The Way I Figure It
 

I've changed my mind on the draft question. I thought that reinstituting the draft was a non-starter, but I've been listening to Kerry and the bottom line is he will have to have a draft to do Iraq his way. Bush is playing things closer to his vest, pretending we can win Iraq with our present committment. So now I'm thinking that Kerry=LBJ and Bush=nutball. Every election I question whether I should vote at all because it lends credibility to government to have folks show up. The last thing these two guys need is credibility.

On the other hand, Kerry is explicitly saying that he will not reinstitute the draft, and Bush is not.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/relea...0040907-6.html

Yea right when the NG troops all bail out. Then what?

I metioned in TW's thread, the Marine I've been writing to in Fallujah, came home. After a two day convoy to Kuwait and 22 air hours to Camp Pendleton, they were told where to bed down. You've got brand new beds, men!
The trouble is the new beds were still unassembled in boxes. Gives a whole new meaning to "make your bed". :rolleyes:

I doubt the draft is coming back,.......until they need it.

At this point, unless you count forced enlistment extensions, we don't need a draft. That's all he said, and then went into a memorized tangential point.

*shrug* If you want to put it that way, Kerry has failed to address future Bible restrictions in West Virginia. It's just semantics.

Is a draft needed for Iraq? With a loss of "only" 1,000 troops over the course of the war, no. This is no where near as bad a vietnam.

Throw in Iran/Syria/North Korea, however, and it will be a completely different story.

That's 1,000 dead, don't forget the wounded and even more, disgusted. But, we've still got a ton of soldiers in Europe, don't we? :confused:

BTW, housing sucks - ever lived in a barracks? Medical care for dependents has gone down the shithole, the comissary prices on food are now equivalent to what you'd pay at Walmart, and the PX prices stateside are no special bargain, either. Cigarettes were still prety cheap last time I checked, so I guess you can always smoke yourself to death if the enemy doesn't get you first. Base pay for E1's and E2's, regular military on active duty (the guys who get to be cannon fodder) ranges from aprox $14,000 to $16,000/year. As usual, Bush didn't have the faintest idea of what he was talking about in the citation listed above. Will we need a draft if things continue to heat up? You tell me. :eyebrow:

Perhaps. But Kerry hasn't been asked "Will you ban the Bible?" and answered "We don't need to. I've supported churches before."

Come on, it's just semantics, HM. And it's a flat-out loser, because the actual proposal for a draft was presented and supported by the house Democrats. Rangel blew it for the party and I bet he is unrepentant.

Credibility? We don't need no stinking credibitity! We got the authority. We got the police & military. We got God. We got your money.
Screw credibility, we only worry about votes for the other guy, but Diabold is working on that. :o

Political speech is semantics. If a politician doesn't say yes or no to a yes or no question, then you have to parse it to figure out exactly what they said.

Yes, but some yes or no questions are a trap and require further clarification. :)