Draft the Volunteers

Draft...errr Stoploss. The inevitability of more and more of this was something that was known by those that "Know" i.e. get it. The former Chief of Staff of the Army warned truthfully of the number of troops that would be required to prosecute this little foray into Iraq. Of course he was sent packing for that bit of honesty. Nobody wanted to talk about increasing the end strength of the Army in the early days of the war; back when it would have made an impact. The recent addition of 30,000 troops to the total will not make a difference for some time.

The draft has been discussed but anyone that really knows understands that this is unworkable. It is a bad plan not because draftee armies are inferior or because a draft violates all that a free society ought to stand for. A draft would not work because the military is not equipped to accept thousands of people that do not want to e there. Basic training today is soft and the tools that commanders have available to deal with troublesome troopers are few. In the old days misfits could be shipped off to corrections companies or stern punishment could be imposed at the unit level. In today's military misfits are simply chaptered (booted) out. Not exactly the thing to do with draftees that do not want to be there in the first place. And forget the notion that the military might be allowed to return to the "tougher days" of discipline. In our politically correct world THAT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN!

Venomous Kate does a good job of compiling many of the relevant facts around this dilemma of too few troops. I was stunned at the proposal in the DoD to close down the NTC and send the 11th ACR into action. In the short term that will obviously produce more troops. Without a continual process of training the quality of the force will deteriorate. Short term fixes create long term problems.

Anyway, just imagine yourself as that guy that has given 20 plus years of your life to service. You may or may not have already served a tour in the theater of operations. You have planned for, prepared for and looked forward to your retirement. A retirement that you earned. Now you are told "sorry, you have been drafted errr stop lossed". A draft is wrong but the idea of forcing people that have already volunteered to serve past their term is just as wrong.

If the politicians were incapable of standing up at the beginning of the war and facing the hard truths and asking for more troops then maybe a free republic ought not have the right to force people against their will to do their bidding.