Back Door Draft - "IRR"

[JOHIO2]

I doubt there is anyone here in this forum who hasn't heard my rant against the US military about not keeping promises. My son's enlistment will be up in only days now. So, will he be coming back from Iraq? Of course not. Catch-22 gives the Army the claim to keep him on active duty for another two years, until November 2006. And before anyone says he didn't read the fine print...I had to sign too as he was only 17. The recruiter said it was only a technicality. They would never extend his enlistment. Yeah, right. And only God knows how long he and his unit and all those other soldiers and marines will remain in Iraq.

That is called a back-door draft. Here is another and scarier version. People returned to civilian life have been and are continuing to be "called-up" under the so-called ready reserve. Most of these individuals didn't know they WERE considered Individual Ready Reserve. One of the arguments made in the recent presidential election was that Bush in his second term would make continued demands on these former military members. Bush says there will be no military draft as long as he is president. We have a "volunteer army" and it will stay that way. So, did he forget about these thousands of non-volunteers? If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....

MSNBC's Deborah Norville did a story about the IRR Tuesday evening and on Wednesday evening, Chris Matthews will discuss the issue on Hardball.

Back Door Draft

Back Door Draft - Hardball

Does this make anyone else as mad as it makes me? And just how long will potential IRR's called up say, "Hell no, we won't go?"

 

[PrincessLeppard]

My friend's husband has been in Iraq for over year. He was called back to service 18 months after his term ended. I admire him for going, and not suing or protesting, but this really is a back door draft. The Army is now calling back people who have been out for six and seven years, pilots who haven't been behind the controls since they left the military. I assume these people are bright enough to re-learn, but seriously, people. They served their country. And it's not as if they are being asked to stay in the States and take the place of someone deployed, these people are being shipped off to Iraq...

Here's something else to think about. We had over half a million troops in Vietnam, and we couldn't win that war. We have just over 144,000 in Iraq. There's going to be a draft or some version of it soon or we are never going to get out of there.

Jo, I feel for your son. I hope he stays safe.

 

[Joesitz (RIP)]

Jo - Your son has been over there long enough. It should be automatic that he gets repatriated.

Bush doesn't want to reenact the draft because it would create a lot of anger from country, therefore all these guys and gals are going to stay put. They are in a no win situation. Sad. All this to control the great oil reserves in Iraq which doesn't seem to be happening.

Joe

 

[Ladskater]

Jo - Your son has been over there long enough. It should be automatic that he gets repatriated.

Bush doesn't want to reenact the draft because it would create a lot of anger from country, therefore all these guys and gals are going to stay put. They are in a no win situation. Sad. All this to control the great oil reserves in Iraq which doesn't seem to be happening.

Joe

And yet we blithely go on driving our gas guzzlers.........how sad that is.

 

[bronxgirl]

Sadly, I think it will take a reinstatement of the draft before the majority of Americans realize how close to home this war truly can be.