Bringing Back the Draft

The latest in John Kerry's long line of evil's that will transpire as long as Bush is allowed to remain in the White House is a new draft. Of course, he has absolutely no proof that this will occur, but it makes for a good scare tactic. If he has some proof, he ought to share it. Other wise, I fear James Lileks nails it:

The draft is coming back! The draft is coming back! You know, there’s Zombie Hippie Boomer component of the nation that simple can’t dump the tropes of the 60s, and the only way they can live is to eat the brains – the sweet, sweet braaaains – of the young. The draft is coming back! Tin Soldiers and Nixon coming! Run away! I hear Canada is, well, Canada this time of year. The ZHBs want it to be 1969 in perpetuity, I fear.

His mock debate is hilarious as well.

Senator Kerry, you’ve said that President Bush intends to reinstate the draft. On what evidence do you base this assertion?

“This president has consistently underestimated the nature of the threat, and the nature of the forces we need to deal with, and confront, in this new century, and in doing so has placed us in a position where we find ourselves overextended. And alone. And we’re the target. I have a plan to bring our allies to the table, to forge new alliances as well as strengthen old ones, in such a way that fills out our options and gives us the flexibility to meet the changing needs of today with a military that will not be asked to shoulder the burdens of the world, when the world itself has a stake in these obligations. That’s what I meant when I suggested that there might be a draft in a second term of this president. He has boxed us in to a situation where our only solution to our go-it-alone policy might well be forced conscription of our young people, and I’m against it.”

Thank you. President Bush?

"There won’t be a draft."

(Pause) (Pause.) (Pause) (Bush grin) (Scattered laughter)

"I don’t know what else there is to say. There won’t be a draft. We’re going to move some forces around, uh, change our strategies. My opponent wants more German participation, and that’s fine with me. You know, they have a draft. Nine months, have to serve. I’d rather American men and women choose to join, choose to serve. Peace Corps, National Guard, our Armed Forces, however. But it’s up to them. Choices. We have the greatest armed services on the planet, and see, it’s because they want to serve. Love of country. And that’s a tradition I want to maintain. If my opponent has some inside information about plans to bring back the draft, I’d be happy to take a look, as long as he didn’t get it from some fellow in Texas who says he found the plans in a wastebasket."

Glenn Reynolds has a few other links from folks discussing this. His point is exactly right. The only person I recall talking about a new draft is Charlie Rangel. But perhaps Neal Boortz is most helpful on this, at least to Kerry. He has offered to provide Kerry with the talking points that will take him through November,

- George Bush has a secret plan to destroy Social Security so that he can give more tax cuts to the wealthy.
- George Bush has a secret plan to end Medicare. Let nature take its course.
- Bush wants senior citizens to die. To hurry them along he will cut off their food supply.
- George Bush has a secret plan to accelerate global warming.
- George Bush wants the FCC to limit CBS newscasts to between 2:00 and 3:00 am.
- George Bush wants to open an investigation into Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick. (Come to think of it, that's not such a bad idea. If Bush's National Guard service is fair game, let's seek the Truth about Ted.)
- George Bush wants $2.50 a gallon gas to enrich his Texas oil buddies.
- George Bush wants to keep black citizens away from the polls with the possible exception of Colin Powell, Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas.
- George Bush will start another war. He needs a war for each term. To save on transportation costs the next target will be Canada. He will use sealing our borders as an excuse.

It would not surprise me to hear any of these. Except Neal forgot that Bush also wants to shoot puppies and eat kittens. But then you knew that, right? That is all.

Comments

[Keiper]

There is never going to be another draft unless all hell breaks loose. The military wants a volunteer army, because then the men fighting our wars WANT to fight them.

[Lewis Maskell]

Agreed. If we ever have to resort to something like conscription in this war it'll be because we will be down and trying very hard to not be out.

It's a nonsensical charge. It's not even decent scaremongering. And now that he's attacking Allawi I think Kerry has leaped into some la-la land. Before this week I thought a Kerry Presidency would be, well, bad but part of the swings and roundabouts of democracies. Now for the first time I think the prospect of Kerry as president is starting to scare me.

[Al Hurd]

To be serious, I think we may in fact require a draft at some point, depending on world events. I firmly agree with the theory that an all volunteer armed forces is far better than any other form, and there is no doubt that it forms much of what we consider "the American tradition." But if Iran persists in challanging the West, and North Korea gets even bolder than they already are, we will simply be over extended.

Yes, we could (and should) move our troops out of Europe, but there is simply no way to fight a War with Iran while also having our troops pacifying Iraq and maintaining the peace in Afghanistan.

World War II had a draft, as did Vietnam (which would have worked far better if we had done so much sooner and comitted). But I agree that it would only be under dire circumstances. Unfortunately, I fear that we are closing in on such a situation. I am disheartened not to hear either candidate's position on Iran. And as I have stated before, the likelihood of a revolution within is becoming increasingly less likely.

If that remains to be the case, I see few other alternatives to combating such a regime than beefing up our already considerable armed forces and taking the war to them before they have a chance to do so with us. What bothers me about Kerry's position on this matter (as with so many others) is his eagerness to throw out the charge with absolutely zero proof to back it up. Were he to make an argument with some honesty as to why we do not need one and still remain able to fight our current war, it would be defensible. As it is now, it is simply scare tactics. And I am afraid Lewis is right - a bad tactic at that.

I am still not convinced a Kerry Presidency would doom the U.S. to utter chaos, but I fear that his inability to maintain any theme with coherency over time will only embolden our enemies to strike. Of course, the argument has been made that perhaps they too would be too confused to take action with any sense of certainty - but I digress.

Al Hurd

[Keiper]

We would probably have to pacify Afghanistan and Iraq first before moving into Iran. Afghanistan seems to be settling down to a better condition, I'm not sure on Iraq, depends how the Iraqi government can maintain itself. But both these nations taken care of means we have two bases of operations against Iran - which is precisely why Iran doesn't like us in Afghanistan or Iraq.