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September 22, 2004
Jo_Ke goes Gore
What can I say? The man is slipping into desperation and swinging at the Bush Campaign with stuff that no longer makes any sense. The unraveling he is doing in public is gawk-worthy if it weren't so worrisome that this man is seriously wanting to be President. It's as if Kerry is morphing into the incoherent, unhinged Al Gore six weeks out from the election. Not learning from The Killian Memo Affair and that people are taking a dim view of Rather's trying to peddle forged documents in Kerry's service, Kerry drops this stink bomb
Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, citing the war in Iraq and other trouble spots in the world, raised the possibility Wednesday that a military draft could be reinstated if voters re-elect President Bush.Kerry said he would not bring back the draft and questioned how fairly it was administered in the past.
See UPDATE end of this post
Isn't that fun? Kerry claims he has all the goods on the "secret plans" of the GW administration and waves the boogeyman of a resurrected draft knowing full well that Republicans all oppose it. Then there's this bon mot about a fearmongering email making the rounds of college students:
Mandatory draft for boys and girls (ages18-26) starting June 15, 2005There is pending legislation in the House and Senate, S89 and HR 163,to reinstate mandatory draft for boys and girls (ages18-26) starting June 15, 2005. This plan includes women in the draft, eliminates higher education as a shelter, and makes it difficult to cross into Canada.
The Bush administration is quietly trying to get these bills passed now, while the public's attention is on the elections. The Bush administration plans to begin mandatory draft in the spring of 2005, just after the 2004 presidential election.
· The Congress has added $28 million to the 2004 selective service system budget to prepare for this military draft that could start as early as June 15, 2005.
· Bush has ordered the Selective Service to report to him by March 31, 2005 on their readiness to implement the draft by June 2005
· The pentagon has quietly begun a public campaign to fill all 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots nationwide.
Please act on this:
· Tell everyone you know - parents, aunts and uncles, grandparents,
godparents, friends, teachers· Call and write to your U.S. Senator and your U.S. Representatives and ask them why they aren't telling their constituents about these bills
Collusion with Camp Kerry? Well, who would have ever thought that CBS would run with forged documents while coordinating with Camp Kerry and risk turning the "Tiffany" network into so much junk jewelry?
Indeed, the few rumblings about instituting a draft have come from cynical Congressional Democrats specifically to try and scare the bejeebus out of young adults and their parents. Check out HR 163 and see just who is sponsoring this attempt at punishing Americans dissenting from Liberal wisdom.
Then add to this perfidy by Kerry his claim that GW is going to gut Social Security and Edwards is claiming that the Bush administration will eliminate the mortgage tax credit (when homeownership is now at record highs).
This is downright spooky.
UPDATE If you haven't seen it yet, James Lileks perfectly captures the gut groans most of us felt at Kerry's "the draft is coming back!" pronouncement.
The draft is coming back! The draft is coming back! You know, there’s Zombie Hippie Boomer component of the nation that simple can’t dump the tropes of the 60s, and the only way they can live is to eat the brains – the sweet, sweet braaaains – of the young. The draft is coming back! Tin Soldiers and Nixon coming! Run away! I hear Canada is, well, Canada this time of year.The ZHBs want it to be 1969 in perpetuity, I fear. Well: I was 20 in 1978, and I was sick of the 60s. And they’d just ended a few years before. (The sixties hung over into the early seventies, until about ’72; the true sucktacity of that decade didn’t manifest itself until ’73, and died in 1981 about the moment the American hostages left Iranian airspace. It was a short decade, but it had the dead horrid gravity of a black hole.) 1969 was 35 years ago. To prop that dead rotten hulk up and wire its jaw so it appears to speak – well, it’s like telling me, in 1978, that I ought to base my worldview on the ideas of 1943. No: the ideas held by the anti-establishment types in 1943, which would be old bitter Wobblies still pissed that WW2 wasn’t about destroying industrial capitalism.
Read the whole thing. James has, too, captured how Kerry and Bush would answer this question in a debate.
As Burns would say: "Egggshalent."
Posted by Darleen at September 22, 2004 09:37 PM
Comments
Darleen, read this op-ed piece from a few months back by a former Nixon speechwriter:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19322-2004Jun30.html
I would not be at all surprised if the draft comes back next year. There is no other realistic way to keep troop levels at 130,000 and as long as Iraq is a chaotic mess, then that's going to be on the table. It's not on the table now for one reaons only: November 2.
Posted by: Brad at September 23, 2004 09:17 AM
Brad
It is not going to happen. No Republican is going to even let such a bill come out of committee, let alone get to the floor.
Recruitment quotas are still being met, even exceeded. This is not the 1970's, we've had a long time of building a fully functional volunteer professional military.
This "draft" rumor is of the "Republicans want to kill the elderly" perfidy.
Posted by: Darleen at September 23, 2004 06:23 PM
Kerry saying that he doesn't know whether Bush would instate a draft is not saying that he would. He can't speak for what Bush might do, so he didn't.
Considering that enlistment is down (see recent news about Guard enlistment being about 10% below needs), since people don't trust the military after the "back door draft" and neglect of troops equipment needs, the draft may be necessary.
When you have the military calling up Guard members who have been out for 8 years, and 58 year old men being sent to Iraq, and when kids learn about how troops didn't have the necessary body armor, even food and water, you have a problem.
The military has long been a good career option, but we know now that we can't trust them to treat soldiers honorably. It's a shame.
Posted by: Binacontenda at September 23, 2004 09:50 PM
Oh, Darleen - does the Nigerian uranium forged document bother you as much as the CBS docs? I'm interested in your standards concerning use of forgeries.
Posted by: Binacontenda at September 23, 2004 09:52 PM
Certainly, the french-sponsored forged document DOES bother me.
Though, you did know it wasn't used by GW, didn't you.
Posted by: Darleen at September 25, 2004 09:36 AM
I'd like to say something--
There is no back door draft. The IRR is there for a reason--to provide extra troops when needed. Now that extra troops are needed, people want to gripe about it? The people in the IRR have either a statutory or contractual obligation left on their service contract, and it is stated on the enlistment contract that they can be recalled if necessary. Everyone knows this, but now it's a surprise??? The IRR does not include people who have been disharged. There is a BIG difference between being discharged and being released from active duty. If you are discharged, you no longer have a statutory or contractual obligation. The military can't touch you! Everyone in the IRR still has an obligation to fulfill. They have been released from active duty, BUT they haven't been discharged yet. And everyone knows there is a possibility of recall, for whatever reason. That's a chance they take by going into the IRR. So don't go saying people who have been discharged are being called back in, because that isn't true at all. To call the recall of soldiers in the IRR a "back door draft" is just plain wrong, because that isn't what it is. The IRR was created just for this purpose-- to provide extra soldiers when needed. As for as a 58 year old being called to active duty-- a person can serve until age 60, and beyond, in some special cases. More than likely that person is an officer who never resigned his commission and is still on the rolls. Word to the wise to all commissioned officers.... if you still have a commission, you can still be recalled.
Posted by: SFC Thomas at September 25, 2004 05:25 PM
The Niger document was certainly used as the justification for Bush's SOTU speech and the 16 words, and unless it was just incompetent the administration should have known it was fake, with the wrong signature and misspelled French words. We don't know it came from the French, it's just that much of Africa speaks French. We don't know much because the media has not scrutinized it or asked questions.
It's called a back door draft because most recruits aren't aware of the "fine print," and the military doesn't take any effort to make them aware of it.
The point of the 58 year old guy is that the USA shouldn't have to resort to that. It looks desperate. Which, thanks to Bush, we now are.
Posted by: Binacontenda at September 25, 2004 06:45 PM
Check your news, Darleen - Guard recruitment is below target by about 10%.
S89 and HR 163 show that Kerry was correct.
Posted by: Binacontenda at September 25, 2004 06:47 PM
SFC Thomas
Thank you for your post. You're correct and Scott has fallen for the anti-military line that many in the Dem party are spinning out for people unfamiliar with exactly how the military works.
As I recall, after returning from Japan where he was with the occupation army post-WWII, my father was in the reserves. That's why he was reactivated in 1951 to go to Korea. That was just the way the Army worked and all members knew it.
Also, the military still provides a good career and good benefits. My youngest daughter is considering the Air Force along with all her other options for college.
Posted by: Darleen at September 25, 2004 08:40 PM
Scott
Don't try the HR 163 sophistry... it is a despicably cynical move by the most moonbatty of Congressional DEMOCRATS, penned by Charlie Rangel and has Baghdad Jim McDermott on board.
It has never even made it out of committee.
Despicable.
Posted by: Darleen at September 25, 2004 08:55 PM
The military always inflates "quotas" at the beginning of the year, and in September the numbers are adjusted. That way, most of the recruiting goals are met. And this goes for most things dealing in the govt...(I thought everyone knew that...)
When I joined the Army 12 years ago, my recruiter and the MEPS guidance counselor read over my ENTIRE enlistment contract with me. When I became a recruiter, I did the same thing with all my recruits. There are no surprises, and the "fine print" is exactly the same font as the rest of the contract! Also, on the DA form 3540, all servicemembers must read it and intitial every year... it states your obligation and how you must fulfill it. There are no surprises, just some soldiers who thought they could join the military and NOT expect to fight. They want benefits without sacrifice. That is a shame.
Now I'm a retention NCO, and this month I just completed a contract on a Soldier with almost 30 years of service. He is 57 1/2 years old. He had tears in his eyes when I told him he couldn't reenlist because he had less than 3 years before age 60. However, I could extend his current contract until the end of the month in which he turns 60. He begged me to find a way to let him stay in longer, but there isn't a loophole. This PATRIOT wanted to stay in so he could have enough time to volunteer for his 2nd tour in Iraq. I extended his contract and he has volunteered. SFC Asher has my utmost respect for his patriotism and dedication to serve.
One thing I've noticed-- most people who talk bad about the military have either never been in, or had a bad experience in the military, 90% of which they brought on themselves through their own actions or misdeeds.
Thanks for listening!
Posted by: SFC Thomas at September 26, 2004 09:21 PM