When will the draft be reintroduced in the US?

Question

The US army is already at breaking point and recruitment numbers are falling. To support troop increases and possible further war with Iran the draft will have to be introduced. I really hope it is because I hope that some of the keyboard soldiers on Answers get drafted and have to experience first hand what is happening in Iraq. Legislation has already been activated should the draft be required. When will it happen?

Does USAUSAUDA actually realise that the voters won't have a choice in the matter?

Regarding recruitment figures - this is easily done in terms of this 105% and 103%. You simply lower the target figure. These figures are not nearly enough to maintain troop levels in Iraq!

Shawn is playing with figures. The US regular army troop strength is 499,000. There are 700,000 reservists and national guards. In total that makes 1.2 million. The 700,000 reservists/national guards are part time soldiers who are generally inexperienced and to be used as cannon fodder - pretty much like those who would be drafted.

The reason Liberals support a draft is because the war is going to continue anyway. The only way to stop it is to make it unpopular back home and a draft generally does this. When your sons and daughters are taken away by the army to die in a war they don't believe is right then generally the public turns against that war. Vietnam is a case in point here.

Answer 1

A draft right now would be counterproductive.

Case in point...

THose who join the military have planned to join since early on; have done everything to ensure that they can attain high scores on the ASVAB test; once in basic, they work extra hard to achieve a high score on tests and tasks while in basic training; this in turn gives them the oportunity to go higher in their early military careers (get a high PT score to be considereds for Airborne school, then later Ranger School and eventually SF school); once the recruit becomes a soldier, he is trained extensively in whatever field of work he chooses; he strives to be the best in his or her class, mainly because they want to and because they believe in their hearts that they are doing the right thing.

If you force someone to join, the individual will not have the same level of enthusiasm as a person that volunteers; the person that gets drafted would not put 100% effort in whast he does, just "passing the minimum" is enough since, in theory at least, he would rather be drinking and partying with his high school friends or going to bed with his girlfriend and getting lots of sex instead of wanting to become an paratrooper.

Is a simple analogy; people join the military because they want to, not because they have no other choice, like some people would like others to believe.

John Kerry made it plain when he commented that, and I quote.

“You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

End quote.

With those remarks, he accused all military service men, including officers that are graduates of military academies, like US Army Academy at West Point, NY, The US Naval Academy at Annapolis, MD and the US Air Force Academy at Colorado Springs, CO. of not making "the best" of their education; now seeing the error of his way, the very intelligent (and very elitist if you ask me) Senator from Massachusets backtracked his remarks and accused Republicans of taking his "Joke" out of context; all politics aside, I think the senator showed his true colors and not only insulted the military of today, but alos the military HE served when he was serving in the US Navy as a PBR officer (after all, he did serve in Vietnam).

Does that make him an idiot too????

Okay, back to the main topic; it is my personal and professional opinion, that reinstating the Draft will not only be counterproductive, but also harmful to the militayr because it might bring asoldier into the ranks of the military that might not be as motivated to serve than those that are currently joining on their free will.

Answer 2

Actually the active components have met there projected numbers for the year. But I really don't think we will have a Draft. Of course since I spent 10 1/2 years in serving my country and got to travel the world and see other Armies I think we should do something like most other countries do. Make every male serve a certain amount of time in the Military at the age of 18. Thats the way most other countries do it and still the American Citizens think they have it so bad. Next time someone says the USA is bad I would just like them to move to another country, become a citizen and then be forced into the Army because they didn't serve or then they can make your children serve as well when they turn 18.

Someday you guys may open your eyes and see the bigger picture. We needed Iraq. Why For oil. Yes I said it for oil. Because the US right now is sitting on a capped stock pile of Oil. If we use up all the oil all over the world and that includes the Middle East who do you think will have all the Oil? Who do you think will have the Power? and who do you think will have the Money? We will. If we use the oil up everywhere else we can charge whatever we wanted for oil and everyone would need it so they would pay. This plan has been in the works for years even before Bush was President. Only the people who really think ahead to the future see how beneficial it would be for us to use everyone elses Oil and not ours at this point in time.

Answer 3

Good lord why are you bringing this up again?

Let me break this down to you...

For 2006 the Army met and exceeded the recruiting goal with 105% (goal of 64200 and recruited 67410).

The Army Reserve closed out with 103% (18243 from a goal of 17712)

Stop listening to propaganda, seriously. The draft is not an issue.



Edit -

We are not recruiting for Iraq. We are recruiting for the Army. Clinton slashed us so bad that there is no choice now but to keep our numbers modest.

Also, you are basing your entire thought process off of the Army...Are you forgetting about the Marines, Airforce and Navy. Also, you are leaving our Reserve and National Guard. We have plenty to support the war, we just need to actually use them.



kcl_30 - You obviously have no clue as to what you are talking about....

Answer 4

The closest we have come to a draft in the last decade was pure political fraud. 19 Democrats in the House of Representatives cosponsored a bill to reintroduce the draft during the 2004 Presidential campaign. They buried it in committee and then claimed it existed as a means of attacking Republicans. When Republicans forced a vote to shut them up, only 2 of the sponsors had the guts to vote for it.

Answer 5

There is no need for a draft.

120k in Iraq, out of 1.2 million. Not hardly stretched by anyones imagination. Our military is designed in such a way to fully support full on combat operations on 3 fronts simultaneously. Considering that BRAC is still very much alive and well, bases continue to get closed, personnel cut, even my current unit is getting cut in half, the Air Force alone has asked another 20K in officers alone to leave, etc, I'd say we very much have a glut of personnel if anything. The draft serves no purpose for us professionals, we simply don't have time to babysit, let alone reprogram someone's thinking who isn't willing to be there in the first place.

Better question: Why have liberals always supported a draft, if they are adamantly against war in the first place?

Answer 6

If you are worried about lower numbers do you part and go down and sign up.

I know Air America is putting out the numbers are down but the Army is reporting they are meeting their goals.

Draft is just a backdoor method for liberals to cause more problems for the war on terror.

Today's army is different than days of old. Things do change but a draft was try by democrates and was voted down.

What I hear is they are looking at who voted for Kerry and those people will be give 8 years of force service in Iraq at no pay.
And you thought your votes were secret! HA HA

Answer 7

When the US either gets into a war too big for its own boots, when post-defections skeletal regular troops aren't enough (enemies like China, the EU, Indonesia or Iran or the Muslim world),
OR when it needs extra helping hands to cope with the natural disasters it experiences because it never listeneed when others urged it to curb its global-warming accelerating emissions and to pay up on its UN fees and start being nice to other countries again.
I think the latter is more likely.

Answer 8

Always amazes me, people bring up the draft over and over. Blame Bush for it for it feels like a 60's thing to do. But in fact it's been only Democrats in congress that want it back? No one else including the Military has called or supports it. Remember for the keyboard Kerry fans when you rehash the Draft debate to feel good you voted them in.....

Update:
Noticed your response on the reserves, proved you haven't a clue.

Answer 9

In the first place why we need war? Why US waged war in Korea, Vietnam, Kuwait or Iraq? All these wars are nothing but show of power by US. In the process innocent Americans are killed. So many mothers lost their sons and wives became widows. Terrorism is home land security issue which should be fought on home ground not else where. Deploy all those national guard, army men at the airports, railway stations, subway terminals search every single passenger thoroughly before taking any flight or train. Seal the borders thereby block infiltration of terrorists from neighboring countries. Just because of suspicion we can not attack other countries which are thousands of miles away.

Answer 10

Blah blah blah. The draft has been on the table since day one of the war, but it won't be taken seriously. Unless there is a serious threat to America's sovereignty, the draft will not come back. Why? Because unless voters feel threatened, they won't vote for it and will kick out any who do.