I don’t doubt that is the plan after the November election.
Running out of people. Pass a law. Homeland Security, ya know.
SO…
will this finally get university students off their collective asses and come out as political beings? Back in the old days, the 60’s, this was a reality.
Consider this a reality check.
To all of you university students reading this, how will you react when you suddenly get your “call to duty”? Ready to zip off to Iraq, or is that a job for “other people’s kids” to do?
I’d be at every demonstration I could. Hell, I’d do that for any talk of a draft, college students or no. But then, I’m already a pretty political being; I can think of a lot of my classmates that still wouldn’t care about politics, right through the day they get shipped off.
I’d go.
It would be more interesting than classes.
Was there a question in the OP?
Bringing back the draft would shift this country leftward (well, maybe rightward of teh draft was instituted by a left-wing administration under leftist reasonings) like nothing else could. Every draftable studnet, and their parents, would take to the streets in protest. They’d be joined by elements f the regular military, as they don’t really want soldiers who don’t want to be there. No congress critter who liked his job would dare to support it. If he did it, the president (whoever that may be next term, would be forced to leave the war long befor his term was up (whether we were “done” or not), and not deploy American forces again. He’d still be voted out by a huge margin come next election.
That’s why the only people to seriously suggest such a thing in recent years are people who don’t want the military to be used. They want draftees to act as political hostages against unneccessary wars.
:eek: :eek: :smack: :smack:
Kid, your statement is seriously nuts!
99% of you time in the military is crushing boredom, 1% is cr@p-in-your-drawers terror.
You can have a million times more fun in college than in the military. And you can drop out of college.
I think he meant he’d go to the protests because those would be more interesting than class.
You may well be correct, but you can’t be certain.
Far too many young people have a wildly distorted view of the military today.
Wait, so you’re saying I won’t get to have lots of sex with Denise Richards and Dina Meyer?
Well, how about Bob Hope? Can I still be entertained by Bob Hope?
Ever since Korea, a drafted military has been “a job for other people’s kids” (- DMark.) It was relatively easy for the more affluent to get deferments, and the ranks were filled out by those without the resources or contacts to avoid service. Especially in Viet Nam, the last time we had a fully drafted military. This is just in the enlisted ranks, mind you. There were still many people who joined the officer ranks out of a sense of public duty or as a stepping stone to a later life in the world of politics.
Last year I retired, and you would not believe all of the crap I had to put up with on a daily basis from kids who wanted to be there (voluntary enlistment.) The 90 - 10 rule was constantly in effect: 90% of my problems were caused by 10% of the people. Talking to the guys that had been there longer than me, this had gotten worse over the years. In their opinions, the country’s youth were less open to the whole idea of public service than their fathers and uncles, and acted like they were owed something for enlisting.
I believe, from experience, that there’s no way the vast majority of today’s 20 yo’s would behave in the way necessary that would result in a competent, non-dysfunctional unit. I can’t image what the chiefs and sergeants of a drafted military would have to go through now just to finish the day.
So if we’re voting, mark me as against renewing the draft. I’ve got a lot of friends still in who would spend all day solving behavior problems from kids who should have just stayed home.
I don’t doubt that you are 100% wrong.
What do you say we place a little wager on it?
Yea, this is nothing more than paranoid idle speculation.
Unless you have some concrete evidence that this is the case, I won’t be party to it. Protesting things that you have no evidence for? That isn’t “doing something”, that is digging yourself a hole and make no one listen to you when you DO have something to protest.
SO… granted that Bush wouldn’t have to worry about re-election, but you’re saying a majority of the House and Senate will committ political suicide here? What’s their motivation? “Homeland Security, ya know?” With half the country (give or take) saying Iraq was a bad idea, what makes you think anyone would get behind this if it was proposed it - which it won’t be.
In written English, the interrogatory statement is usually indicated by the prescence of the “question mark” (?) at the end of the sentence.
For example (from the OP):
See also (again, from the OP):
As a final example (do I need to say it? <- hey, there’s another one):
Or was your question rhetorical?
My husband is military and happens to be in Iraq right now, on his 11th month. He is already scheduled to go back there in less than a year for another 12 months. Between his deployments, there will be about 10-11 months of official home time, in which he will leave for a month in order to go for some training in the Mohave desert. Then he will go to school (across the country) for about 3 months, before he goes back to Iraq. How many years in a row are we going to do this? The unit that is replacing him in Iraq are coming from Korea. Their one year Korea stint is being interrupted in order to do their year in Iraq. When they get done in Iraq, they have to go back to Korea to finish their time there before coming home, all the while their wives and kids are in the USA waiting.
I am not complaining. I miss my husband and today is a bad day. I support my husband and his decisions. I believe that most of the current soldiers (my husband included) want to continue to have an all volunteer army. However, with the recent involuntary recall, is it completely voluntary anyway?
I would like to see the current and future administration actually make a call to arms (not sure if that is the right way to phrase that) or something similar. Right now, every one is too busy denying that we need more troops. You know, “Ask not what your country can do for you…” instead of denying there is the need.
I would like to see some sort of national service program proposed. I don’t think it would have to be military service alone, because there are many things that could be proposed in addition. Maybe some sort of a program, where 18 year old makes a choice between various national needs for a 2-3 year commitment prior to college, with those really gifted students having the choice to do theirs after college. I don’t know.
However, if there is ever going to be a draft again, before a draft takes place there will need to be at least one major change that hasn’t been mentioned. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy will have to be abolished. Gays need to be allowed to serve in the military along side everyone else and everyone has to deal with it, just like they always did. Now, with that policy, anyone who didn’t want to be drafted could simply become gay.
Oh, for crying out loud, not this again.
So, let’s get this straight. The OP is convinced that, if re-elected, Bush will re-instate the draft. Never mind that reinstating the draft would take an act of congress, lets just go with the idea that Bush will attempt to get congress to reinstate the draft.
And the question asked is: would this cause people to protest? And of course the answer is obvious, reinstating the draft would be political suicide, it would cause an explosion of opposition to the President, and anyone else who seriously supported the draft.
So…since the draft is political poison, and would destroy the Bush presidency, why exactly would Karl Rove and Dick Cheney order Bush to propose re-instating the draft? I mean, if Bush goes down, they go down with him, right? Why does the OP find this so plausible? Or is it more accurate to state that the OP doesn’t really believe this will happen so much as HOPE it will happen, since a political blunder of this nature will be so bad for the President? Because the fact is that the administration would abandon the war in Iraq in two seconds rather than reinstate the draft.
Assuming Bush were to be re-elected in November, how can it be political poison? While the public just might get up in arms about a draft, the only way to (legally) punish Bush is by impeachment. Considering Bush has been re-elected, should one also assume Congress took a major shift to the Democrats? Not likely. Do you really think the House would begin impeachment proceedings against Bush if it stayed Republican? Not likely.
Don’t forget that a Bush re-election (with actual vote tallies showing it across the board), coupled with a Republican re-election in the House and Senate (status quo, if not increasing their numbers) might actually improve Bush’s standing in the power game. Add to it that the terrorism war and the war in Iraq continues to bog down, shouldn’t the likelihood of a possible draft increase? A strong vote for Bush might very be considered strong support, if not a mandate for his policies (Don’t laugh, but could the greater electorate be that dumb?) that a draft is actually palatable?
It is only political poison to implement a draft if you may be forced to drink it. Bush would be under no such obligations after a re-election. Only Congress might suffer the consequences two years down the road during the off-elections, but by then it really doesn’t matter. There will be no third Bush term and whoever may be the Republican party’s annointed one to follow Bush will have two years (if not more) to distance himself from the entire draft issue. Then again, even if the Republicans get smashed in 2008 in the White House and Congress, it will not matter. All the current power brokers will be retired and living the high life they quietly built for themselves during the Bush presidency. They won’t care about any legacy or possible long-term damage to their party because they were only in it for themselves from the beginning. They just used the electorate and their own party for their own benefit.
If you read my link, you’ll note that it would take two years from the reinstatement of the draft for any potential soldiers to be ready, much less shipped off to war. So Congress would pay the price and the damage would not be done at that point.
I think that’s totally false. Cheney, Rumsfeld and the rest of them have some big, long-term plans.
Cheney will be 67 in 2008. So far he’s had four known heart attacks. I doubt his long-term plans will be as stressful as they are right now.
Rumsfeld will be 76 in 2008. Whatever long-term plans he may have, one would think them to be more behind the scenes than the up front job he has now.
You’re right; I doubt the pair of them will hold office or be very public at that point. But as I said, they have larger plans that I don’t think they will sabotage intentionally- which a draft would do.