Okay, can we all FINALLY accept that a draft is imminent?

[Sir Jeffrey]

I know this has probably been posted, but I just want to see the reaction/consensus.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2867

Two things jumped out at me from this:

1. "The Pentagon - faced with using only volunteers during a sustained conflict, an effort rarely tried in American history - is especially vexed by a generation of more activist parents who have no qualms about projecting their own views onto their children."

Activist parents? WTF? Not wanting your child to kill people for moeny is now considered an "activist" position?

2. "They don't realize that they have a role in helping make the all-volunteer force successful," said Col. Slotwinski, who retired in 2004. "If you don't, you're faced with the alternative, and the alternative is what they were opposed to the most, mandatory service."

Oh really? I guess my wife and I need to have a few more kids so I can make sure to play my part in the all-volunteer force.

I've been saying all along that the draft would ramp up in June...after another staged terra attack blamed on Iran...but I didn't want to be right.

I think this is it, esp with ** holding back the latest recruitment numbers.

What does DU think?

BTW if I missed this discussion yesterday or earlier today, sorry.

[WI_DEM]

1. Recruitments are down 40% and it has nothing to do with "activist" parents

it has everything to do with the tragically muddled policies which led us into Iraq--not to mention the deceit and the lies.

[Career Prole]

2. And the failure of those in the right-wing to take up arms

in a war they demonstrated their support for by returning the chimperor to the WH.

Dare I call it cowardice?

Sure! Why the hell not!

[dogday]

14. Here! Here! Frist needs to make an appeal to the ring wing...

Dobson and Frist need to make an appeal to the "Christian Youth" to sign up and fight. Onward Christian Soldiers marching on to war...

[Career Prole]

18. What a great song for 'em!

I always figured there should be a snare drum instead of a pipe organ, though. :eyes:

[RBHam]

3. They NEED another 9-11.

Nervous?

[tnlefty]

7. I haven't slept well at all this week.

Don't know if it's nervous or a general feeling that something just isn't right, or something is coming down the pike. Perhaps it's just wondering in overtime what fresh hell will be unleashed by the hounds of hell and when it will commence.

[Sir Jeffrey]

11. Yeah, I bet I've slept between four and five hours a night for weeks...

I'm seriously sweating this latest attack. It's gonna have to be HUGE to get the sheeple to go along with the draft.

[tnlefty]

15. Belated welcome to you Sir Jeffrey!

I haven't slept well until I reach the point of exhaustion for quite some time, but this week has been different. I have a friend who was prescribed Ambien post-election. She called me one day and told me not to even think of getting any of "that shit", as she called it. According to her, "it makes me sleep, but now I don't wake up from the nightmares!".

[paula777]

4. What would happen if they do implement the draft but people in large

numbers refuse to go - stating 1) they don't believe in this unnecessary war or 2) they are a conscientious objector. I think technically they can throw you in jail for that but it A LOT of people did it - what could they do?

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. It wouldn't be hard. The force of the entire government is behind

them.

Arrest a few to make examples of them.
The arrests will prompt demonstrations.
Shoot a few demonstrators to make examples of them.
People will decide it's better to serve the two years than to be imprisoned for ten, or shot.

It may or may not work, and I doubt it will, but I think they think it will.

These guys think that we will respond to threats because they are bullies and that's what bullies do -- they threaten, and they themselves respond to threats. They simply do not understand people standing up for principles.

They screwed up with the all-volunteer force. If they had merely ramped the draft down to a few thousand a year and kept the notion of mandatory service alive, as they did in the 50s and early 60s, with an opt-out for compensatory service clause, there would be no struggle with it today.

OTOH, they wanted the malleable all-volunteer force. It is more easily proselytized and politicized than a force that includes draftees. The problems at the AF Academy are not an aberration -- there are powers that be that are creating a army for God and RW ideology. I grew up with the military, and in my youth and in my own service it was never as politicized as it is today. I believe it is all due to the all-volunteer force.

EDIT addendum

The Vietnam protests included draft protests, but few were purely anti-draft. It was the war we were being drafted for. Even among war protesters there was a general acknowledgment that war was appropriate against unqualified aggression, as in WWII. There were no draft protests in 64 and 65, during the greatest build up, because we still believed the government story that it was, indeed, communist aggression we were facing, not a matter of supporting a corrupt South Vietnamese government and ruling class against a popular insurgency.

Draftees are truly "citizen soldiers" who will serve proudly and honorably if the cause is just, but tend to rebel if ordered to fight the wrong war.

[lonestarnot]

9. Rather see my kid in jail!

[paula777]

13. Wow, that's quite a scary little sceanario you painted ...

I can't even imagine them shooting protesters - I mean this is a fake war and they know it - they can't shoot people for calling them out on it. Well maybe they can ....

Your right about the draft - had they kept it all along on a low level, it would not be so shocking to people but they did and let me tell you, this will SHOCK all the kool-aid drinkers

[tenshi816]

5. I'll bet the Pentagon doesn't mind when right-wing parents

"have no qualms about projecting their own views onto their children". Because we can already see the stampede of all those good little Republican children to sign up for the army, can't we - oh, wait, never mind...

When the draft is reinstated (I've stopped saying "if" because I'm convinced it's now moved on to "when"), those very same right-wing parents are going to be going "but, but, but, this wasn't supposed to happen to my child". Someone else's, but not theirs.

[lonestarnot]

8. No doubt about it, draft on the way! STOP THE WAR OF LIES NOW!

BASTARDS!

[Javaman]

10. What scares me is, what moron* is going to do for his next "terror attack"

The Twin Towers was truly aweful and a titanic loss of lives, but what other evil bullshit does moron* have up his sleave to make us run in fear?

That's what keeps me up at night.

[tblue37]

16. Suitcase nuke, probably. (eom)

[Javaman]

17. Pretty much what I think too, I just hate even mentioning it.

[bloom]

12. I'm not going to accept

that there is a draft until they announce there will be a draft.

That's just how it is.

There were some interesting points in the NYTimes article, however.

[zippy890]

19. No, I don't accept that a draft is imminent

but then again I don't accept that bush is the president

[cyberpj]

20. My newest ribbon -

[librechik]

21. my bet is on Rummy pullling out in disarray

shrub doesn't have the political capital to pull off a draft.

They don't want to pull out, either, so watch for it to get pushed right up to the edge of intolerability before they surrender. Then they'll keep secret bases.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

22. Right after the '06 elections.

I hope all you 16-40 year olds have your route to Canada well marked.

[Sir Jeffrey]

23. UPDATE...

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2875

"Defense Department figures at the end of April showed that 35,926 recruits had signed up this fiscal year, which began last Oct. 1. This gives recruiters four months to sign up another 44,000 to meet their goal. Even worse is the number of reserves. Statistics show that 7,283 reserves have signed up. The goal is for 22,175 by the end of the year."

It's coming, DU.