Some more thoughts on the Draft

The Founding Fathers disliked a large standing army. That is what a draft is, people. That is what Rangel wants. A large standing army that isn't required to fight in America's defense. Does anyone really think that Rangel and Co are demanding the draft so we can ship 5 million Americans to fight North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria?

Give me a break. The politicians will never declare Total War unless we make them, or our enemies kill enough of them anyways.

If you have a large standing army and NO WARS for it to fight in, what do you think will happen when the Left subverts the military? If you want to trust the corrupt, power hungry, and totalitarian bent of the Left with a bigger army, then by all means, go ahead, but don't blame me when they take you away for sensitivity re-education.

I'm thinking in the hundred year span, the 500 year span, not this piddly little "next 30 years" Long War thing. That aint' long, people.

Would I support a full draft if we were at Total War? yes. But we're not at Total War. Until we are, no draft, no way.

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I’m for military draft of illegal and legal immigrants as a way to short cut the citizen process and is also a sure fire way to teach English as well as skill sets needed for higher income jobs. In addition to America benefiting instead of just you know, social welfare sucking off the government teat. Anyways.

People like Rangel don’t see the military as a way to better one self, which is why if you did have a draft, you would see people like Rangel in the politicial circles try to undermine and destroy the military when it tries to do good works. like JROTC in San Fran, like Annapolis with the women discipline problems. You think the Left is causing problems, wait until they get more power via government drafts and can decide who to ax and who to ship out.

If you read CDR Salamander, you already know the problems that can result from a volunteer force yet in peace time. The peace rot known to all those who seek to be prepared for war, is a very real and unavoidable thing.

The draft works in this brutal way. All those 4 year term guys who want to get out, they get shipped to some battlefield with no logistics, no training, and no competent leadership to do the dieing until some competent leadership and skills develop. It’s how they did it in WWII as well as the 2nd Punic Wars with citizen soldiers. Citizen soldiers by definition, do not spend 10 to 30 years perfecting the art of warfare and mayhem.

Citizen soldiers are no match for a professional force. Which is why they need combat experience, but the only way to get combat experience is to throw them into the breach and let them die until someone smart takes over due to the casualties.

Rangel thinks that with a draft, nobody will be sending the military anywhere because Rangel thinks the military is just there as a boondockle like social welfare. It has no “purpose” there, there you know, to Rangel.

However, it was this kind of peace rot thinking that got the WWII guys and the WWII dough boys creamed. Compare now with those times. Those times we had to have good leadership because the government thought that there would be no need for an army. So the soldiers weren’t prepared, it was the generals like Patton and Pershing that got things up and running so that the troops stood a chance.

WIth today’s increasingly political and media savy enemy, along with 24 hour micromanagement from top to bottom on the battlefield, the ability of a general to free form think is now severely curtailed. So you cannot depend upon the generals to win your wars for you anymore. Good example would be OIF 1. If you just do whatever the generals want you to do, you are going to get this country into trouble. Politicians must set political goals, they cannot just tell people that whatever they come up with is what they will go with. Where’s the goals, the generals don’t decide political policy, what is the Goal? Martial law in Iraq after OIF? What. Nevermind, different subject.

So, with advanced technology and media, we have to depend upon the individual soldiers instead of the generals and politicians now. (as if depending upon politicians ever got you anything in the first place) And to get the most bang for our buck, we need professional soldiers, who know how to use technology, who can interface with Iraqis and avoid atrocities and do the legal mumbo jumbo as the ACLU guns for them without the protection of either the President or the Generals.

I don’t trust the government bureacracy. They aren’t looking out for individuals. Bureacrats look out for the status quo, who they can kiss up to for favors and career options, and so forth. Putting the lives of Americans at home at the heels of those who aren’t interested in patriotism or duty, is a bad idea. And this won’t change if you are in the military or not. The military has the same bureacracy, the only difference is, the people IN the bureacracy are volunteers who volunteered for their own reasons. As thus, their reasons for being there allows them more competence and less corruption than DC. The health of a system is determined by the people that run that system. If you got good people running a bad system, good things will happen, i.e. Marine Corps in Fallujah or some other hell hole on this planet.

Uncle Jimbo at blackfive advocated that we should have a military draft, a peacecorps draft, and a Americorps draft. Interesting, but not exactly bullet proof as a plan.

Look. I’m a believer in desperate situations call for desperate actions. Iraq right now is desperate, therefore I can justify doing a lot of things there, that you wouldn’t normally do elsewhere. But here in America. Where are the suicide bombers? Where is the DESPERATION that is needed before we can convince people to fight? I don’t see it, I don’t see the need.

Comment by Ymarsakar | November 20, 2006
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I’m a big believer in military necessity. I don’t believe in doing anything until I see a Need to do it. Getting a draft cause people “wish” to see more patriotism and will in America and “wish” to get a bigger army is ridiculous on its face. You don’t face a brutal and ruthless enemy in the first war of the 21st century with WISHES, you know.

Comment by Ymarsakar | November 20, 2006