I warn the young guys at work about it. That is , when I'm not referring to them as chicken hawks. A couple of them voted for Bush I guess they are following his example.

My nephews are 14 and 12. I'm working on teaching them to seek the truth. I'll support them, whatever choice they make. But... I do feel a draft, from somewhere...

As has been noted in the blogosphere this a.m., May's recruitment numbers for the Army and Marines are apparently so bad that Donald "Failure Is Its Own Reward" Rumsfeld's Pentagon is putting off announcing them until, oh, next Friday.

The choice becomes increasingly stark -- either we get out of Iraq. Now. Or we reinstitute the draft (never happen) or the Army and Marines will be broken.

Definitely a draft, it's only a question of when.

Even if (big if) ShrubCo immediately pulls all the troops out of Iraq, they won't be in any shape to take on Iran or Syria as the next target just before the '06 election.
That seems to be the rule: One war per election (Afganistan '02, Iraq '04...)

NK probably gets a nuclear first strike before '08 to "bring on the rapture".

Every time I see Bush mouth the words "no draft on my watch" I hear his dad saying "read my lips". These people have lied every time they open their mouths. Why should we believe them now. The only way this crew can continue their imperialistic ambitions is to re-instate the draft.

I'm glad they can't get me again. I did my time. Now it is time for these sabre rattling, bible thumping your republicans to step up and follow their god appointed leader to battle. After all, they knew what they were voting for didn't they?

Being one of those old Vietnam vets,I detest the thought of the draft starting up again, but can easily see it happening. You have to admit the current administration is nothing short of masterful when it comes to "spin" and peddling apocalypse scenarios. So it's not hard to imagine a Rove-ian sales job to justify conscription. Then we can get back into the stale old arguments about the rich boys getting into the Guard (though that's hardly safe anymore) and racial makeup of those who are drafted. But we'll need the draft as my guess is that we'll have three or four brigade combat teams and an air expeditionary wing in Iraq for 25-50 years.

One down, two to go, I can hear the Bush warplanners saying.

Remember, there are two members of the Axis of Evil that Rummy, Bushie and Cheney are still looking at for regime change. (especially since Iraq has been such a roaring success...at least in their feeble minds).

1) North Korea: (things I've read recently)
B-2 Stealth bombers moved to U.S. bases closer to NK. (w/i past several months).
Stealth fighter squadrons deployed to South Korean bases. (w/i last two weeks).
Nutty NK dictator orders 2 to 3 million NK's out of the cities into the farmlands to help with rice harvest. (w/i past several days). Possible NK reaction to the stealth fighters being deployed?

(War looming??? U.S. positioning of stealth weapons. Urbanites in NK being dispersed out into the countryside.. Sounds like some air-strikes against suspected NK nuclear facilities are coming soon---hello, Korean War Two.)...and hello, draft.

Iran: (also read recently)
Ex-U.N. WMD inspector, ex-U.S. Marine Scott Ritter reported several months ago that Bush has already signed off on strategic air-strikes against suspected Iranian nuclear sites...probably in June, this month.
A couple of U.S. Navy carrier groups were being redeployed from Asia to the Middle East. (a couple of months ago).

(Note: The carrier groups are needed to both launch sea-based airstrikes---in conjunction with land-based airstrikes---but also the carrier groups would be in position to try to secure the sea-lanes for oil tankers in the Persian Gulf and through the Strait of Hormuz).

My conjecture: By the end of this month, or sometime next month Bush Inc. will initiate some more pre-emptive wars. And NK, after being attacked, will attack South Korea with their (+)million-man military, along with some possible nukes. And Iran, after being attacked, will set loose the Hezbollah agents they already have in Iraq next door and will probably send more Iranians to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Unless the U.S. also sends ground forces into Iran after the air-strikes. Then, the hardcore Iranian ayatollahs, who sent teenagers tied together out into minefields to clear them during the Iran/Iraq 1980s war, will wait until the U.S. forces arrive to begin their own suicide bombing attacks like those happening next door in Iraq. And, of course, we'll need a draft to fight these additional Bush Wars.

My friends, millions of people are about to die, I believe, as Bush Inc. tries (in their own strange way) to make the U.S. and the world more secure (for their corporate sponsors, that is). And I really doubt if Bush Inc. will go to the U.N. or the U.S. Congress for either, respectively, international or national authorization to start bombing campaigns against the last two members of Bush's Axis of Evil. They'll just launch preemptive airstrikes against both Iran and North Korea, and to hell with planning for any aftermath. Which means both irresponsible actions will lead to an Iraqi-like mess in several more countries...costing U.S. taxpayers hundreds of billions of more dollars...and leading to even more GITMOs, Abu Ghraibs and Bagrams...and leading to the draft being reinstated.

I hope I'm wrong and the Bush people aren't this insane. Or are they?

My son just graduated. He joined the Navy back in, oh, February I guess. He goes in the middle of September. I had looked for colleges for him since he was a Sophmore (my main requirements being outside of Oklahoma - my state, and outside of Texas - the ex's). But I could never light a fire under him. It finally got to be his Senior year and he was still doing nothing (besides ACT and SAT II tests), so I told him he was not going to be a loser and had to do something.

I can't say I'm not concerned, but I'm happy it's the Navy.

I do have an OT question:

They've promised him the nuclear program (yes, I know it's hard and yes, he is that smart). The recuiter saying he's going into the Nuclear program and Jimmy's actually going into the Nuclear program seem to me two different things.

It's not just talk, right?

Your son will be fine in the NAVY if he is that smart. His entrance exam will place him where he belongs. There are many different communities in the USN and if he ever decides to get out he will have one hell of a resume. Jay USN 88'-92'

To Ms. Not Together,

Madame, your son should have had his nuclear program put in writing as part of his enlistment contract. If they promised him that it would "just happen" after boot camp without it being in writing, he probably will not get that training. The optimist in me says that if he has good ASVAB scores (military entrance test) and they promised him the nuclear program, he probaby did get it in writing. Again, this is optimistic conjecture. And yes, going into the Navy is sooooo much better in terms of the probability of him being a shrapnel pin cushion in Iraq. Still, naval service has its hazards, but on balance, he did well to go Navy. Take care!

I have been thinking up until recently that you are probably right. However, news of the past week leads me to change my mind.

In no particular order, the news this past week revealed that:

casualties, dead and wounded, among the Reserves and National Guard are at their highest since January, and statistically "out of balance" (i.e., more than 40% of total casualties) than their representation in the forces in Iraq. I am sure we all read the heart-wrenching story of the destruction of the Marine squad in the reserve unit from Ohio during the fighting at Hillah at the beginning of the month.

Pentagon has refused to post the recruiting numbers in May for Army and Marines until June 10, rather than the usual 1st of the month. Army and Marines have failed to meet recruiting goals in any month since January so far. My guess is May totals are worse than April, which were worse than March, which were worse than February, yaddayaddayadda.

NT Times reports that percentage of American families supportive of a child going off to the military has dropped from 42% in August 2003 to 25% in May 2005. Recruiters say that their biggest roadblock now is opposition of parents. Parents are increasingly opposed to letting the ghouls into high schools to run "shock and awe" with cool computer games and neat vehicles. A friend of mine, a vet, confronted with a recruiter at his front door interested in his son, told the guy he had ten seconds to be off his property or he'd call the cops and charge the guy with trespassing. Recruiter split.

Recent polls show 58% of Americans now think Georgie-Porgie-pudd'n-'n-pie's war "isn't worth it." 52% belive he lied us into the war, and that's with the media going out of their way to avoid reporting on the Downing Street Memo.

It's too late for BushCo to institute a draft. We're 45 "working" days from the end of the 2005 Congressional session, and anything that is brought up is going to be taken up in January 2006. Even the morons dumb enough to be Republican Congresscritters know that November 2006 is an election. The political opposition to having your kid shanghaied to possibly die in a war you don't believe in is high and growing higher. This translates into votes against a President who's not on the ticket, which means the idiot with (R) behind his name is a "target of opportunity."

I think the strategy to follow now is for all of us to use our moral authority as vets to counsel young kids not to join up - deny the Chickenhawk-in-Chief his cannon-fodder.

The military is already falling apart. OpFor was disbanded in the Army last year to provide operational troops, which means no more of the good training that made them second to none. Air Combat Command announced on Friday that they are cutting 60% of training hours to cover combat hours in Afghanistan and Iraq, which means the AF is now broken. Our military cannot deal with Iraq successfully, and is now incapable of dealing with a major crisis anywhere else. B'rer Fox (Bush) and B'rer Bear (Cheney) are well and truly captured by the Tar Baby.

With luck - and continuing declining enlistments - we come out of November 2006 with Democratic control of the House and a Judiciary Committee that can vote a bill of impeachment based on the evidence of the Downing Street Memo and everything else, about how they "stovepiped" us into the most disgraceful war in our history.

My family was in the Revolution/Civil War (Union)/WW1/WW2/Korea/Vietnam. It does not make me happy to have to argue this kind of strategy, but it's the only way we can get out and make the criminals pay.

My understanding is his test scores were off the scale (my son and my husband know for sure - I was at work). And I think my son did sign something, but getting my son to talk to me is like pulling teeth.

I think TCinLA is right about a draft not coming up in the near future. It makes sense that those up for reelection won't do anything to jeopardize their chances.

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3. Webb wins
   
4. Huh?
   
5. Bunnypants in Bagdad
   
6. Outage
   
7. Filthy Lucre Watch
   
8. Playing the numbers
   
9. My letter to Countdown
   
10. Jefferson's Nigerian Scams