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If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft?

By Jeralyn, Section Military Draft
Posted on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 01:37:09 PM EST
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Dave of Seeing the Forest reprints his 2004 post on the military draft and says it is just as important now. I agree. We need to keep Bush in check and vote these guys out. If you are draft-age, or like me, have a kid who is, pay attention.

A collection of my posts on the draft is here.

Here are some details of post-9/11 bills calling for the draft. More here.

Where's Country Joe when we need him? And Arlo? And Bruce? (scroll to the bottom for that one.)

I don't buy the spin that if we had a draft and endangered the kids of Republican congresspersons and senators, they'd be less likely to vote for war. They'd either wear their kids' service like a badge or find a way, as they usually do, to get their kids out from having to serve. Alternative service is one thing, and I'm for that, but a military draft is just going to result in more young kids, particularly the poor, dying, losing limbs and coming home PTSD'd to a life they can't adjust to, particularly since our government has a lousy history of supporting veterans.

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    If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? | 52 comments (52 topical)
    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#1)
    by cmpnwtr on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 01:56:06 PM EST
    Not a chance! Any party who votes in the draft is gone. The repugs love war as long as it doesn't cost them anything. My repug relatives think it's great to send other folks' kids to die, just not their own.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#2)
    by squeaky on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 02:23:41 PM EST
    I think that an excellent strategy for the Dems is to ask how the war party can continue without a draft. Forcing the issue of a draft while calling for the end to the war is a sure fire win for the dems. Americans are too isolated to care about a volunteer army killing and getting killed in our name. Put the draft on the table and the sleepy war apologists will wake up but quick. They will vote for any party that ensures their son's and daughter's blood will not be spilled just to keep their gas guzzling SUV's on the road. As long as the other kids (lower class) are fighting the war, the mantra will be, "those terrorists are not going to take our lifestyle from us". Talk of conscription will open the doors to talk of conservation and peace.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#3)
    by ras on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 02:31:03 PM EST
    Here we go again ♫ La la la la la ♫ [must be an election year]

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 02:55:08 PM EST
    What tipped you off? Gay marriage hysteria and the flag burning debate? The overuse of the military, unlike those two things, is an actual issue. Yes, it's very unlikely that a draft would ever return because, as cmpnwtr pointed out, for it to come back at least one party has to commit political suicide. I'm not sure how we'll be able to continue using the military in such an irresponsible way without a draft, though. Keep lowering recruitment standards? More stop-loss?

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#5)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 02:56:52 PM EST
    I used to think that a draft was inevitable but I'm not sure that's true anymore. I agree with the political consequences that have been mentioned. Squeaky's suggestion would probably be effective if the Ds could all agree to do it. Too many PMCs have been created in the past 6 years and a draft would cut into their profits. These private armies will go to the best offer, too, so these wars can be fought by groups of wealthy idealogues using countries as fronts. This has been part of the problem in Iraq in that PMCs are seen as American but they have complete immunity from prosecution. It's naive to think that for-profit armies are not influenced by money that can change their loyalties. Our armed forces can't keep some of our best people because they're getting better offers in the private sector.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#6)
    by glanton on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 02:59:54 PM EST
    [must be an election year]
    And this, coming from one who takes seriously the routinely even-yeared hysteria over such "big issues" as gay marriage, flag burning, and making English the national language. At least people worried about a draft are worrying about something truly dangerous, something truly capable of tearing families apart. Let us all hope it never happens. But no worries, ras. Stay alert, and stay with Fox.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#7)
    by glanton on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 03:02:00 PM EST
    durn. c-law beat me to it by an eyelash. Oh well, that's what's great about truth, it's there for all to see. :-)

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 03:30:29 PM EST
    We have to have a draft. Mr Bush has put us in too much danger and this situation needs to be wound down. Then after that we need to pay serious reparations to the Iraqi people, up to and including the rebuilding for their infrastructure. It wouldn't be a bad idea to transfer a few irreplacable artifacts from the Smithsonian Institute, either. It's the least we could do after looting their museums and burning all those Korans. There is no other way to really fix this mess.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#10)
    by Strick on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 04:28:07 PM EST
    The odds against the draft returning are slightly higher than the US returning to the gold standard, but neither seems likely even under the current circumstances. Or should I say especially under the current circumstances. After all the military hates the idea even more than the public and with recruiting meeting all its objectives and re-enlistments at extremely high levels, there's just no reason for it. We could expand the military if we wanted without a draft pretty much any time we want (well, given a couple of years, faster than we could with a draft). It was much, much larger and all volunteer in the 80s, right? Why pretend a draft would be necessary to return to those levels? That's assuming we wanted to, of course. In the last 20 years armies have become like computers, where there are more important things than physical size. This kind of talks is sort of the left's version of fear mongering.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#11)
    by ras on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 04:33:29 PM EST
    Glanton, Actually, you're welcome to burn flags and I think it's a waste of time to worry about it; I could care less if two guys wanna shack up together; and English already is your national language. As for Fox, I haven't seen it up here in Canada, but then again I almost never watch the tube, either. So ... you stereotyped your way to four conclusions and got them all wrong, every one. There's a clue in that as to why Dems keep losing elections, but you'll have to figure out the rest for yourself. Me, I'm gonna resume my daily pastimes of nailing kittens to doors and laughing at the plight of the proletariat.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#12)
    by Gary Sugar on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 04:39:04 PM EST
    Heh, I don't think we'll see a draft. Oddly, nearly all Americans prefer watching their wars on TV. Thank goodness for that.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#13)
    by jen on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 05:00:30 PM EST
    ras, explain why flag burning and gay marriage issues are cosidered so important in congress then.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#14)
    by glanton on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 05:08:50 PM EST
    ras, ras, ras. Many have been the threads on Talk left pointing up the gay marriage flag burning firrenners hysterics. Never have I seen a peep out of you on those threads with a comment to the effect of "must be an election year." But here the draft topic comes up, for reasons demonstrably solid, and you, who have defended the fear-mongering, distraction creating GOP down to the very ground, pop out and accuse someone of fear-mongering anmd distracting. As for your comment about not watching FOX, that doesn't change the fact that your comments indicate you to be staying with FOX, and with the diseased trends that have given rise to FOX, just fine. All you have to do then is stay alert and you'll have sealed the deal.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#15)
    by jondee on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 05:12:57 PM EST
    He knows no gay/abortion/flag burning hysteria; no "regime change", but dont expect any intellectual honesty about it. You're talking to a guy who once announced to all and sundry here that it had been definitivly proven that Iraq's wmds were moved by the Russians to Syria.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#16)
    by glanton on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 05:29:46 PM EST
    Jondee, I know it. But it's still staggering how someone can lend comfort (through voting, sending money, or just plain rhetoric) to the GOP and then expect to be taken seriously when attempting to criticize fear-mongering. It's about as ridiculous as if he tried to speak on behalf of, say, gay and women's rights.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (none / 0) (#17)
    by soccerdad on Sun Jul 16, 2006 at 07:40:32 PM EST
    The people who dont think there will be a draft you dont know much about how this works. There will be a draft and the US will be behind it. This whole thing is about to spiral out of control. The US will attack Iran. That will cause escalation in Iraq, and US soldiers will start to get killed at a much faster rate. There will be either either a real [pay back for a nuclear attack on Iran] or staged [ see the Northwoods plan] terror attack of significant magnitude in the US where thousands of citizens are killed. By that time everyone will be out in the street calling for war. Its all very simple, variations on this have been done before. The propaganda machine is in place, the fear is up, all Bush needs is an incident to instill the right amount of fear and Armegeddon here we come. BTW the centerist Dems that the right keeps telling us to elect will be right on board calling for the war. Since there interest will be the same as Bush. They have decided to go for broke. A US dominated peaceful world or no world. Better hope you get raptured.

    Re: If the War Spreads: Will We See a Draft? (