Thompson wants million-member ground force

[unhappycamper]

Thompson wants million-member ground force
By Jim Davenport - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 13, 2007 8:49:49 EST

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Republican presidential candidate Fred Thompson called for a million-member military ground force and more funding to equip and care for service members and veterans in a speech Tuesday at a military college in this early presidential primary state.

The former Tennessee senator and actor also told a crowd at The Citadel that he wants more modern battle equipment on the ground, in the air and on the water to help revitalize the nation’s security.

“With 20th century equipment in a 21st century war, our material support for our troops has not matched the demands we have placed on them,” Thompson said to applause from hundreds of cadets, staff and visitors at the school’s basketball arena. “We’ve been asking too few troops to do too much for too long.”

“Some would say this plan is too much and too big,” Thompson said. “I don’t believe that’s the case, not at all.”

Thompson is in a close three-way race here with former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

Also Tuesday, the National Right to Life Committee endorsed Thompson, saying he is the most likely to beat Giuliani, an abortion-rights supporter.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/11/ap_thompson_071113/

[zabet]

1. How does he think

he will get that many when enlistment
numbers are continually dropping? :eyes:

[NYVet]

3. Hate to burst your bubble, but I have news contrary to your statement

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=48124

This is just for the first month of FY 2008. I will have to dig for a couple more articles on FY 07 to shows goals.

[zabet]

4. What about the fact that

they have lowered the bar, allowing felons, older people, etc.?
What about lowering the quota so it will be met?
Mathemagician works to fool people.

[rakeeb]

6. the bar hasn't been lowered back down to near to the point it was

when the military was almost twice the size it is now. The only reason the military had a 100% HS diploma rate for enlistees to begin with was the huge drawdown allowed for as much selectivity that they wanted.
The "quotas" don't get lowered. The "quota" is based on the authorized strength for that year.

[sinkingfeeling]

2. How about we take every American above the age of 18? Then we use every dime of revenue plus

borrow another $10 to $20 trillion dollars for new equipment? We will then have an army large enough to take over the world! No American would have to 'work' (they'll be in the military) and our 'corporate' class can use the slave labor of all those other countries for free. If a country refuses to cooperate, we'll just use a few of our 52,000 nukes to take them out!

Thompson, like all the 'far right'/Neocons, should be locked up for the protection of humanity!

[Crowman1979]

5. Added with that.

We should also scrap our entire nuclear arsenal. I don't want those nutjobs and whichever rapture ready general they hire to have a finger on the button. And while were at it, let's use the National Guard in the US and ONLY and I repeat ONLY for a declared war. It would be wise to have a missile defense system, but only if we have no nukes and have it afloat near countries most likely to use them (i.e. North Korea, Iran, Israel, India and Pakistan) in order to prevent a nuclear conflict entirely. As for paying for this I propose closing permanent US bases overseas and have expeditionary bases (one per command) that are used temporarily and shared by a host country and/or alliance. I have some other ideas, but I'm running out of time right now.