Army's top civilian leader: service to pull out all stops to boost force

[lebkuchen]

leaving us with the distinct impression that March recruitment figures aren't looking any better than February's. Plan on the draft.

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=27892

The service missed its recruiting mark by more than 27 percent February. It is the first time in nearly five years the regular Army fell short of its monthly goal.

“We’re going to do some out-of-the-box thinking,” Harvey told Stars and Stripes. “But I’m concerned. I’m kind of cautiously optimistic in the (active-duty) and very concerned about the (National) Guard. But we’re not going to give up.”

<cut>

Under current plans, active-duty units would be deployed one year and stay home for two years before deploying again. National Guard troops would be deployed for a year and then not deploy for five, while Reserve soldiers would deploy for one year and then stay home for at least four years.

<cut>

“We’ve got to emphasize the value of service. I mean, we the leaders, Congress, business people have got to say, ‘Serving the country is a noble thing to do. Preserving the peace and freedom of the country is a noble thing to do.’”


Note to Army Sec. Harvey: Leaders, Congress and business people should do the noble thing and fight the fucking war themselves.

[bleedingheart]

1. Serving your nation is an honorable thing to do BUT

when our nation does dishonorable things like invading a country for no good reason....i can see why no one is jumping to the service.

Hell...why don't some of those 50 million that voted for Bush sign up their kids???

[mhr]

2. But Dying For George W. Bush Is Not A Noble Thing To Do

Bush will piss on your grave while laughing his ass off on the way to the bank.

Besides, don't we have a surplus of young, white, rich republicans just waiting to defend Bush and his policies?

Maybe that is the out of the box thinking we need more of.

[BeHereNow]

3. Young rich republicans feel

entitled to ask others to go and die for them.
The "others" are not so willing to go along
with that plan these days.
This will be the reason the whole house of
cards falls down.
None of the young people are willing to
die for the BFEE at this point.
No army? No war!
YES!
BHN

[lebkuchen]

4. W/parent signatures, June's red state grad should already be on the docket

for bootcamp approx. two months after enlisting. I'll bet those anticipated numbers are already well off the mark.

[leftchick]

17. yes we have a plethora of them! Lets use them.....

[Toby109]

5. I see this is as an unseen, unspoken and unrecognized protest

against U.S. foreign policy. On some level Americans realize that the Iraq invasion was/is wrong and are responding accordingly, if not overtly.

[GetTheRightVote]

7. I agree with you completely

:kick:

[Wright Patman]

6. Preserving the peace and freedom

of the country IS a noble thing, but unfortunately it is the exact opposite of what the storm troopers have been ordered to do over the last several years. And like all storm troopers have throughout history, they are "just following orders."

What they are actually engaged in is spreading war all over the world (beginning with the bogus 9-11 LIHOP/ MIHOP PNAC "Pearl Harbor-like, galvanizing event" pretext) and curtailing freedom at home (PATRIOT Acts I and II).

[Kimber Scott]

8. Yes it is a noble thing to serve one's country.

And it is also noble for the country not to abuse the "servers" by enlisting them in ignoble causes.

[NNN0LHI]

9. Is it noble to guard Halliburtons pipelines too?

:eyes:

[Frances]

10. I think the Bush twins should set the example

and sign up

[leftchick]

16. yep...

[Spazito]

11. Translation: Up the quality of the lies and increase the bribes

*

[LiberallyInclined]

12. the news media is doing it's job- softening the public up for the draft...

I used to be a doubter, but now i'm getting more convinced that a draft will be taking place, probably this year.

thankfully i'm too old, and we don't have any kids.

[lebkuchen]

13. "pulling out all the stops" is certainly "softening up the public"

"Gee, as the army sec. said, we did everything we could to avoid the draft."

[Rose Siding]

14. First they're gonna have to redefine "peace and freedom"

[leftchick]

15. Hey! I have an idea!!

[rocktivity]

18. I couldn't agree more that service has a value

However, what does it have to do with being used as hired muscle by a greedy AWOL psycho commander-in-chief? Especially when you're going to be used as DRAFTED hire musicle soon enough!

:headbang:
rocknation

[bemildred]

19. Try free keggers at red state universities. nt

[BrotherBuzz]

20. Stars and Stripes is telling us something....

Two articles on basically the same subject in two days. First the Army's Vice Chief of Staff, and now the Secretary of the Army. I see a trend and expect more of the same dialogue in coming months. We are taking baby steps towards reinstating the draft - Bank on it.

Army vice chief of staff Cody worried about future of
all-volunteer military

By Jon R. Anderson, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, March 19, 2005

WASHINGTON — The Army’s vice chief of staff says he’s been losing sleep lately over the future of the all-volunteer force.

“What keeps me awake at night is what this all-volunteer force will look like in 2007,” Gen. Richard Cody told lawmakers recently on Capital Hill.

<snip>

“The all-volunteer force is close to breaking right now,” said retired Maj. Gen. Edward Atkeson, now a prolific author on military affairs and a senior fellow at the Institute of Land Warfare. “When it does break, that’s when you’ll see the draft come back.”

Atkeson said cracks are already showing with the use of stop loss to keep troops in beyond their active contracts and massive reserve mobilizations.

“The worst-case scenario is that things just continue as they are.”

http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=26965&archive=true

[lebkuchen]

21. The deer-in-headlights public won't support a draft, as it did the war

which means Bush is going to have to drum up another LIHOP, and soon.

In June, HS grads with stars and stripes in their eyes and no place to go might take the bait if there were another "Pearl Harbor."