about maybe 500,000 in theater for the invasion. But actually, how many frontline troops actually did the fighting . . . the 1st Marine Divsion and the 3rd Infantry Division. The 4th infantry Division was suppose to invade from Turkey but Turkey wanted to much money to allow that to happen. With 2 divisions of maybe 50,000 troops and special operations personnel, the US military did some serious butt kicking in the relatively short period of time. The rest of the troops were in support role. Amazing! If this was attempted 60 years ago, more troops would have been needed and casualties would be in the tens of thousands.

My opinion is the Middle East countries don't understand democracy and who are we to impose our values on them. I think those Middle East countries need a strong man to keep all the religious/tribal differences in check. Insurgency war is always nasty and now you have to consider the news media. The British didn't have to worry about that during Boer War when they hurded the Dutch civilans into camps leaving the Boers without base of support. Guess who won?

The Congress and the American public cannot accept the draft during this peace-time war effort.

OPREP

[Stabby]

chance of it happening = .001%

[zol]

I don't think there would be enough room in jail for all the poeple who were drafted who are refusing to go.

[WarFanatic]

Does the word
"Political Suicide" mean anything to anyone?
because yeah any politician that tried to reinstate selective service act could pretty much kiss his ass goodbye.
so pretty much we have about a fanatics chance of this occurring.

[NavyOS]

Well said Oprep. Interesting facts I didn't know.

Navy

[Diet-Pepsi]

If the US Federal Government initiated a draft via the selective service, it would solve for...

-Overstretch
-Adventurism
-Civic Engagement
-Terrorism
-Hegemony
-Iran
-North Korea
-Iraq
-And much... much more


I don't necessarily belive these things, but since I am in Policy Debate, and my Aff Case this year is the draft, I would be willing to debate any of you on this.

[White-Pinnacle]

The reinstitution of the draft is highly likely if:


Iranian support of the Shiite’s in Iraq continues and the Iranian influenced Shiite’s eventually becomes the de facto governing body of Iraq. It makes sense for Iran to expand it’s influence into Iraq. . . killing Americans in country is “frosting to the cake” as they are expanding the extremist theocracy. Win in Iraq and they can win else where i.e. Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Gulf States.
U.S. or most likely Israel attacks Iranian nuclear power program. Just empathize with the Israeli’s for the moment. Your neighbor 3 houses down the street stated you shouldn’t exist and is building a weapon that will dismantle your home room by room. Do you sit there and let it happen or do you actively engage your hostile neighbor and take him out? Oh, you want the United Nations to do something, forget it! The Israeli’s have never been known to sit back and let things happen. Look at the history of the Israeli state.

I find the U.S. attacking Iranian nuclear research facilities as unlikely now as the U.S. settled with the North Koreans. This shows the Iranians that the U.S. lacks any backbone and weakens U.S. negotiations ability with Iran. Iran will continue with nuke program with confidence. So the U.S. send 2 carrier battle groups into the Persian Gulf . . . Iranian reaction . . big deal?!?!? Iran just need to seed couple of mines in the Strait of Hormuz clandestinely, oil tanker hits mine, oil prices skyrocket.[/ul]
Iranian/3rd party organization (Hezbollah) responds to Israeli bombing raid at nuclear facilities by attacking U.S./Israeli interests worldwide i.e. namely any U.S. civilian is a legitimate target.

Concurrently, oil prices skyrocket causing huge economic impact to the West. Gas prices and heating oil for homes, average consumer unable to buy heating oil for unusually cold winter. American consumer unable to drive cars for work/pleasure and no heat for homes. Single worldwide oil market, 40% oil goes through the Persian Gulf.[/ul]
U.S. invades Iranand draft is reinstituted or vice versa. . . take your pick.[/ul]
Note:
(1) It’s ironic that Tom Clancy wrote couple of his books with somewhat dissimilar situations where a 747 was piloted into the Capitol building during a combined congressional session. He also wrote a book about Iran taking over Iraq.
(2) Venezuela provides oil to the U.S. and Chavez is not exactly a big fan of the U.S. Didn’t Hugo Chavez meet with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sometime back?
(3) The U.S. and the Western nations’ jugular is oil. Everyone knows it except the U.S. and the Western nations.

[LuciferDMD]

i am very sorry if this post offends anyone, it's only my opinion and i'm just a lil guy in the middle of nowhere

i'd say F the draft i look @ it if you start to force ppl to fight a battle they don't belive in, no one's going to give it anything
i think those that belive and wanna fight should go for it, they have the heart the point of view and so on to give it everything
personally i don't agree with this war, send my ace over there and i'm not going to be motivated to do much more then get my ass back home
tho in a diffrent situation i may be the first one signing up to get over there and defend what's being argued

all in all my health sux n i think if a draft came to be they may notify me, but when i say "ya i can't run, inhale smoke, or panic n don't wanna go anways" theyd leave me alone

[White-Pinnacle]

Would you fight if:
[ul][*]the economy is bad because of oil prices and you don't have a job. No money to take care of yourself or your family.[*]in the middle of winter, you see your kids freezing.[*]fellow American citizens getting blownup because they are Americans like you.[*]how about a WMD being used on US soil?[/ul]
OPREP

[Ancient-Admin]

I beleive in the draft...not only in wartime but all the time. Every young person should donate a couple years to the Military in this country. The Military helps young people by allowoing them to get an education and to get some life experiences that stay with you for ever. It would be especialy good forguys like Lucifer who would be exposd to people that have pride in their country. I dont advicate war. Thats inevitable it seems. If it gets bad enough the draft will get you anyway. I'm talking about learning a life style that helps you get along with others and probably cures attitudes like Lucifer and ortherspoiled people that wantevery one elseto do the job for them.

[Diet-Pepsi]

ORIGINAL: LuciferDMD

i am very sorry if this post offends anyone, it's only my opinion and i'm just a lil guy in the middle of nowhere

i'd say F the draft i look @ it if you start to force ppl to fight a battle they don't belive in, no one's going to give it anything
i think those that belive and wanna fight should go for it, they have the heart the point of view and so on to give it everything
personally i don't agree with this war, send my ace over there and i'm not going to be motivated to do much more then get my ass back home
tho in a diffrent situation i may be the first one signing up to get over there and defend what's being argued

all in all my health sux n i think if a draft came to be they may notify me, but when i say "ya i can't run, inhale smoke, or panic n don't wanna go anways" theyd leave me alone

Thousands of people would fight, it's imperically proven. Also, even if people resist the draft, your own impacts are turned against you. This is due to the fact that any mass movements against something like the draft would cause a huge boost in civil engagement, which many political scientists say would end almost all conflicts currently going on in the world. Anyone can see that there is not only a huge gap in CMR, but also the Civic Sphere. Only the draft can solve for this.

[LuciferDMD]

my biggest problem with defending the goverment is that i don't know what to belive and i guess there's no way to prove what's what and i'm getting off topic, but that's where i come from when i say i wouldn't want to fight, now yes if i knew we were innocent and ppl were killing off my fellow americans damn right i'd fight but from where i sit here, unless it came to my town and my family i don't see why i'd go risk my ass now and then where am i when it does come closer to home

[Ancient-Admin]

At this point in time a lot of us have questions about where our government is going. That shouldn’t effect a draft. Presidents come and go but we always need a strong military. A permanent draft would do a lot to help us in that way.