I know I've said this before - we need QUALITY Soldiers and not QUANTITY Soldiers. A draft will not help acheive QUALITY Soldiers because you'll get more Soldiers who don't give a damn and will give more headaches to the military with Article 15s and UCMJ actions. It is simply not worth it.
I agree with this statement.
But what do you do when there are not enough volunteers? Well, you decrease the missions cause there is not enough manpower. Is the Republican Party honestly going to accept that?
I'm a military brat so I'm used to seeing people decide on a military career. When I became a junior in HS my dad came to me and said if you want to go to one of the service academies we need to know now cause we had to request Senator Edwards or Senator Helms to sign off for me to go. How many parents honestly do that in civilian homes? How many people on this forum ever even considered a military career or were asked about it (not a recruiter at your school)? When graduating high school and if you're not going to college, how many choose enlistment or just being a slacker living at home without a job or working for $6 an hour in fast food? (For the record to not appear as a snot, I considered becoming a Navy nuclear officer via OCS route but ultimately decided against it.)
You can kind of see this problem with the statement Romney made this week. "We have a volunteer army. My children are serving this country by getting me elected." Romney's first sentence is entirely correct, but does anyone think a soldier watching the news at Al-Assad appreciates that statement? That they risking their life, being separated from their family for six months by 5000 miles is equivalent to a guy running around Des Moines in an RV? There's such a large disconnect nowadays between civilian life and military life and civilians do not even realize it. My freshman roomie in college, intelligent guy, thought we could fight a "perfect war"- a war where no Americans would die, such was our technical superiority over everyone else. I argued in vain to him that that opinion was stupid and arrogant (this was early 2000, pre-9/11, pre-Afghanistan, pre-Iraq), but he refused to hear it, we could just drop a bomb from an airplane and "win the war".
I try to talk to people about it while being mindful I'm a civilian myself, fully knowing that those around me never considered the military, would only go if drafted, and most then would drive to Canada if that occurred, Republican and Democrat.
Anyway, that's my take on it. If our country wants to maintain its "#1 military" status, they need more quality people. But the quality people are not coming as much anymore. So how do you get them there other than a draft?
CPT MikeyMike, what's your take on what I've said? Agree or disagree?