[Vision2020] You Have Been Drafted

[Joan Opyr]

Pat writes:

>Does it bother you that the only people talking like this are democrats and internet bloggers? Both >candidates have said it won't happen so I do wonder why you would post such a ridiculous item?


Dear Pat,
I've considered your thoughtful observations about liberals and bloggers and military conscription and, as a consequence, I've burned my draft card.  Sorry, Tom, but I'm clearly not eligible.  Though I've always dreamed of being a woman Marine, alas, I am nearly thirty-eight years old, my uncorrected vision is 20-1200, and I'm an out lesbian.  Three strikes against me, and so I'm out.  A shame, really, as I'm quite the semper fidelis type.  I'm a crack shot, I love a good fight, and I believe in honor, integrity, and discipline.  What's more, I'd be happy to prove all of this by knocking the shit out of Lt. Colonel Oliver North.  (If any of you should happen to know that disgrace to the Corps, please pass on my cyber glove-slap to his gap-toothed face.)      
However, I would like to ask Pat, or anyone else on this list, exactly how, under current conditions,  they think the armed forces will be able to meet their recruiting goals without reinstating some form of conscription?  The military is now 40% smaller than it was at the end of the Cold War.  That was fine when we were fighting the first Gulf War -- we had no other pressing engagements -- but what about now that we're fighting "pre-emptive" wars in service of Mr. Bush's ever-expanding global war on terror?  Last year, the Army, the Navy, the Air Force and the Marines had a combined recruiting goal for both active and reserve forces of 280,000.  They failed to meet that goal.  The Army alone now estimates that it needs 70,000 to 85,000 new recruits annually, but they're not getting them.  They're coming up short -- so short that they've taken to using the backdoor draft, AKA compulsory extension of service, and, sadly, threats.  Members of a guard unit in Colorado this week were offered the option of reenlisting or being sent on a second tour of duty in Iraq.  How's that for Hobson's choice?  (Please note that I resisted the urge to say that they were caught between Iraq and a hard place.  Thank you.)    
It is a fact that the Bush Administration has added several million dollars to the 2004 Selective Service System budget, and that the Selective Service System is obliged to report to the President by March 31, 2005 that the system is ready for activation.  You won't find this information on any of the major cable network news outlets, but the Pentagon has begun filling 10,350 draft board positions and 11,070 appeals board slots.  Why?  Because we want more useless government bureaucrats?  Because Jenna and Barbara have promised jobs to all of their college friends?  Or could it be that the volunteer army, instituted by Richard Nixon in 1973, is projected to be inadequate for future military needs?    
Step out of your box, Pat.  Do a little research.  The British occupation of Northern Ireland required between ten and twenty soldiers per 1,000 civilians.  Now, Northern Ireland was unpleasant, but rarely did the British have to cope with 30 car bombs a day.  Still, let's apply this ratio to Iraq.  My handy little Pocket World in Figures from The Economist tells me that population of Iraq is about 23,000,000, give or take 10,000 or so war casualties.  That means we need between 230,000 and 460,000 troops in country if we’re to effectively occupy it.  This looks suspiciously like the number General Eric Shinseki forecast back in 2002, before he was laughed out of Washington by Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, the civilian administrators who “knew better” than the military professionals.
Without a draft, or at least a rescinding of the no-hookers policy (to be replaced by a two-girls-for-every-boy Jan & Dean addendum to the GI Bill), we won’t have the personnel we need for Iraq and Afghanistan, much less anywhere else the Toxic Texan chooses to exercise his penchant for pre-emption.  I don't know how old you are, Pat, but it looks to me like many 18 to 34 year-olds are very likely to be involuntarily welcomed to be all that they can be.   
Or, as my Marine Corps father-in-law puts it, screwed, blued, and tattooed.
Joan Opyr/Auntie EstablishmentGet more from the Web.  FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
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