Date: Thu, 29 Apr 1999 14:02:56 +0100
From: mokey <higginsc-AT-tcd.ie>
Subject: Re: going to war and the coming draft



Max (or Robert?) writteded:
>There is another reason I am adament about such debate in Congress on such
a topic - the draft, they need only >say the word and little boys go off to
war (except theirs of course) to die.  I will turn 18 (yes I'm 17) in 
>December of 99, so I will have to get my Selective Service Card...I would
not be surprised if the war is still 
>going then.  

I really really don't think that Clinton or Congress are foolish enough to
reinstitute the draft.  It would be:
1.  quite an unpopular thing to do for a president who pays too much
attention to opinion polls to do anything unpopular
2.  quite an uncomfortably historical thing to do for a president who pays
too much attention to how history will view him.
3.  probably ruin gore's chances of getting el topo jobo
4.  would invite criticism from both the right and left (well, the not so
far right), that consensus loving bill would really not like at all.

although...

Apparently some defense analysts in the pentagon are getting real worried
about the state of the US military.  They say that the great bastion of the
american military machine is it's ability to fight two wars at once.  Some
facts and figures now.  Cutbacks have meant that there are only half as
many soldiers knocking about now than during desert storm.  That 40% of US
forces were used in said war.  The sums therefore show us that if the US
starts a ground war in the balkans then it won't be able to fight anywhere
else.  Some of the military folk say that this is bullshit, but there are
others who are looking really worriedly at N.Korea and Iraq, and America's
supposed inability to fight 'em if someone does something silly.  Seems to
me that being silly is just what politicians (democrats, dictators and all
else betwixt and between) are good at.

"Gentlemen you can't fight in here, this is the war room"  Commander in
Chief (Beloved & Respected Comrade Leader President ?) Mr. Peter Sellers in
Dr. Strangelove

colin