Saturday, September 25, 2004

Upcoming Military Draft - Sick of the Myth!

On all the forums, I am reading individuals, mainly liberals, trying to scare Americans into believing that if President Bush is elected the Draft will be reinstated. There is argument is that we do not have a large enough military to accomplish the President's agenda. I have found many articles that dispute this argument but one does it best.

Here are some excerpts from this article:

The war is not only not having a negative effect, but it is helping to reinforce the number of people who want to join," said Cmdr. John Kirby, a spokesman for the Navy's Bureau of Personnel.

Even the Army National Guard, which has had 150,000 citizen soldiers mobilized for up to a year, has seen retention rates "going through the roof," said Guard spokesman Maj. Robert Howell.

The Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps and Coast Guard all met or exceeded their year-end recruiting goals for fiscal year 2003, which ended Sept. 30. The figures continued to climb in the first half of fiscal year 2004, which was reached March 31.

The Army is at 100.1 percent of its "active duty mission"....

Instead of bringing 41,200 new recruits into the service this fiscal year, the Navy will cut it off at 40,450, said Lt. Bill Davis with the Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tenn.

Navy re-enlistment rates are at an all time high, with 62.3 percent of first-term sailors signing up for additional service. That compares with a targeted goal of 56 percent. The rate has grown each year since 2000, when 48.2 percent of the first-term sailors re-enlisted.

The fear might have started back in January 2003 when Rep. Charles Rangle, D-NY and Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-SC, introduced a bill calling for the draft. Interstingly the only hints of draft reinstatement come from Democrats and the Democrats want to continue the scare tactic that President Bush is the threat for "draft reinstatement". The idea was started by Democrats! Officials continue to deny the rumors as illustrated in this Seattle Times article.

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