Pres. Bush wants to increase troops by 92,000 in 5 years. Can this be done without a draft?

Question

The state of the Union mentioned building up our troops here to be ready when we need them. If our Army and Marines are having a hard time now recruiting men and women, how will this be accomplished? Is a draft possible, I believe it is?

My son is serving in the Army as an officer and he just got back from serving in Iraq. I like the military and spent 10 years in the Civil Air Patrol (Air Force Aux).

Answer 1

To be very blunt; yes. The way our elected officials see it, there is no problem that cannot be solved if you throw the right amount of money at it.

The reality though is that military has a history of being highly underpaid. If the military is truly professional, then they should be paid a professional salary. Remember we are paying the members of the House of Representatives and the Senate an exorbitant amount of money to trash talk each other and talk about being bipartisan. Yeah right! If we were serious, why not raise military salaries commiserate to the personal risk involved, raise the re-enlistment bonuses across the board especially for infantry, artillery and armor. We need to retain real warriors and to do so, why not pay them the equivalent of one years college tuition for every year served. If they are killed in action then their widow or widower would get tuition assistance and orphans a tuition free college education.

We could raise the combat bonus (already tax free) and double his salary across the board for serving in combat. Costly yes, but it is high time we paid the people who risk thier lives, a salary comiserate with their risks.

Why not have an incentive for the 30,000,000 illegals here, they can earn citizenship serving this country and learn English at the same time as the Italian, Germans and other nationalities did during the U.S. Civil War and in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Answer 2

I see over and over on this site about the Army and Marines having a hard time meeting recuitment goals. The only division of the military that is having a hard time recuiting is the National Guard. For many years the Guard has been a free ride for military benefits. Insurance and a supplemental income to be a weekend warrior plus a pension if you stayed for more than 15 years. Now since those guys are on the bottom rungs of the pay scale they end up pulling the longest duty.
My son is finishing his active duty in the next 6 months but he will be in very large pool of what they call ready reserves. He has served 3 years active duty (1 year in Iraq) and will have 5 years in ready reserves. He has no benefits, no pay, no weekends to play army, and no pension. But he can be called back up for active duty at any time and for any amount of time till the end of 2011.
When he graduated from boot camp there were almost 200 men and women graduating that day. There are 3 or 4 other bases that are designated as boot camps, and all of them are graduating between 100 - 200 people a month. My son had to wait 3 months from the time he signed up until there was a slot open in boot camp. We have a neighbor who's son went in last summer and had to wait 5 months for boot camp and another 3 months for Ranger training.

I truly grieve for each of the brave men and women that have lost their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the number of casualties from this war doesn't come close to the numbers we lost in Vietnam, Korea, WWII.
WWII 450,000
Korea 55,000
Vietnam 58,000
Military Leaders longer have an endless pool, supplied by the draft, to send the slaughter. Instead we have an all volunteer Military of well trained commited soldiers.

Answer 3

We had in 1991 a military was twice the size of the current military so yes it can be done.
The current military size is the result of massive military cuts in the 90's, at the end of the Cold War under the so called "Peace Dividend", a political play to make the economy look better than it was by redirecting the money that took to maintain the military we had in the 80's and which we used to win the first Gulf War so quickly in to the fake "Peace Dividend". Remember the "Base Closure" meetings in congress, etc. of the 90's? Well, along with those base closures they well ALSO getting rid of LOTS of military units, ships and planes but they did not tell the American public that! They hid it, and then we had a "surplus"..lol!
People are so gullible!
So yes it can be done, if we are willing to spend the money in rebuilding the forces we had back in 91.

Answer 4

I fairly love and appreciate this positioned up. it is because i believe no go with to even grant any "truthiness" right here. It speaks loud and sparkling for itself. Plus i believe that any data i'd produce to counter this argument will meet many brick walls. Many have already provided suitable responses, so i am going to depart it at that. i'm a liberal and that i do no longer hate republicans, nor do I hate Bush. My fiance is a soldier who has been on 2 strive against excursions in this "freedom spreading conflict on terrorism." yet, i imagine it is so unhappy that his presidency has presented this kind of empty rhetoric out into the open guised as "patriotism." P.S. All politicians are liars - it is only said as being a political candidate.

Answer 5

The U.S. was much larger and after the Cold War ended, there was a major reduction. Now with a larger population, I think the U.S. could get a larger force without draft.

Answer 6

this increase is not just initial enlistment. you also increase by having people that are already in, reenlisting. the army recruited over 80,000 people last year. this will be hard to do but it will get done. there will be no draft. we do not want deadbeats in the army or the marines.

Answer 7

tyes, his plan is to increase the benefits and pay. the draft will not be called unless there is a world war or the states are attacked in force. the the nukes come out! this has been discussed and approved .

Answer 8

Why not just admit you don't like the military and you want people to become scared of a draft?

Answer 9

.. that can be done .. but if war breaks out with iran they will need more than that ... so yes... i think a draft is a high probability in that situation.

Answer 10

Nope, no draft. American pride will prevail.