If Bush were by some chance re-elected, we would need to re-institute the draft to support invasions of Syria, Iran, etc.

Fortunatley, most of my friends (at least) who voted for Bush regret it.

I'm willing to bet there will be no draft unless there is another major attack on US soil.

In which case there will be plenty of volunteers anyway.

Quiz: What US President holds the record for total number of troop deployments?

Bill Clinton, most of them were "meals on wheels" programs. My brother loved those, send a killing machine to distributed canned goods.

Winning 'hearts and minds' without a lot of random killing? What a concept! One would think that risked posing the US as a moral leader among nations.

Better to be feared than loved, eh?

"Winning 'hearts and minds' without a lot of random killing?"

lol, you poor dear. I'll ask my brother how many hearts and minds they won over in Somalia, that's a good one!

The draft is another boogie-man thrown out there to scare the boomers. Anything for a vote, or to get you to vote for the other guy. (Good to make them realize that somebody's kid is doing the fighting.)

Nothing serious I have read sees the need for such a thing. There are plenty of men and women in the services today - but much of the burden falls on those with the specialized training for what is going on right now..

In a conventional war, you win by overwhelming force, like in WWII when the "allies" could outproduce the "axis" many times over.

This is not a conventional war. So, although we need a goodly number of "boots on the ground", we also need very specialized individuals and teams as (dare I say) assassins, infiltrators, and the like. These should be able to "blend in" and become part of the 'hood to which they are sent (language/custom immersion)

Call me old fashioned, but I think every able bodied man and woman, before they are thirty should have basic military training if for no other reasons to develop some understanding of what war entails and to develop individual responsibility. Perhaps six months would be enough. This might even soften some of the rhetoric by those who spout off having never been put in harm's way and thinking it is some kind of video game.

National service is a very interesting question.
I am not sure what percentage of young people join today, but I am not sure there is room in today's armed services for every able bodied citizen being asked to serve. I have read the pentagon likes the volunteer military. #1, the servicemen/women want to be there and #2 modern warfare and arms are very complex and need lots of training.
I have done volunteer work with lots of college grads in the Americorps program (a few of them vets) and they are a very impressive group of young people.

I must ask. Who is the draft to include? I am probably in the age group. What if any are the restrictions/qualifications? I have often wondered about serving my country however I wonder what reasons would we need to really reinstitute the draft and who can do it. It cannot be a presidential action into itself, can it? Are we really at war anymore? It seems in my opinion that we are policing the world.

I got my ass kicked a lot in gradeschool. Does that count?

Well, I joined the Navy way back in 84, There was talk of a draft ( don't know why ) ..

I don't regret a single minute.

How about some H1Bs? It worked for our shortage of high-tech workers in the late '90s.

In order to take over and rule the world and it's surrounding planets we'll for sure need a draft.

:mad:

Seriously. Mercenaries. Our biggest problem is that America doesn't like seeing it's boys come home dead. Why don't we try to get away from this idea of a whole army of well trained, well equipped young Americans in favor of a large number of hired troops under our command?

We can afford to pay them. There are clearly a lot of people in the world who have nothing better to do than wander around with guns. Heck, we gave the guns to a lot of them. Perhaps some of the more militarized African countries could supply troops in exchange for large wads of money.

Trying to think outside the box, here. :D

No, that was the barbarian hordes....

why is bush a moron?

It's already happening. Those 'contractors' that took a rocket hit in their SUV were not plumbers and electricians.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&q=%2BIraq+%2Bcontractor+%2Bmercenaries& btnG=Search

Closest I came to anything representing combat in my 4 year enlistment was playing cards in a chemical suit. I'm sure the Coasties probable have it rougher.

Funny thing, despite the liberal disinformation, is that it is Democrats who are attempting to reinstate the draft....Led by Charlie Rangle of New York.