DRAFT talk causes shivers; KERRY HAS NO-DRAFT PLAN

[Dems Will Win]

Draft talk creates political shivers
Monday, July 19, 2004
By Sarah Kellogg
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- Michigan's sons and daughters could soon be plucked without warning from their college dorms or their first full-time jobs to serve in Iraq. Or not.

-SNIP-

So far in fiscal 2004, the Army has written 1,656 active Army enlistment contracts in Michigan and another 405 Army Reserve contracts compared with 2,687 active Army contracts and 607 Army Reserve contracts in fiscal 2003. Smith couldn't say why the pace of recruitment has slowed in Michigan so far this year.

-SNIP-

"Our military is stretched to the hilt," said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Democrat from Michigan. "We are putting very unfair burdens on the Guard and Reserves and their families."

"Given the president's approach to foreign policy and the possible desire to look at other military actions, this could be a discussion next year. We should all be very concerned about that," Stabenow added.

-SNIP-

http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1089839400182380.xml

The major media cover hardly anything that John Kerry says, especially if it is about the draft. So you would never know it, but John Kerry has a No-Draft Plan, a plan to strengthen the military in key areas yet draw down U.S. troop levels in Iraq by internationalizing the situation and then getting out as soon as possible.

Here are the five main points of Kerry’s No-Draft Plan:

1. Move some paper-pushers to combat (lots of potential there)

2. Increase enlistment with real scholarships, benefits and pay raises

3. Let troops know Special Ops will hunt al-Queda, no more invasions needed, so re-up rate goes up. "Primarily a law enforcement effort, not a full military effort", said John Kerry on Meet The Press.

4. Start a "Civilian Stability Corps" that would help in reconstructing Afghanistan and Iraq and relieve military pressure. It would be kind of like the Peace Corps—but on steroids.

5. GET FOREIGN TROOPS TO COME INTO INSTEAD OF LEAVE IRAQ.

Kerry gave some details about the proposed Civilian Stability Corps, made up of volunteers:

"...I propose that we enlist thousands of them in a Civilian Stability Corps, a reserve organization of volunteers ready to help win the peace in troubled places. Like military reservists, they will have peacetime jobs; but in times of national need, they will be called into service to restore roads, renovate schools, open hospitals, repair power systems, draft a constitution, or build a police force. A Civilian Stability Corps can bring the best of America to the worst of the world—and reduce pressure on the military."
- Source: Kerry, John. "Protecting Our Military Families in Times of War: A Military Family Bill of Rights." March 17, 2004. http://johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2004_0317.html >

In April, on a conference call with 130 College Newspaper Editors, Kerry said “No Draft”, that he would have a sensible foreign policy that would not require reinstatement. And in June, Kerry told a Wisconsin high school that if elected, a draft would be "absolutely unnecessary".

Kerry’s plan calls for increasing active-duty troop levels by 40,000 people. He also doubles the number of Special Ops troops. Half the 40,000 being added are civil engineering/reconstruction specialists and half are combat, costing an extra $7 billion, but it relieves the pressure on the Guard and Reserves for overseas deployments and essentially saves the Volunteer Army. $7 billion is well worth not having to bring back the draft!

Kerry charges that Bush is ruining the Volunteer approach with long Guard and Reserve deployments and numerous stop-loss orders, which Kerry says is a “Back-door Draft”. Since Kerry will increase pay, benefits, scholarships and reduce long deployments of regular troops and the reserves, if he is elected the re-enlistment rates and recruitment rates will return to normal. Recently, troops returning from Iraq are reportedly leaving the Service in huge numbers, although denied by DoD (see David Hackworth, Voting With their Feet http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38644).

With this No-Draft Plan, Kerry will not have to resort to conscription, even after Bush has made such a mess of it in Iraq. Kerry has also pledged that he will push renewable energy development and true energy independence, “so that we never again have soldiers dying for oil”.

Kerry has criticized the inequality of the draft, that the poor and minorities are inducted in higher numbers than their fair share and that the draft is a source of conflict. John Kerry will not reinstate the draft—outside of the invasion of the United States by China or something like that.

The choice is thus clear to all voters. Vote for Bush and you are also voting for the resumption of the draft—to man his hidden agenda of invading more countries and staying in Iraq forever.

Or vote for Kerry and you are voting PNAC out of the White House, and with it Bush’s hidden agenda to bring back the draft so U.S. companies can dominate the world’s remaining oil supply.

Finally, a draft is morally reprehensible, an infringement of freedom against the principles of the Constitution. We know that Bush cares nothing about morality when it comes to Iraq and that Kerry has over the years always expressed real opposition to the draft for a number of moral and ethical reasons. Having lived through the Vietnam era, Kerry knows well the long history of conflict and opposition that the draft has wrought.

John Kerry will not reinstate the draft, but Bush is secretly gearing up the whole system right now for the summer of next year.

Moral opposition to conscription goes all the way back to the year 1814. In a response to a proposed draft to fight the British, Daniel Webster perhaps said it best:

“Is this, sir, consistent with the character of a free government? Is this civil liberty? Is this the real character of our Constitution? No, sir, indeed it is not.

"The Constitution is libeled, foully libeled. The people of this country have not established for themselves such a fabric of despotism. They have not purchased at a vast expense of their own treasure and their own blood a Magna Carta to be slaves.

"Where is it written in the Constitution, in what article or section is it contained, that you may take children from their parents, and parents from their children, and compel them to fight the battles of any war, in which the folly or the wickedness of government may engage it?"

BUSH ’04 = DRAFT ‘05

kerry '04 = PNAC OUT THE DOOR!!

[SheilaT]

1. Are the recruiters currently

turning away thousands of would-be soldiers every month? They need to be, if simply raising the manpower limits is the simple answer to voluntary enlistments solving the problem.

Unless Kerry plans to pull out of Iraq very quickly, it's hard to see how a draft can be avoided.

And don't you just love the part where other countries should send troops? I guess they'd all be there if the U.S. of A. weren't hogging all the glory and not letting anyone else in.

Oh, wait. Didn't a couple of countries pull OUT their guys recently?
(scratches head.) I guess I'm missing something here.

[Dems Will Win]

2. Just because you can't trust Bush, doesn't mean you can't trust Kerry

What you're missing is Kerry will turn the oil over to Iraq and let Russia and France buy oil. Then he will Special Op the insurgency into a fraction of what it is now, something Bush and Rummy are too dumb to pull off. Falluja and al-Sadr City are now Baathist and al-Sadr staging areas, under Bush's retreat after the 1,000 pound bombs and gunships didn't work.

When Kerry, who even looks French, is President, the foreign troops will come. The British know how to do it is Basra and Kerry and Scy of State Holbrooke will stabilize Iraq.

You must admit that Clinton and Holbrooke have done a better job in Bosnia and Kosovo than Bush and Rummy did in Iraq! (0 dead by Democrats, 1,000 + Coalition dead under Republicans) Admittedly Iraq is bigger and all Moslem, but compare the planning and reconstruction between the 2. The difference is dramatic and the difference in Iraq under Kerry would be quite dramatic!!

[Nimrod]

3. My thoughts

2. Increase enlistment with real scholarships, benefits and pay raises

A big reason why enlistment is down is because it's not terribly advantageous anymore. I know someone who was going to re-enlist but backed out and went to work as a security guard when he found out how lousy his pay and benefits would be in the army.

3. Let troops know Special Ops will hunt al-Queda, no more invasions needed

Whether you agree with what's going on in Iraq or not a LOT of people don't, and just as many people feel it's safe to assume there will be an Iran/Sudan/Korea/Mars invasion in the immediate future. I can't blame people for not wanting to enlist in the army at a time when *numerous* pre-emptive wars loom on the horizon.

5. GET FOREIGN TROOPS TO COME INTO INSTEAD OF LEAVE IRAQ.

Like it or not, anti-American sentiment is booming all over the world and our relations with other countries is at an all-time low. Most foreign nationals think we've gone off the deep end and don't agree with what/how/why we're doing what we're doing. It's our party and they're leaving us to it because the current administration has ruined our reputation in the eyes of most of the civilized world.