The Draft is Coming Soon

Jo Canadian

Council Member
Mar 15, 2005
2,488
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PEI...for now
 

Ocean Breeze

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 5, 2005
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DON'T GO UNLESS BUSH, CHENEY, WOLFOWITZ AND RUMSFELD SEND THEIR KIDS
Sam Hamod



Sept. 29, 2005

If George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz are so positive that people should sacrifice and give their lives to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, then read this.
It is time for Americans and others to realize that no one should go to Iraq or Afghanistan unless Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitze send their children first; if their children go, then you may go if you wish, if they do not send their sons and daughters, then you should not to either. Better to follow the example of Muhammad Ali and other draft resisters of the past and of today by not going; better prison than going off to fight in an immoral massacre that
Bush calls a "war."

Check your conscience; wouldn't you rather be a conscientious objector or go to prison than to be a party to these immoral massacres in Iraq and Afghanistan, especially against people who have never attacked America or killed any Americans except in self-defense. Yes, some say Bin Laden was behind 9/11, but the Afghan people were not behind it; instead, they have been victims of American attacks, just as the Iraqi people were not involved in 9/11 yet have been victimized with bombings, destruction of their churches and mosques, rapes of their women, theft of their belongings and have to deal with the long term effects of disease brought on by polluted water, little electricity and Depleted Uranium (that has a half-life of destruction for over a million years!)

This America that Bush leads is not the America I grew up in, nor is it an America we can be proud of. We must take it back by saying a loud and definitive, "NO, I shall not go," to his illegal and immoral attacks on others. If not, then you are part of the sin that he is perpetrating and you are as guilty as he is, you will be known as part of the problem--not as one who stood for what was right. Also, those of you in the military volunteered to defend our country, not to go attack others because our president lied and wants to conquer others; he has broken your contract with the military. As commander-in-chief, he no longer can hold you to your contract, because he is not longer "defending" America, he is using our amed forces as "conquering forces"--and that is not, nor was it ever, part of your contract with the U.S. Military or the U.S. Government.

By the way, since Senators Kerry and Biden also support the "war" in Iraq; make sure they send their children before you go. Let's see how long they'll support this "war" if their children have to be put in danger of being maimed, poisoned or killed in Iraq.

You think about this, and I hope you make the right decision.
 

gopher

Hall of Fame Member
Jun 26, 2005
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Minnesota: Gopher State
http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,77951,00.html?ESRC=eb.nl


Army's Recruiting Lowest in Years
Associated Press | September 30, 2005
WASHINGTON - The Army is closing the books on one of the leanest recruiting years since it became an all-volunteer service three decades ago, missing its enlistment target by the largest margin since 1979 and raising questions about its plans for growth.

Many in Congress believe the Army needs to get bigger - perhaps by 50,000 soldiers over its current 1 million - in order to meet its many overseas commitments, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Army already is on a path to add 30,000 soldiers, but even that will be hard to achieve if recruiters cannot persuade more to join the service.

Officials insist the slump is not a crisis.

Michael O'Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution think tank, said the recruiting shortfall this year does not matter greatly - for now.

"The bad news is that any shortfall shows how hard it would be to increase the Army's size by 50,000 or more as many of us think appropriate," O'Hanlon said. "We appear to have waited too long to try."

The Army has not published official figures yet, but it apparently finished the 12-month counting period that ends Friday with about 73,000 recruits. Its goal was 80,000. A gap of 7,000 enlistees would be the largest - in absolute number as well as in percentage terms - since 1979, according to Army records.

The Army National Guard and the Army Reserve, which are smaller than the regular Army, had even worse results.

The active-duty Army had not missed its target since 1999, when it was 6,290 recruits short; in 1998 it fell short by 801, and in 1995 it was off by 33. Prior to that the last shortfall was in 1979 when the Army missed by 17,054 during a period when the Army was much bigger and its recruiting goals were double today's.

Army officials knew at the outset that 2005 would be a tough year to snag new recruits. By May it was obvious that after four consecutive months of coming up short there was little chance of meeting the full-year goal.

A summertime surge of signups offered some hope the slump may be ending. An Army spokesman, Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, said that despite the difficulties, recruiters were going full speed as the end of fiscal year 2005, Sept. 30, arrived.

"We have met the active Army's monthly recruiting goals since June, and we expect to meet it for September, which sends us into fiscal year 2006 on a winning streak," Hilferty said. He also noted that the Army has managed to meet its re-enlistment goals, even among units that have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But there are compelling reasons to think that Army recruiters are heading into a second consecutive year of recruiting shortfalls.

The outlook is dimmed by several key factors, including:

- The daily reports of American deaths in Iraq and the uncertain nature of the struggle against the insurgency have put a damper on young people's enthusiasm for joining the military, according to opinion surveys.

- The Army has a smaller-then-usual reservoir of enlistees as it begins the new recruiting year on Saturday. This pool comes from what the Army calls its delayed-entry program in which recruits commit to join the Army on condition that they ship to boot camp some months later.

Normally that pool is large enough at the start of the recruiting year to fill one-quarter of the Army's full-year need. But it has dwindled so low that the Army is starting its new recruiting year with perhaps only 5 percent "in the bank." The official figure on delayed entry recruits has not been released publicly, although Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, has said it is the smallest in history.

The factors working against the Army, Hilferty said, are a strong national economy that offers young people other choices, and "continued negative news from the Middle East." To offset that the Army has vastly increased the number of recruiters on the street, offered bigger signup bonuses and boosted advertising.

Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., said in an interview that the Army would attract more recruits if it could offer shorter enlistments than the current three-year norm.

As it stands, the Army faces a tough challenge for the foreseeable future.

"The future looks even grimmer. Recruiting is going to get harder and harder," Moskos said.
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
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Winnipeg
RE: The Draft is Coming S

They'll try cutting welfare spending first. If that doesn't work, they'll chop post-secondary education and boost the GI bill. Poor people have been a traditional source of cannon fodder. No need to draft them if you can starve them into serving.