What of the Other War?
When our president was declaring that the troops wouldn’t come home from Iraq while under his command, wonder why he didn’t mention the other war? The war where we are fighting the persons who did order the attacks of 9-11? That war looks to me to be the real central front of the “war on terror”. Why not talk about that one, if fighting terrorist really is our goal? Let’s talk about when those troops in Afghanistan might be coming home. What’s the status of that war?
Here’s something else he failed to mention.
“The Marine Corps said Tuesday that it would begin calling Marines back to active-duty service on an involuntary basis to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan — the latest sign that the American force is under strain and a signal that the military is having trouble persuading young veterans to return.
Marine commanders will call up formerly active-duty service members now classified as reservists because the Corps failed to find enough volunteers among its emergency reserve pool to fill jobs in combat zones. The call-ups will begin in several months, summoning as many as 2,500 reservists at a time to serve for a year or more.”
Read the rest here
As we drain the energy and life from our military in the two ongoing wars, we have to wonder, what's next? Is a front door draft in our future?
Here’s something else he failed to mention.
“The Marine Corps said Tuesday that it would begin calling Marines back to active-duty service on an involuntary basis to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan — the latest sign that the American force is under strain and a signal that the military is having trouble persuading young veterans to return.
Marine commanders will call up formerly active-duty service members now classified as reservists because the Corps failed to find enough volunteers among its emergency reserve pool to fill jobs in combat zones. The call-ups will begin in several months, summoning as many as 2,500 reservists at a time to serve for a year or more.”
Read the rest here
As we drain the energy and life from our military in the two ongoing wars, we have to wonder, what's next? Is a front door draft in our future?
posted by pissed off patricia at 3:12 AM
36 Comments:
Charles Rangel has a draft resolution in commitee, they're just waiting until after the elections to spring it on people. They're going to need every soldier they can muster if they intend on staying in Afghanistan and Iraq, and still plan on taking on Iran, too.
The seriousness of war is horrible. I read the outrage here and in other blogs, news stories are strewn with bits and pieces of the peoples unrest.
But I wonder. Where are the huge protests on the campuses like those that were present during Vietnam? Why aren't the young people active and vocal about our involvement in this lie of a war?
Maybe they don't have to be concerned like they did during Vietnam when there was a draft. Maybe if there was a draft and they had to be in college with passing grades or go to war their would be more clamor. Maybe the parents of these same youth would do more and protest louder if their children were being drafted for
Bu$hCo's War.
A thought from me, not an answer. I am fortunate that I don't have to come up with the answer because I don't have one. On one hand, I'd like to get more and more louder and louder voices and huge demonstrations on the streets to make such a roar the administration would be forced to pull out and stop the killing.
On the other hand, could we trust any administration, especially this lying bunch of warmongering elitests, with a draft and control of even more of our lives and rights?
I'm sorry I don't have an answer.
PoP...I don't see this administration ever starting a draft....
if they did, it wouldn't just be boys...this time it would be girls as well...
I think this whole nation would explode if bushie and co. did this and I think they are at least smart enough to know it...
Why is the concept; "every action has reaction", too hard to comprehend for this gang in the White House? They play this geo-political chess game one move at the time, seemingly not thinking any farther than that. Or might it be that, they look the world through so heavily tinted classes that there appears to be only black and white objects? Everything is simple and only the best case scenarious are needed to be talked about.
What ever is the case, they have amply demonstrated their incompetence in war and diplomacy being totally unknown to them, you have only one choice - GET RID OF THE BASTARDS!
That Bush sure knows how to press all our buttons. This is crazy. He knows a wide majority of people don't support his war and then he goes and does this stuff. He is just begging to be impeached, thrown out on his sorry ass.
You people are ungreatful for your own protection.
What some people might not know, is that when you enlist for any number of years, you go on inactive reserve for the remander to make up 8 years. So a person that enlists for 4 years and gets out, still has 4 years inactive reserve to fullfill. In that time, they can be called back!! Like in war times.
In my case, I enlisted for 5 years and would have been held for 3 years inactive reserve. But that was not enforced with the medical that I received after getting injured in the field and the navy docs screwing up the injury worse than it was.
Dr. Rick... Ungrateful for my own protection? thanks to Heir Bush we are in more danger than ever. How many people around the world have had a family member or friend killed by US forces? How many of them hate us more now than even before 9/11? How vulnerable are we when our borders are as porous as Republican rhetoric, and cargo containers go uninspected? Want to seee a Republican pro war candidate get destroyed as he spews his talking points? Go to my Youtube site here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mP2WBZznqI
Brother you are so right.. or should I say left.. What if the Bush twins had to report for duty? The age for being able to join the military is over 40 now... I'd like to see all these Bush mouth peices sign up. (they usually have an excuse for not doing so... anal polyps, wooden leg, blind, mental retardation)Our friend Charlt Rangle is so right... He knows those in power would lose their appitite for war very quickly when the draft happens. BTW we are losing soldiers at a rate that is faster than Veitnam, and it's getting worse. Two and a half more years according to Bush.
Spadoman, I work on a college campus. Who we have in college now is Generation Me. Their only concerns are having the latest iPod, the coolest car, the hottest hairdo, and landing a high-paying, high-status job with little effort when they graduate from college. They're a delusional lot, to say the least. They're not going to show concern about the wars until there's a draft and the military starts plucking them from their classrooms. Even then, you can bet it will be their overprotective, helicopter parents who fight to prevent their military service. They've been spoiled and catered to all of their lives.
Yes, I'd like to see the Tequila Twins report for duty. What are Jenna and Not-Jenna doing these days?
And Dr. Rick...uh, protect me from whom? From what? Oh, you mean the hornet's nest that this administration has stirred up in the Middle East?
If you read a variety of news blurbs you see little articles of more fighting in Afghanistan and more violence. Some coalition forces are thinking and planning to pull out. They are less willing to expend their youth on a failed policy in both places. As events in the UK indicates, we really aren't winning the war on terrorism either. They were very close to striking in the UK but they got got them luckily. Maybe we need a different policy on how to win against them also. It seems we are spending more on terrorism than in an actual war, against an enemy we can't define and can't see often.Kind of like fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I work on a college campus too, and I'm actually starting to see a shift in attitudes, as my students' parents, siblings, and family members start getting deployed and return (if they're lucky) with horror stories. I also usually have a few students who have been there and back--they always have something meaningful to add to the debate, and the other students are listening. And starting to get very nervous about talk of a draft.
We don't hear about Afghanistan because Bush doesn't care about it. It was never his priority. It was just his way into Iraq.
Idea: Let's send Dr. Rick to fight these wars since they're so damned important to him.
Ah, yes, the "other" war in Afghanistan. But we're not fighting a War on Terror. We're trying to control oil in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the opium trade in Afghanistan is back up to where it was before the Taliban was in charge, and Kharzi wants to recreate the morality police.
I guess Dr. Rick is right. I am ungrateful for the sort of "protection" Bush wants to shove down my throat.
On the other hand, that might be an impeachable offense, right?
The only way the tide will turn is when Red State American's start having their sons and daughters pulled from them to fight a war.
It's all fine and good, as long as someone else does the fighting and dying, but as soon as a draft happens (and how can it not all things considered); this country will finally wake up.
I'm glad Mr. Pink is no longer a reservist (Marines) and hasn't been for a long time. Still, I worry....
I'm actually in favor of a universal draft with NO exceptions. Only then will the people who have bought and paid for "our" government will think long and hard before putting their sons and daughters in harms way.
No doubt, they are back dooring their way into a draft here - sounds like slavery to me.
Afghanistan is crumbling around Karzai's ankles as we speak.
In fact he has been making agreements with the Ministers of Vice and Virtue (ya know... the quaint little clerics who walk around with a pencil and pad reporting any "unvirtuous" activities, and carefully picking and choosing which females deserve to be beaten and stoned for daring to allow their burqas to blow in the wind) b/c Karzai is unable to stop the growing power of the Taliban. But thank the stars we "liberated" them too, huh?
Sadly, I agree that maybe the only way this trainwreck of an administration could be stopped in their bloodthirsty war tracks is if a universal draft happens.
Hubby and I are in the age group that could easily be drafted. We have a plan in place to help ensure that we will be deemed undraftable: It is called the Krispy Kreme diet.
We have no problem serving our nation in self defense. But we will not die for imperialistic quests and PNAC bloodlettings.
Look at you selfish liberals. During the elections you threatened of a draft to scare people into voting Dumbacratic. Now your asking for a draft to increase angst agianst Bush. Your savages.
Rick,
The military is enlisting grandmothers and sending soldiers back for their third tour under fire. All while the children of men raking in millions off this debacle spend their time carousing and being useless.
How is a draft worse?
I do hope they start the draft. Millions of ignorant Americans would then wake their ignorant asses up and relize what is going on!
A draft won't happen. The success of our military since Vietnam is significantly attributed to being an all-volunteer force. Besides, there isn't public support for it.
It wouldn't be necessary to call up IRR personnel if we had not drawn down in 1990 to get the "peace dividend." We eliminated too many units, too fast.
Don't feed the troll. Starve him of attention, and his ignorant self will go away.
oh yes..i have always felt that the draft will be back
baby bush woulda done it in 04 - but it was too hot a political topic..
now it seems that he has waited enough time after 04 and before 08 -- he thinks people will forget by the time 08 comes..
um, WRONG!!!
draft resistence should be easy this time: just profess gayness ... or, will they end up changing the don't ask don't tell rule out of desperation for cannon fodder eventually ....
Solution: more reporting on the courageous people in the military refusing orders to fight on moral grounds. Their numbers are rising and if people take them seriously and support their principaled stands against the state terror of the Bush regime, others will follow suit.
Hey Dr Rick,
you could offer your services to Bushco as a medic or a grunt. Learn first hand what it is like to be on the front lines. you could up you skill level also. And get paid for it too. What a deal?
Before you accuse me of not serving let me say I have something you don't have. A DD214 from the Viet Nam era. That by the way for you info is a honorable discharge paper and I get my medical attention from the VA. So stick a sock in it and go do your duty. Unless you are gay.
yo soy Horsedooty!
Afghanistan hasn't been under central control at any time since we declared 'victory.' They don't call Karzai the Mayor of Kabul for nothing.
spadoman, don't feel bad. This administration doesn't have an answer, either. Or a clue.
Rangel put a draft resolution on the table shortly before the invasion of Iraq. Its purpose was two-fold: To have the military better represent the American population as a whole, and to force Americans to grasp the implications of a possible invasion (talk about foresight).
It died a quick death, naturally. Apparently, politicians find it much easier (and convenient) to send other people to war and do things they would never voluntarily do themselves.
And then they wonder why most people think they're hypocrites...
Let’s talk about when those troops in Afghanistan might be coming home. What’s the status of that war?
Ask, and Ye Shall Receive the truth you will not find anyplace in Ye Whoring MSM.
I'm sure I'll find myself there...soon enough.
It wouldn't be necessary to call up IRR personnel if we had not drawn down in 1990 to get the "peace dividend." We eliminated too many units, too fast.
LMAO, you made the point for us!! Just one guess as to who was in office when that happened. Downsizing of the military began at the end of the Reagan years. People were getting 6 month early outs at that time. I know, because I was in at the time. So as a former Marine that was in and saw it happen, I can tell you how I saw many friends leave and go home 6 months in advance.
I entered the Corps in '87, and also have seen some people take the early outs.
But the downsizing didn't occur as a major change until the '90s. We were unprepared for the fall of the wall, and the shift in the powers in the former Soviet Union (FSU). When the USSR collapsed in 1989, it was Bush who was in ofcice, and systemwide downsizing happened under Clinton.(Read Tom Clancy's "Battle Ready", a biography of Gen. Zinni for a small bit of this. It doesn't go into great detail, but the concept is there. I haven't quite finished it yet). I wasn't assigning any blame to a President, just that the government didn not make the necessary changes in doctrine, and the knee-jerk reaction to achieve a "peace dividend" is now hurting us.
We didn't adapt to the changing conditions and rising threat.
Not counting Iraq, the US has 707 military bases on foreign soil. Hey, even at $100,000 bucks a day each - that would be a lot of dough, a lot of men and women in uniform, a lot of 'presence'- in places that would rather not have it.
Funny world - wonder what would happen if the US retrenched its military (the budget is larger than every other nation on earths combined military budgets)? Work on cooperative, coalition solutions? Put money into fighting poverty, HIV/AIDs, inadequate housing, children's health?
Hey, there could still be a little army of a few hundred thousand to fight if it's really needed...
Amy Goodman for President!
Here are the sidestep lyrics from Best Little Whorehouse
THE SIDESTEP
From : "The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas"
(Carol Hall)
Charles Durning
Fellow Texans, I am proudly standing here to humbly see.
I assure you, and I mean it- Now, who says I don't speak out as plain as day?
And, fellow Texans, I'm for progress and the flag- long may it fly.
I'm a poor boy, come to greatness. So, it follows that I cannot tell a lie.
Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.
Now my good friends, it behooves me to be solemn and declare,
I'm for goodness and for profit and for living clean and saying daily prayer.
And now, my good friends, you can sleep nights, I'll continue to stand tall.
You can trust me, for I promise, I shall keep a watchful eye upon ya'll...
Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.
Now, Miss Mona, I don't know her, though I've heard the name, oh yes.
But, of course I've no close contact, so what she is doing I can only guess.
And now, Miss Mona, she's a blemish on the face of that good town.
I am taking certain steps here, someone somewhere's gonna have to close her down.
Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep, now they see me now they don't-
I've come and gone and, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step,
cut a little swathe and lead the people on.
Ooh I love to dance a little sidestep...
And, ooh I love to sweep around the wide step...
Cut a little swathe and lead the people on.
I wrote about this as well, POP. It really pisses me off that this asshat would send these people back to that hell after they've already served their tour of duty.
We are over-committed, and you just KNOW that some sort of draft will be coming soon. All for a "war of choice", while Osama remains "at large" (Left free to roam or held by BushCo for "the right time"). At least people finally seem to be waking up and paying attention. Let's hope that they continue to do so when Rove and Company throw their wrenches into the works over the next ten weeks. . .
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