WASHINGTON (AP) - Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday.
``I think it makes sense to certainly consider it,'' Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's ``All Things Considered.''
``And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another,'' Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.
President Nixon abolished the draft in 1973. Restoring it, Lute said, would be a ``major policy shift'' and Bush has made it clear that he doesn't think it's necessary.
The repeated deployments affect not only the troops but their families, who can influence whether a service member decides to stay in the military, Lute said.
``There's both a personal dimension of this, where this kind of stress plays out across dinner tables and in living room conversations within these families,'' he said. ``And ultimately, the health of the all-volunteer force is going to rest on those sorts of personal family decisions.''
The military conducted a draft during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. The Selective Service System, re-established in 1980, maintains a registry of 18-year-old men.
Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has called for reinstating the draft as a way to end the Iraq war.
Bush picked Lute in mid-May as a deputy national security adviser with responsibility for ensuring efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan are coordinated with policymakers in Washington. Lute, an active-duty general, was chosen after several retired generals turned down the job.
Okay, I'm going to play devil's advocate here--Let's bring back the draft! I'm 43 years old, so the Bush administration will never draft me in the military. The real reason I'm all for instituting the draft here, is that this draft will turn young people angrily against President Bush and this war in Iraq. You want to get people out protesting in the streets? Have King George The Deciderer draft you and ship you to Iraq. A military draft will bring this Iraq war directly into every American's home, with a young American in prime fighting age. The Vietnam anti-war movement started with high school, and college-age American kids putting their feet down and exclaiming, "No, I will not fight in this unjust war!"
Chuck Rangle is right--the fastest way to end this Iraq war is to institute a draft.
...and it'll be "square dance fever" for friends and family of the young draftees when they hear some of the excuses given by 'the haves' for their sons not being called up.
ReplyDeleteHello Trog69:
ReplyDeleteYou can bet that there is going to be Holy Hellish Anger coming from middle, and lower-class Americans if they discover that the rich elites can defer themselves out of the draft and in going to Iraq. It would probably make the "rich man's war, poor man's fight" argument of Vietnam seem like a tea party. And as for the excuses--Hey, we've got the Fightin' Romneys taking part in the Bloody Battle of Ames, using the Winnebago Division to serve their country by electing Mitt Romney to the Oval Office. That type of patriotic service is far more important than a Humvee cruise through the dusty streets of Baghdad.
I'm sure there are plenty of "haves" who would love nothing more than have their own sons serving in the Winnebago Division.....