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Military Draft???

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I don't live in the US so I was shocked to learn that a thing like military draft could even have existed. I searched the term on google and according to the search results, there are rumours that the draft could be reinstated. There is even a bill proposed by a Senator advocating military drafting for both men and women. How true are the rumours?

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The draft did exist, I was drafted into the US Army in 1968. The Army did one very positive thing for me. I was stationed 1,500 miles from our parents homes. I and my wife both learned a lot of independence which neither of us have lost.

In my opinion, the draft being mentioned now is just an election year ploy by the party not in power to scare the voters.

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There has indeed been some talk of starting up the draft. Although to be sure any such moves will not go forth until after the presidential election.

One thing along these lines that makes me nervous is the current stop loss measures that the military is using. They are retaining people past their retirement dates, not allowing people to be discharged when their contracts are up, and scariest of all they are activating personel in the Inactive Ready Reserves.

When active duty personel seperate from the service either at the end of a contract or retirement, they are enrolled into the IRR for eight? years. That person is a civilian but for the time they are IRR they may be called back by the government to active duty no questions asked.

The need to bring people back after they have left the military, despite the fact that the military is meeting it's "recruitment" goals, is troubling to me.

On the other hand it is not as if they are recalling the IRR en masse at the moment, they are bring back people very selectively.

If you want some interesting info on the current status of the American military check out:

www.hackworth.com

www.sftt.org

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There has indeed been some talk of starting up the draft.  Although to be sure any such moves will not go forth until after the presidential election. 

One thing along these lines that makes me nervous is the current stop loss measures that the military is using.  They are retaining people past their retirement dates, not allowing people to be discharged when their contracts are up, and scariest of all they are activating personel in the Inactive Ready Reserves.

When active duty personel seperate from the service either at the end of a contract or retirement, they are enrolled into the IRR for eight? years.  That person is a civilian but for the time they are IRR they may be called back by the government to active duty no questions asked. 

The need to bring people back after they have left the military, despite the fact that the military is meeting it's "recruitment" goals, is troubling to me. 

On the other hand it is not as if they are recalling the IRR en masse at the moment, they are bring back people very selectively.

I believe the ability to be called back up (the way they are doing it now) is part of the voluntary contract you sign when you join. Nothing scary or worrisome about that.

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I believe the ability to be called back up (the way they are doing it now) is part of the voluntary contract you sign when you join.  Nothing scary or worrisome about that.

I think it is troublesome if the government is calling people back to active duty that have been out for many years. Than at the same time the government tells us that the military is meeting it's recruiting, training and retention goals.

It appears to me that something is going on. I think it is indicative along with the other things I mentioned in my first post to a military that is stretched very thin. It also tells to me that the military is getting desperate to fill the ranks. Neither one of these are very good signs.

I hope I am wrong.

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You are wrong actually.

The supposid "retired" soldiers are anything but. When you sign up you sign up for 8 years, you have to serve as an active soldier for at least 2. If you choose to no longer be active you join the ready reserve. These are the soldiers that they are calling up.

The max they have been "out" of the military is 6 years.

However I do agree the military is stretched thin, which is why we should withdraw ALL of our troops from South Korea, the Balkans, and all other peacekeeping operations and redistribute them to where we really need them.

The problem isn't so much recruits but money. Congress doesn't want to fork over the required money to increase the troops. The senators and congressmen wouldn't want to give up their little chunk of pork in the DOD's budget.

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There is no real threat of a draft, besides how wildly unpopular it would be, and the parallels that would immediately be drawn with Vietnam, the many pentagon officials believe that the draft was never a particularly good idea, as it got them a lot of people who didn’t want to be in the military.

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Most of the push to get the draft re-instated comes from the democrats. They want to scare people away from Bush, and it seems to be a pretty effective tactic.

You are correct, it is the libs that are pushing for it. I think you are also correct in that it is a scare tactic.

However I also think it is in the looters interest if Iraq were to turn into another Vietnam. Look at what Vietnam did to the morale of the military, let alone the country as a whole. The looters thrive when Americans and most importantly the American military feels defeated and impotent.

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Most of the push to get the draft re-instated comes from the democrats. They want to scare people away from Bush, and it seems to be a pretty effective tactic.

The latest draft proposal by Rangel was absolutely meant to scare people away from Bush. However, both sides have been mulling the idea of "national service" for a while.

This is one of those examples of how the right and the left can get together and run roughshod over our rights. The typical argument from the right is "protecting America is the most important thing etc". The left would usually say "Oh that's mean and fascistic." Now, the new neo-con right knows how to market things so you'll pretty soon hear a pitch:

"The age of selfishness is over, we need to come together as a communit of man to help our fellow brother, etc." The right will be mollified by having a plump military. The left will be sold on the draft by the fact you will be given a "choice" in your selfless years of national service. You will have the option to help inner city youth, forests, etc.

So neither side will complain since each is getting forced labor for what they want. Yes, it will completely ignore the fact that it's tantamount to slavery and the goverment is forcing to provide labor against our wills but then it will be force with a big smily face.

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  • 3 weeks later...

The liberals are probably the biggest proponents of a military draft right now. They view the military as an institution made up of lower income individuals who are cheated in life because they have no where to turn but a military that promises, but does not deliver, a college education and job. In Fahrenheit 9/11 Moore attempts to illustrate this "point" by seeing if any congressman will send, he fails to see that this is a volunteer military, their son or daughter to Iraq. This is a standard move by the American left.

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