You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Retired Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal proposes reinstating the draft
2012-07-11
Or as the New York Times headlined it, Let's Draft Our Kids. Basically, they're proposing a forced labour levy for retirement home staff. Like Obamacare it's a way for the old to take from the young.
Well, the General merely pointed out that if/when we go to war, everyone should have skin in the game. That's certainly a good point. The issue is whether we have a 'peacetime' draft, and the writer of the op-ed piece (Tom Ricks) is of the mind that this is the opportunity (never let one go to waste, you know) to staff the nursing homes with lots of low-paid, poorly-skilled, poorly-motivated workers.

Oh. We have that now. I mean, more of the same.

Or you could spend 18 months in uniform, perform 'tasks', be guaranteed not to be deployed, and get a free college education. Such a deal. And read the list of 'tasks': mowing lawns, driving generals around, doing paperwork. It's clear that Mr. Ricks hasn't been around our military lately; it's as if he imagines a line of Army cooks with ladles handing out spam and imitation spuds.

He then claims that this would save 'billions' of dollars if 'implemented broadly and imaginatively'. That disqualifies both our present government and NYT writers.

It's just another progressive op-ed piece from a person who lives in a world with a different-colored sky than we have on Earth. Check out his major credential: 'fellow at the Center for a New American Security'. It's all you need to know.
Posted by:Besoeker

#22  Meanwhile the current issue of the Navy Times has for it's screaming headlines: " Make E-4 in 5 or Get Booted." makes perfect sense; kick out willing olunteers that have already had massive training $$ invested PLUS experience for a bunch of unknowns. But then again we have the big Unknown-In-Chief in the WH.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2012-07-11 22:39  

#21  The USDOD does not foresee fighting any more major wars thru the year 2050, iff not the rest of the 21st century - one of the best indicators of this line of thought is the US allowing women to serve in combat. Neither "post-US",World #1 wannabe Rising China, nor the Islamist-Jihadist Bomb + Global Jihad, is seemingly enuff to get the Fed-DOD to change its mind.

Given the above, IMO the only need now for a Draft is as OWG Jobs Program + mil protect the future North-South Amer Global "Unions", e.g. NAU + [anti-US?] OWG-NWO that no American = Amerikan, of the OWG Mighty USSA versus OWG Weak USRoA, has voted for, been asked to vote on, nor will be asked iff OWG Politicos have their way.

IOW, THE ONLY NEED FOR A DRAFT 2050-2100 IS TO PROTECT AMERIKA FROM AMERICANS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2012-07-11 20:42  

#20  The Thirteenth Amendment bans involuntary servitude. Being 18 is not a crime.

F**K U, General.
Posted by: rammer   2012-07-11 20:34  

#19  Yes, Gen McChrystal you are right. Western civilians don't have 'skin in the game'.
</sarc>
Posted by: Angash Untervehr7793   2012-07-11 19:09  

#18  Gone are the days when the government was responsible for the streets, garbage pickup, water, fire, etc.. They told us what that cost, we paid it.

In are the days when the government tells you what to eat, what to where, you wanna see a doctor - come see me first and if none of it is done the way THEY demand it be done, you pay a fine to them.

You are just going to have to push back...
Posted by: Grolulet Glelet1967   2012-07-11 15:58  

#17  If he wants skin in the game - require every working American regardless of supposed economic class to pay a federal income tax (I'm good w/an across the board flat tax of 10% or less)...oh, and those on welfare lose the right to vote - sorry, but why should one who has no skin in the game be able to vote on the rights, property, and labor of those who do...
Posted by: Broadhead6   2012-07-11 15:42  

#16  this is usually Chollie Rangel territory. Someone has to take up the stained banner now that Chollie almost lost his primary and this will likely be hi slast term . Remember the meme: all the military is made from poor minorities - facts be damned
Posted by: Frank G   2012-07-11 15:33  

#15  P2K, you also get Cannae.

Slave labor is not free. Still have to feed, house, clothe, equip, care for, so forth.

Forcing people to care for someone else is a great way to get piss in the soup.
Posted by: swksvolFF   2012-07-11 14:51  

#14  Seems like every four years someone talks about the draft, usually to scare voters into voting for Dems (who put the last pro-draft measure into Congress).

I would like citizens to have skin in the game but think the concept of a draft goes against what we believe in as a nation. Better to create a voluntary org that pays dirt but helps pay off student loans in some way.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2012-07-11 14:38  

#13  BTW, Obama's fake draft card will not cut it.
Posted by: newc   2012-07-11 14:10  

#12  I AM sick and tired of these mental midgets always bringing up the draft. Its a FING STUPID idea if you want a functional force. He is not all that clever after-all. Dumbass
Posted by: newc   2012-07-11 14:09  

#11  OK as long as this notion is extended to Congressmen/Women as well.

Back in the old Roman Republic, Senators would accompany the legions sent to war. So, if a legion was destroyed, usually a couple of the good old boys would die with it. It had a bit of a 'quality assurance' factor in making sure that the boys you sent out were as well prepared and well led as possible. Of course being human nature, sometimes they did opt for the popular over the competent and paid the price.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2012-07-11 12:19  

#10  The idea of a draft or mandetory conscription is all but dead, you can forget about it. President Jimmy Carter killed it when he pardoned the 'draft dodgers' and they all quietly returned as free men. It was a Carter campaign promise and it all happened on January 21st, 1977.
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-07-11 11:58  

#9  Just like ObamaCare.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2012-07-11 11:48  

#8  They already get free labor from all of us but it's called a tax. That's how they get away with it.
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305   2012-07-11 11:46  

#7  Well,the General merely pointed out that if/when we go to war, everyone should have skin in the game. That's certainly a good point.

OK as long as this notion is extended to Congressmen/Women as well. There is no reason that a term (House) and part of a term (Senate) couldn't be served in the military. So long as it didn't ruin the military and so long as there was no exemption from combat. No reason the draft couldn't be extended to older able bodied people also.
Posted by: JohnQC   2012-07-11 11:36  

#6  Slave labour is free, and you get what you pay for, i.e. nothing.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2012-07-11 10:10  

#5  Personally speaking the 16th and 13th amendments are contradictory.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2012-07-11 10:09  

#4  Spot on P2K. However and unfortunately, w/the way our courts are going I wouldn't be surprised if some future all-knowing SCOTUS finds a way to divinate even newer meanings to commonly understood words, terms, and phrases -- and thus provide a loop hole in order to get mandatory free-labor from the citizen. Especially if we are to believe the nonsensical statement that a tax is equal to a penalty or that an undocumented worker was just the poor victim of a dog eating his documents.
Posted by: Broadhead6   2012-07-11 09:37  

#3  Those who donÂ’t want to serve in the army could perform civilian national service for a slightly longer period and equally low pay — teaching in low-income areas, cleaning parks, rebuilding crumbling infrastructure, or aiding the elderly.

Yes, I know it's whatever the Left and its acolytes say it is a 'living breathing document' for some. However, it is specific on the point of what is a misnomer called the 'draft'. Let's walk through it.

Article I, Section 8 stipulates -

The Congress shall have power...
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;

That power was one of the very first acts of Congress manifested in the Militia Acts of 1792 in which -

That each and every free able-bodied white male citizen of the respective States, resident therein, who is or shall be of age of eighteen years, and under the age of forty-five years (except as is herein after excepted) shall severally and respectively be enrolled in the militia,

That is carried on today in Title X USC, para 311.

Sec. 311. Militia: composition and classes

(a) The militia of the United States consists of all able-bodied males at least 17 years of age and, except as provided in section 313 of title 32, under 45 years of age who are, or who have made a declaration of intention to become, citizens of the United States and of female citizens of the United States who are members of the National Guard.
(b) The classes of the militia are -
(1) the organized militia, which consists of the National Guard and the Naval Militia; and
(2) the unorganized militia, which consists of the members of the militia who are not members of the National Guard or the Naval Militia.

The 'draft' is actually the activation of the federal militia, ie Selective Service. Anything outside that specific Constitutional authorization runs smack into the 13th Amendment.


Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Not that the lineage of the entire process is a bit of concern for those seeking the full Socialist State in which one exists to serve the state rather than the state exists to serve the people. Socialism is just another form of slavery.



Posted by: Procopius2k   2012-07-11 08:57  

#2  Obama-Jugend ?

OJ for short.
Posted by: Besoeker   2012-07-11 07:34  

#1  Like Obamacare it's a YET ANOTHER way for the old to take from the young.

Greatest Generation to Greatest Self Veneration. The Generation LEECH.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2012-07-11 07:33  

00:00