TheAgitator.com
Draft Watch
Friday, July 2nd, 2004Here comes momentum.
Two op-eds yesterday calling for a retrun to conscription, one in the Washington Post, one in USA Today.
Just in time for Independence Day, two national newspapers publish calls for a return to slavery.
Depressing.
Depressing indeed. It always seems to be the ones who are too old to be drafted who think compulsory military service would be good for the country.
I’m retired Army, and waiting to see if a mailgram appears in my box calling me back up to serve. If it arrives, I’ll go. I volunteered 23 years ago, and stayed until retirement knowing full well that I could be subject to recall for 10 years after I retired.
At the same time, as the father of two teen-age boys, I would resist their being forced to serve by any means necessary. At 14 and 16, they had no say in electing our current administration, and should not be forced to fight for something they had no voice in or control over, while those who did continue to enjoy their freedom in the safety of their own homes.
So what if other countries conscript? Other countries also have slavery, caste systems, and arranged marriages.
If those whom we elected to manage this country’s affairs did it correctly, there would be no need to even discuss a draft. A healthy defense budget managed properly would have the necessary manpower to accomplish the mission. So now we have a manpower shortage. What do we do when the police department in someplace like Detroit has a manpower shortage? Do we go to the nearest college and grab a set number of able-bodied men and women and say “You’re going to be a police officer for 3 years.” Do we force high school seniors to go to college and major in engineering when we have a shortage of engineers?
The only way to solve this problem is to do what any other sector of the economy does - make it more attractive with pay, benefits, and working conditions. If after that, we still don’t have enough troops, then maybe we need to re-think our priorities before we send troops abroad.
Slotman
SFC, U.S. Army(Retired)
Well Tom, Tom Scribner was a red. He never got a pension, he never got Social
Security. He lived in the flophouse hotel, the St. George, and he played the
musical saw on the streets in the gin mills and in the pizza parlors, you see.
And he became a great teacher to many of us. I can call Tom Scribner up any
time of the night or the day, and they’d only one pay phone on his floor;
somebody would have to go down and pound on his door. He was in there, in the
dark, lying on the bed - he didn’t use a mattress, he was just on the springs -
chain-smoking Camels, and he had emphysema in both lungs, which was a bizarre
kind of courage.
Well they’d roust him out; he would hobble down the hall, pick up the receiver
of the phone, swear at whoever was on the other end for being exhumed from his
room, and I’d finally say, “Tom, Tom!” - this was on my nickel - “Tom, slow
down a minute! It’s Utah, I got a question for ya.”
He spoke that workers’ shorthand, that sort of slices the fat off of any kind
of argument. One time I said over the phone, “Tom, I’m in a debate over here
at the Unitarian Church on bringing back the military draft; they’re going to
try to bring back the military draft so I’m debating it. Now, you tell me what
you think.”
Well, there was a long pause. Then the voice come back at me over the wires.
“Nnuh. When I started in the forest, most of my workmates was Scandahoovians:
Norwegians, Danes, Fins, Swedes. Most of ‘em left the old country fleeing
conscription to fight another dumb European war. Yeah, the wealth of the West
was built on the backs of draft dodgers. It’s an American institution -
deserves to be honored.”
And I don’t have to think about that anymore; it’s all been thought about!
How about, in order to vote for or support a vote for the draft, you must first sign your child[ren] up to go fight in a war.
Here in Charlottesville, VA, our local Jefferson Area Libertarians ran a fullpage ad in the local paper with a picture of the Declaration, and a caption that reads, “remember the reason for the season”. Shouldn’t we all.
I really like how the USA Today commentator tries to come off as Patriotic and un-biased. However, these two paragraphs give away his liberal allegiance.
“That’s why the most important thing we’ve learned from the Iraq venture is the need to introduce more Americans to the sacrifices of war, starting with a program of compulsory national service.”
“In both cases, consider the motives: The liberals are betting that a reinstated draft would institutionalize anti-war sentiment and foment class warfare; conservatives are stinting on personnel costs to protect gold-plated weapons systems being built by their defense-industry campaign contributors”.
Which motives do you think are the most noble?
now that’s one way of tackling obesity..
Its getting drafty in here
Speaking of perverting the Fourth, The Balko points to two recent Op-Eds lauding the draft and pining for its return: “Why we need the draft back” - Washington Post “Bring back the (don’t say Draft)” - USA Today Just doin&…
I think the success of our all-volunteer armed services since the end of the draft in the early 70’s is plenty of evidence that a draft is unnecessary.
“You can’t make me
Kill another man
You can’t make me
Drop bombs on his land
You can’t make me
Part of all your killin’
Cuz my free will just ain’t willin’”
-Mojo Nixon
My Free Will Just Ain’t Willin’
Whereabouts Unknown
Question: The Democratic/Liberal agenda, at least sterotypically, seems to be on the side of reductions in military spending. Reduce, reduce, reduce.
Yet they want an all volunteer army with no opportunity, no matter how dire the circumstances, to institute a draft.
Now, it is a given fact that a strong and ready military is vital to protecting the freedoms we love. If we want it to be all volunteer, shouldn’t we make sure that the pay, benefits and public support is always strong enough to attract the people we need?
It doesn’t pay enough. We don’t give them enough public support. We split hairs on whether or not they are officially “in combat” so we can short them death benefits if they are killed. And these ARE the volunteers.
I wouldn’t volunteer to lay down my life for many of the ungrateful bastards in this country. I would volunteer to protect my family’s freedoms though.
I do not often agree with Rush Limbaugh, but a friend pointed out an interesting statement Limbaugh made.
He pointed out that the family’s of the victims of 9/11 are recieving anywhere from 250,000 to 4.7 million dollars in restitution for the loss of their loved one. Families of victims from the Oklahoma bombing are now suing for the SAME DEAL!
Yet, the families of a volunteer soldier killed in combat get $6,000.
That, my friends is a fucking joke.
It goes without saying that the 9/11 attacks were an atrocity of monumental porportions. But ultimately, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They did NOT voluntarily put themselves in harm’s way for the rest of us. Such payoffs are rediculous when our soldiers aren’t worth a fraction of that amount.
And the Oklahoma City families that think they deserve in on the same deal are frankly disgusting to me. No disrespect for their loss, but to jump up after 9/11 and try to use that to get a check is the equivalent of selling their loved one’s remains to cash in.
The 9/11 families are flat out getting too much, but I guess much of it came from public donations in our shock and collective mourning which is admirable.
Strange though that there are no such sums being donated by the public for the families of our dead soldiers.
You want an all volunteer military? Then everone needs to put their money where their mouths are.
“the family’s of the victims of 9/11 are recieving anywhere from 250,000 to 4.7 million dollars in restitution”
Where is the money coming from?
“Families of victims from the Oklahoma bombing are now suing”
Suing whom?
interesting Radley–who equate slavery to the draft, but bash Bush for joining the National Guard to, according to you evade the draft (even though Air National Guardsmen were routinely being activated as we were loosing pilots at a terrible rate over NV. Should someone freely go into slavery?
John:
A federal fund was created after 9/11 by the Justice Department to provide relief for the families of those who died. The deal was that they would get anywhere from several hundred to a few million under the provision that they couldn’t sue the airlines.
According to USA Today*:
“With the Dec. 22 [2003] deadline to apply for government payments nearing, the relatives of 1,995 deceased victims have submitted claims. The families are lining up for settlement checks that are averaging nearly $1.5 million, and are agreeing not to sue airlines, airports, security companies or other U.S. entities that might be faulted in the fatal hijackings.”
The only recent news story I could find in relation to the Oklahoma bombings and 9/11 was this (from NewsMax**):
“A federal judge has dismissed a civil dispute between the two men who tried to recruit Oklahoma City bombing victims for a class-action lawsuit and then lobby for federal terrorism money.
[...]
“Polk sued Helenthal in July 2002, months after they abandoned efforts to make money off Oklahoma City bombing victims.
“The two first wanted to recruit victims and survivors for a class-action lawsuit. They backed off that plan after legislation was introduced in Congress seeking to give Oklahoma City victims access to the fund established for 9/11 victims.
[...]
“The men may have actually hurt the chances for Oklahoma City victims and survivors to get a settlement from the 9/11 fund.
“Legislation to make the fund available to Oklahoma City survivors and those from other terrorist acts got bogged down in the Senate in 2002 over attorneys fees.
“Sen. Don Nickles, R-Ponca City, wanted Oklahoma City victims included but wanted to limit what attorneys could make from representing an eligible applicant. Democrats objected to putting limits on attorney fees.”
So, from what I can tell, there was legislation introduced to give them access (but was never passed), mostly due to the efforts of two greedy attorneys that were exploiting the Oklahoma bombing victims for the possible money that could result from opening the fund to them.
*http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2003-07-13-911-families-cover-usat_x.htm
**http://www.newsok.com/cgi-bin/show_article?ID=1273769