<HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff" STYLE="font:10pt verdana; border:none;background-color:#ffffff; "><DIV>Pat writes:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>>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?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"><FONT size=3></FONT></SPAN> </DIV> <DIV><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"><FONT size=3>Dear Pat,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV> <DIV> <P style="tab-stops: 4.5in"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"><FONT size=3>I've considered your thoughtful observations about liberals and bloggers and military conscription and, as a consequence, I've burned my draft card.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sorry, Tom, but I'm clearly not eligible.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Three strikes against me, and so I'm out.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A shame, really, as I'm quite the semper fidelis type.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I'm a crack shot, I love a good fight, and I believe in honor, integrity, and discipline.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What's more, I'd be happy to prove all of this by knocking the shit out of Lt. Colonel Oliver North<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>(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.) <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></P> <P style="tab-stops: 4.5in"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">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?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The military is now 40% smaller than it was at the end of the Cold War.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They failed to meet that goal.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Army alone now estimates that it needs 70,000 to 85,000 new recruits annually, but they're not getting them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They're coming up short -- so short that they've taken to using the backdoor draft, AKA compulsory extension of service, and, sadly, threats.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Members of a guard unit in </SPAN><?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:State><st1:place><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">Colorado</SPAN></st1:place></st1:State><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"> this week were offered the option of reenlisting or being sent on a second tour of duty in </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">Iraq</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">. 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.) <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="tab-stops: 4.5in"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">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 </SPAN><st1:date Month="3" Day="31" Year="2005"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">March 31, 2005</SPAN></st1:date><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"> that the system is ready for activation. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Why?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Because we want more useless government bureaucrats?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Because Jenna and Barbara have promised jobs to all of their college friends?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or could it be that the volunteer army, instituted by Richard Nixon in 1973, is projected to be inadequate for future military needs?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="tab-stops: 4.5in"><FONT size=3><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">Step out of your box, Pat.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Do a little research.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The British occupation of </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">Northern Ireland</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"> required between ten and twenty soldiers per 1,000 civilians.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now, </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">Northern Ireland</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"> was unpleasant, but rarely did the British have to cope with 30 car bombs a day.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Still, let's apply this ratio to </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">Iraq</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> My handy little <EM>Pocket World in Figures</EM> from </SPAN><EM>The Economist </EM>tells me that population of </SPAN><st1:country-region><st1:place><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia">Iraq</SPAN></st1:place></st1:country-region><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"> is about 23,000,000, give or take 10,000 or so war casualties.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That means we need between 230,000 and 460,000 troops in country if we’re to effectively occupy it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>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.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></P> <P style="tab-stops: 4.5in"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"><FONT size=3>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. </FONT></SPAN></P> <P style="tab-stops: 4.5in"><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"><FONT size=3>Or, as my Marine Corps father-in-law puts it, s</FONT></SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia"><FONT size=3>crewed, blued, and tattooed.</FONT></SPAN></P><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: Georgia; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment</SPAN></DIV> <DIV> </DIV></BODY></HTML><br clear=all><hr>Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : <a href='http://explorer.msn.com'>http://explorer.msn.com</a><br></p>