April 21, 2004

The draft is purely a political idea...

Cori writes:

...Let me tell you something: the draft is purely a political idea. I've been briefed by plenty of generals on recruitment and retention problems. Now, granted, this was several years ago, before the GWOT, but there were plenty of problems in recruitment and retention at the time, and not once did the draft come up. Why? Because from their perspective it makes absolutely no sense. We field a highly technical force. It takes up to 18 months to train a soldier for the most basic of specialties. So by the time you get a draftee in, and train them to a reasonable level of competence, you might get to use them for 6 months before their term of service would end. It's in no way cost effective. In fact it's so utterly and completely expensive to pay for these people, to train, dress, house, feed them, that it just makes absolutely no sense...
We are killing the jihadis at a ratio of about 50-to-one precisely because we have the most highly trained and motivated and professional military in the world. If we sent draftees to Iraq, our losses would be much much worse. One wonders...

One wonders if there is more to 60's nostalgia than unbelievably unflattering pants for women?....maybe some unconscious nostalgie de bodybag?

Lord knows the jihadis are doing their part. They are concealing themselves among civilians just like the Viet Cong did. Committing atrocities. And, like Vietnam days, the anti-war types do not criticize them at all, but stand ready and eager to excoriate the evil Americans if another My Lai Massacre occurs. Just like then we hear that Americans are "monsters," but the people who are trying (and failing) to turn them into monsters get a pass.

It must be very frustrating for our Ultras...They've been cranking the Iraq-equals-Vietnam engine for two years now, but it just won't start up. No My Lai, no huge marches, no triumphant Democrats selling out hapless people to tyranny after the war has been won. What's the matter? Something's missing...maybe a few hundred-thousand scared trigger-happy draftees?
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* It's easy to become angry about the ceaseless America-bashing we get. But put yourself in the other guy's shoes. Feel a little of the frustration of the gray-haired "activist," trying to regain the golden sonnenreise of his youth, when America was bad and communists were good. He may claim to have "ended" the Vietnam War, but he really can't point to any Vietnamese who are grateful for the re-education camp. He probably feels like life hasn't quite given him what he deserves. And now, a second chance! Another American war to sabotage, another hapless people whose hopes for freedom can be betrayed. An excuse to avoid thinking about what it is he believes, if anything.

But it just isn't quite working...

* Here, via Mindles, is what four Vietnam vets think about draftees. A small sample, but interesting...

Posted by John Weidner at April 21, 2004 12:12 PM
Weblog by John Weidner