Pentagon Draft Denial Lacks Credibility
by Ian Mosley
According to Breitbart news: “The Pentagon sharply rejected Monday a key general’s assertion that a return to the military draft has always been an option on the table and should be considered. ‘I can tell you emphatically that there is absolutely no consideration being given to re instituting the draft,’ said Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman. ‘The all-volunteer force has surpassed all expectations of its founders.’”
There’s a problem with that statement: IT ISN’T TRUE, and it’s not likely that this spokesman believes it either. Sounds like he’s just being a good soldier and following orders. A whole trainload of senior officers, both retired and active duty, as well as numerous politicians and commentators have characterized the United States Army as “broken” and “scraping the bottom of the barrel.”
The Pentagon has lowered enlistment standards until the lowest of criminal and drug-addicted felons can join. They recently dropped the demand for even a high school education or GED. A special recruiting program is now targeting high school dropouts as cannon fodder. Enlistment bonuses have been raised to as high as $45,000 for someone with a college degree–with no takers so far. Army recruiters are faking results, practically stalking high school seniors to fill their quotas. The Pentagon keeps using tricks to “meet” their quotas on paper. The Army is suffering from a critical “brain drain” as experienced NCOs and officers are leaving in droves, tired of the constant back-to-back deployments to a pointless war in Iraq that is already lost and should never have been fought in the first place.
The Breitbart article also notes “Lieutenant General Douglas Lute, a White House deputy national security adviser (sometimes referred to as Bush’s War Czar) discussed the draft in a radio interview Friday in which he said military leaders were right to be concerned about the impact of repeated deployments on military morale and readiness. Lute, who is in charge of coordinating the US war effort in Iraq, said the all-volunteer military is serving ‘exceedingly well’ and the administration has not decided it needs to be replaced with a draft. But he said, ‘I think it makes sense to certainly consider it, and I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table.’ ” Letting the cat out of the bag there, eh General?
Look, anyone with more intelligence than a grape can see that there is simply no way that the United States can pacify Iraq and Afghanistan without at least a million troops on the ground. And relations with Muslims could get a lot worse if we launch a war on Iran.
The neocons are still plotting to bomb Iran, which would cost at least another hundred billion dollars, not to mention alienating Europe even more. Bombing Iran would stir up a hornet’s nest of opposition among the Shiites in Iraq. Bush seems to “think” Iran can be bombed into submission by a few jet flights off an aircraft carrier and a few cruise missiles hitting targets supplied by the same intelligence agencies, who can’t find Osama. The Iranians have had years to hide their nuclear equipment. Most likely the facility at Bushehr is vacant while mountain caves deep in Iran contain 100 percent of their nuclear program.
The exhausted and demoralized US forces in Iraq are on their last legs and everyone knows this but Bush. Many of these soldiers have suffered divorce and had their personal lives ruined. About 20 percent of troops subjected to repeated ambushes suffer post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Just because a soldier survives Iraq without losing a leg or arm, doesn’t mean he’s made it out intact. His mind could still be a casualty.
The military is having a hard time replacing the many maimed soldiers among the 30,000 seriously wounded plus the 3,600 dead plus however many have been turned into mental cases. The military knows that not many people are going to reenlist to be shot at for little better than minimum wage. The Draft is getting to be more and more inevitable with each month the Iraq War goes on.