Press Conference Speculation:

[Earth_First]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20040413/pl_afp/us_...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States was to decide whether it would prolong the stay of some US soldiers in Iraq, according to General Richard Cody, the army's operational planning chief.

"I was in the tank yesterday (Monday)," the general told reporters, referring to the conference room where top Pentagon officials meet. "Several options are on the table."

He said the joint chiefs of staff were "looking at other options strategically" and noted that the final decision could go "above and beyond retaining troops."

"Sometime today the decision will be made," he added.

I'm pretty sure this will be the overlying concern addressed tonight in the press conference. I WILL however, be awfully upset if this press conference doesn't devote a majority of the time to the current situation in Iraq.

Hypothetical speculation: "I have prepared, and am prepared to send a draft bill to both houses of the Congress which will request that compulsory military servitude be reinstated in this country in order to deal with a mounting situation in the country of Iraq."

-*

[NewYorkerfromMass]

1. servitude?

I think "service" covers it. )although it really isn't far from slavery.)

[Earth_First]

2. conscription = servitude

in my eyes at least...

Servitude was not meant as a negative portrayal of the volunteer Army, I can see how that may have been misleading...

[Sagan]

3. Maybe.. but it's VERY risky..

They could be thinking of bolstering the Chimp as Warlord by doing something like this, but it's HUGELY risky in an election year. If the Chimp gets elected, I have little doubt we'll see a draft, though.

In any case, a draft at this point is not a panacea. It will take at least 6 months and more like 8-12 to get new conscripts up to a point where you could ship 'em to Iraqinam.

[fob]

4. Risky, but he would get cover by the immediate firestorm over

what Kerry would do. I imagine the whore media will go into full attack mode on Kerry about this, in effect having Kerry take the heat for the draft while bush* floats on by.

[Goldmund]

5. Why wouldn't he do that...

...in an Oval Office address, if that's what he's gonna do?

[Earth_First]

6. I am absolutely baffled...

By what could be of such great importance to advance schedule a prime time press conference from the white house on all network and cable television networks, on a Tuesday night none the les...

[hippiegranny]

13. he's been taking gop-er heat

for being on an extended vay-cay at the ranch movie set, filming an appearance on a fishing show, taking nice long walks and practicing his drive while iraq simmers and boils over. some gop-ers are smart enough to realize that isn't good election year strategy and that it might be a good idea to trot the little punk-ass out in front of some cameras to fake concern. of course, the whole thing will be carefully scripted so as not to throw the little pinhead any loops.

[jobendorfer]

7. and now for something slightly different

I for one am tired of these questions-submitted-in-advance-and
-all-reporters-carefully-screened press performances (I refuse
to call them "conferences".)

The constitution requires the president to advise the congress
about the state of the union on an annual basis. That may have
been fine in 1800, but it's not enough any more.

I'd like to propose a constitutional amendment that requires the
the president to appear in front of congress every 30 days to
answer questions from the house and senate members. This
appearance must be in a public session. The president must
stand alone, and may not bring aides, use teleprompters or
notes, and the president cannot require that any questions be
submitted in advance.

What do y'all think?

j.

[spotbird]

8. That would take courage in an election year.

No need to say more about that.

IMO he is going to explain the need for a secret police.

[hang a left]

9. Secret police?

Could you expand on your statement?

[leftofthedial]

10. "My fellow Murkans"

"I am proud of the brave Murkan servicemen uh

"and women uh

who have made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms.

"Ya see, it's our freedoms that the evil doers hate.

"I also hope that the Murkan people will be so distracted by my press conference that they won't notice that John Ashcroft is a treasonous zealot who hates our freedoms."

[0007]

11. .....and the monkey wrapped his tail around the flag pole, showed

his asshole, while the grass grows. That's what this is gonna be all about tonight, and yes, expect a long one. Tail that is...

junior will sez it's time we drop the strategically strategy, we're gonna do the tactical strategy now my fellow Americans, now your either with us or against us.

If I had known that the terrorist was gonna slam planes into our buildings I would move heaven and earth to stop 'em, Condi will back that one up, right Condi?

[Corgigal]

12. That article is already gone

and I wanted to print this too. Damn, maybe they are going to start the bill rolling tonight. My poor 17 year old boy.

[trof]

14. I don't think so.

Things are going badly enough already with the more-or-less gung ho volunteers.
Also, there are a lot of guard and reserve troops who didn't sign up to go to Iraq.
And probably many regulars who are a whole lot less gung ho now that they see what their CinC has gotten them into.
Now imagine trying to do it with draftees dragged kicking and screaming (figuratively speaking) into something that any reasoning individual would want absolutely NO part of.
If Dumbya institutes the draft, he might as well just go ahead and hand over the keys to the White House to Kerry now.

[central scrutinizer]

15. I don't think so, either

Republicans have always tried to keep voter turnout low since they are better at getting out their base, primarily by using fundamentalist church pulpits. The 18-24 demographic group has the lowest voter participation of any age group. Why would they want to energize these voters? Having your ass on the line is a powerful antidote to apathy.