A Case For Reinstating The Draft.

With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan we have just seen what a small "high tech" military is able to accomplish on the battlefield, the point was also brought home for the need to have a sizable lower tech military, so to speak, that is capable of carrying out and completing the entire mission without over stressing our forces to the point where they will lose their overall effectiveness and ability to carry on a sustained or multi front conflict. Even though, in the eyes of many the Iraq mess could have been avoided and at the very least fought differently to avoid the losses our forces have incurred a larger military ground force would have lessened future issues that are almost inevitable.

The government and military both admit that our military in it's current form is to small. This is primarily the fault of the government and in particular the administrations starting with Bush I to the present Bush. For the uninformed, Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney were the principle architects of the small Hi Tech Military along with several so called civilian visionaries that was supposed to, in their non military minds, replace the large standing armies of the past, they were only half right. They had convinced themselves that a hi-tech military was all that was needed because of the almost instant havoc the hi-tech military would be capable of launching on it's enemies. Well, they were only partly right again, yes there is instant, well directed havoc but they underestimated or completely overlooked the fact that unless you totally vanquish your enemy they will come back you in another form, specifically as an insurgent force. Had they talked to General Petraeus when they were conceiving their hi-tech military he would have informed these geniuses' about insurgent movements as he is the most current on the subject in the U.S. military. They also, could have looked in any history book from WWII through Vietnam and they would have been able to peruse mountains of material on the subject, I guess they were just to smart for that.

There are several other reasons why we are in need of a draft and they are Russia and our "friends" the Chinese. The Russians have shown that their new oil wealth as well as the fact that the old guard has finally taken control back of the entire country, that they are ready to become an imperial power all over again. And please don't even attempt to refute that one as even the most dimwitted liberal thinking pundit agrees they are all of the above. The next in line are the Chinese, they have a ten million man military, their Navy will eclipse ours in the very near future, they have a space "program" which is more than likely a cover for the development of long range very accurate missile systems, ultimately on launch platforms in outer space. Once again, this is a hard one to write off to national defense or internal security, who wants to attack China anyway, they have nothing to offer any of the powers powerful enough to fight them.

Most of the civilized nations around the globe have a draft of some sort, it makes good sense for several reasons. First it ensures a ready, trained, albeit a very basically trained but trained anyway, army. In the event of large scale national disaster this group is available to be called upon, I realize we have a national guard, but they have barely been able to cover in the past. We may also, need this "draft element" if we have any terrorist activity in the future to help secure the borders, which should have been done when the last attack (it was not an event, an event is something that takes place at a race track or a department store, or a strip club) took place. The biggest problem with reinstating the draft is our gutless, nutless politicians. This subject is like the old game where the person who blinks first loses, they are dead wrong. In fact by not having a draft that covers all Americans we continue to put ourselves a grave risk. One of the principle advantages of a draft, where all are eligible with no deferments is that our politicians would think twice before deploying American troops and would be forced to negotiate in advance to avoid conflicts where Americans would be in harms way, especially when one or more of their sons or daughters could be involved.

As a former Army kind of officer, I was a Warrant Officer, and a front line combat helicopter pilot I will state unequivocally that I do not like war, would do just about anything to avoid it, however, if pushed to the point where there is no alternative I believe in total annihilation of ones enemy, that means taking no prisoners. For those of you who missed annihilation in the spelling bee it means "The condition of having been annihilated, utter destruction". This is also, one of the key areas that was missed when the dynamic duo, Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Cheney and the rest of their civilian "military" brain trust were working out the details of how war in the 21st century should be fought. Wars are won by vanquishing one's enemies, not letting them go after they have promised not to seek retribution when you can see they have their fingers crossed, the world is not that civilized yet and from what I have seen in the last few years we have a very, very long way to go, my best guess is after the next one or two evolutionary changes mankind takes over the next several thousand years or so.

I know the draft is never a good subject, I have a 21 year old son and a 23 year old daughter, but, it's going to have to happen and sooner than later. Have you ever wondered why Israel hasn't been attacked, they have a draft and in an emergency have a trained military/security force that would be difficult at best to overwhelm. The benefit to us will be an overall deterrent to those who would like to engage us at every turn as they will know we are prepared for once. So call me what you like, but I believe our security as a nation is of the utmost importance and a draft is one of the main components.