Armed Services chairman: Cuts could mean draft

[OhioChick]

Sep. 21, 2011 12:36 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Armed Services Committee chairman is warning that further reductions to projected defense spending could make a military career so unattractive that it would force the Pentagon to revive the draft.

Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., suggested that spending cuts beyond the $350 billion that President Barack Obama and Congress agreed to in the debt accord this past summer could force the military to slash the number of service members, now some 2.3 million, including National Guard and reserves.

A special bipartisan committee is trying to come up with $1.5 trillion in spending cuts from all government spending. If it fails, or if Congress rejects its proposal, automatic cuts of $1.2 trillion would kick in, with half coming from defense.

"We also need to understand what it's going to mean to keep an all-volunteer force. Do we want to reinstitute the draft? Some of the cuts we're talking about would take over 200,000 out" McKeon said Monday in an interview with Fox News.

More: http://hosted2.ap.org/OHCOL/8ef5320729ce4298abefc1903704c7d5/Article_2011-09-21-Defense%20Cuts-Military%20Draft/id-e3b77ce3f5284c46b2b28388c4df9dfc

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. If they did, Canada would be inundated with "tourists"..again.

[Poll_Blind]

2. Oh, tha schpooky dwaft! Shit, we may even have to cut back to 3 or fewer wars!

What a fucking nightmare, eh? Where are my smellin' salts?!

PB

[maxsolomon]

3. One can only hope, "Buck".

the military could use a "slashing" far further than what's proposed.

[sinkingfeeling]

4. Would a new draft include the children of the 'job creators'?

[SoCalDem]

5. Good. Any country that's perpetually "at war" somewhere, needs a draft

A draft keeps people focused..and it keeps a military from becoming "Onward Christian Soldiers", full of racist bigoted blood-thirsty recruits/police academy washouts who had no other job choice but DQ or the military

[enough]

7. +1 (nt)

[Brother Buzz]

8. "Democracy" means participation.

"Even when they pissed me off, I had to admit there was something I liked about the draftees who didn't want to be there and made no bones about it. I like draftees in general, even with the attendant problems. Historically draftees have kept the military on the straight and narrow. By calling a spade a spade, they keep it clean. Without their "careers" to think about, they can't be easily bullied or intimidated as Regulars; their presence prevents the elitism that otherwise might allow a Regular army to become isolated from the values of the country it serves. Draftees are not concerned for the reputation of their employer, the Army (in Vietnam they happily blew the whistle an everything from phony valor awards to the secret bombings of Laos and Cambodia); a draftee, citizens' army, so much a part of the history of America, is an essential part of a healthy democracy, one in which everyone pays the price Of admission." - Colonel David Hackworth (from his book About Face)

[NeedleCast]

6. I see the Draft boogyman is back

What a crock.

Meanwhile at least one branch of the armed forces (possibly more, I haven't checked) are once again offering early retirement benefits to cut their payroll.