What a creep. General McChrystal is again calling for complete government regimentation of every American.
[F]ormer US commander in Afghanistan, Stanley McChrystal, has urged that the draft be reinstated to spread the burden of fighting and to instill a sense of shared civic duty among young Americans.
The country's all-volunteer force has performed with great skill but after more than a decade of war "we're running very, very hard and at a certain point you can't expect it to go forever," McChrystal said at a conference last month.
Apart from the strain on troops and their families after repeated deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, only a small fraction of the population was affected by the conflicts, the general said.
"It's less than one percent of Americans touched by this," he said at the event organized by the Aspen Institute.
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On the contrary, McChrystal was anything but a creep. Go back and read the original article again (what the liberal pundits do with his original thoughts in order to make the case for their national service whatever should be considered merely their usual m.o. of agenda promoting).
In the original piece McChrystal lays out very well why he believes the draft should be reinstated, and it isn't some statist/hawkish fantasy: the military comprises less than 1% of the American people -- the American people have by and large no skin in the game other than their tax dollars -- and there is still something more valuable than money apparently for most. This has led to some disturbing trends, which McChrystal points out: war by executive order, public disinterest, a false patriotism whereby we wrap ourselves in the flag to cheer our troops on like a football team rather than sending our sons and daughters off to potentially get killed or maimed (or just so worn out and shell shocked as to have mental/emotional scars for the rest of their lives). And our troops are very tired -- McChrystal nailed that one -- 10 plus years of war, people going on 4 or 5 deployments and the upheaval that causes them, and the public seems to be quite happy to let this keep going, keep voting in politicians who will keep it going...because their special little Timmy and Nancy are special, and don't have to do this.
And then Americans wonder why there is such a disconnect between military people and civilians -- when the answer is staring right back in the mirror.
Don't call the messenger a "creep" -- he's just giving you reality. To your favor, given the general tone of articles here, I'll give you the benefit of jumping the gun here (and reacting to the liberal pundits, which is understandable), but what McChrystal was saying is perhaps not what you are reacting to?
Vote for people who won't use our military so cheaply and get out there and actively criticize those who would...or be prepared for this state of affairs to continue. That's the choice.
...let me put it this way: why do you think Ron Paul has found such support among the military?
The answer is directly linked to what McCrystal actually said (and I suppose the varying responses it got).
Professional soldiers don't necessarily wish for a draft -- but the more thoughtful of them see where the concept might be the only way to fix the real issue (which is looming and will eventually need to be addressed imhao).
McChrystal isn't a creep; he's a soldier trying to do the job his civilian masters have ordered him to do, and he's explaining that he needs more troops to do it. It is not his place to publicly criticize the policies and goals they have set.
That's our job.
It's worth asking, though, why so few Americans are volunteering. The answer there is obvious. Our liberal/progressive/socialist ruling class has been saying for several generations now that war is bad, that violence never solves anything, that soldiers are baby killers.
That the only good soldiers are those leaving the field of battle for a home bedecked in yellow ribbons. Or even better, those coming home in a flag draped box to a tearful family.
Soldiers out there defeating our enemies, coming home victorious to cheering crowds waving flags? No good. Very bad. Imperialistic. Nothing more than grinning skulls following the orders of demonic merchants of death who look like Reagan, or that Bush Hitler-Ape.
Also, soldiers carry guns. That taints them right there.
Why would any sane person volunteer for that?
The solution to McChrystal's problem, therefor, is two fold:
First and foremost, teach kids in school that our liberty, and the founding American principles that nurture not only our liberty, but the liberty of all people, are worth fighting for. That being a soldier in service to our liberty and those principles is a noble, honorable thing.
Use the Article I, Section 8 militia power to arm and discipline the citizen's militia to establish training classes in high schools, like drivers' ed. Drivers' ed isn't aimed at producing championship race drivers, or even skilled truck drivers, but at putting a complex, powerful tool in the hands of as many people as possible. In the same way, the goal of the militia program would not be to build a semi-professional fighting force, like the National Guard, but to put the ultimate tool of liberty in the hands of as many citizens as possible.
Now you have a pool of graduates who have some idea of how to shoot, how to take orders, how to maneuver. And who know what they are defending, and why.
I guarantee that McChrystal will be faced with the problem of selecting only the very best out of a flood of qualified recruits.
I said the solution is two-fold, but only folded once.
The other wrinkle is that we must set rational, limited goals for our armed forces to achieve. That was lacking even in GB II's Iraq invasion. We should have either toppled Saddam and the various Shiite hydra heads that arose in his place, getting out when they stopped popping out of their gopher holes; or expanded on that by establishing a beach head there and using it to clean out Islamist wasp nests all over the Middle East.
Instead, we stalled out with this Nation Building nonsense, which is doomed to failure. The current CiC is continuing to fight in Afghanistan more or less on autopilot, and is opening further conflicts without clear goals of any kind and very little press oversight.
Of course McChrystal needs a draft: he's fighting an expanding, unwinnable war, and drawing his troops from a population of passive pacifists.