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04/23/2004 Archived Entry: "Before you believe this...."
Before you believe this....
Just keep in mind when reading this that ThugCo has made a lot of similar statements in the past. A partial list appears below.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld yesterday said the Pentagon was not considering a return of the military draft and would ease troop shortages related to the war in Iraq and other deployments by turning over to civilians jobs now done by members of the armed forces."I don't know anyone in the Executive Branch who thinks it's appropriate or necessary to reinstitute the draft," Rumsfeld told a gathering of newspaper editors and publishers. "We have a large population and a relatively small armed forces," he added, noting that the military draft abolished in 1973 had several problems, including high turnover and a complicated deferment system.
From the same lying liars who brought you these little gems:
"I have no war plans on my desk..." George W. Bush, May 23, 2003"I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon; that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile." Condoleezza Rice, May 16, 2002
"We know where they (WMD) are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat." Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003
Replies: 21 people speak up
I had the exact same reaction: YEAH, FREAKIN' RIGHT!
or, more appropriately...
"There's an old saying in Tennessee — I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again." —George W. Bush, Nashville, Tenn., Sept. 17, 2002
Jesse
Posted by Jesse @ 04/23/2004 05:16 PM NY
well, its a lie of omission, specifically an omission of 4 words "I don't know anyone in the Executive Branch who thinks it's appropriate or necessary to reinstitute the draft UNTILL AT LEAST DECEMBER,"
Posted by justin @ 04/23/2004 05:21 PM NY
Even if that IS their plan is it much better? They plan to go towards even MORE privatization"? Oh yeah, that has worked SOOOO well so far. Let's give more money to Halliburton.
Posted by Jason @ 04/23/2004 05:22 PM NY
by the way "They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat" is classic rummsfeld. i hope that goes down in history chisled at the base of his statue. quite possibly the vaguest possible statement ever made... perfect.
Posted by justin @ 04/23/2004 05:24 PM NY
had rumsfeld's comments been written, they wouldn't be worth the paper they're paper written on. end story. yeah, he's secretary of defense, but in matters like this linked story, why do we pay attention to the man at all? when one considers that this administration touts its reputation for plain speaking, resoluteness, etc., the head explodes.
regarding the draft, it should be clear to anyone with half a brain paying attention, this administration's foreign policy is unsustainable with a volunteer army. lawrence korb has had some very interesting thoughts on that matter, some of them posted via the american enterprise institute. but, realities on the ground in iraq are already disproving rumsfeld's bonehead ideas about privatizing responsibilities otherwise born by the military. and probably a substantial % of the forces we have committed there now are needed back in afghanistan to finish that job properly. what a mess! how in the world could we respond to a north korean eruption now? how could we tackle other neocon pet projects like iran or syria--and please god tell me--the american public simply wouldn't stand for any such nonsense. although our susceptibility for marketing manipulation is apparently boundless.
no, despite senator hagel's attempt to initiate a reality check, these guys won't go anywhere near the whole draft question until after the election. but, as i was posting on atrios recently, i'd like to see the draft issue broached for public consideration--if for no other reason, than i'd hope the spoiled brat draft age generation would start paying attention to thier own futures and get politically involved. sigh.
Posted by oldupperwestsideLIBERALjew @ 04/23/2004 05:28 PM NY
sure, of course the american people will go for any neocon pet project, including syria and iran. all you have to do is dress it up a little, put a big shiny bow on it, maybe give it big tits or something to make it sexier. hell, if you give away free french (freedom) fries with it, americans will trample eachother to get in line. throw in a healthy dose of decietfull fear, and you got yourself a war.
Posted by justin @ 04/23/2004 05:52 PM NY
We should invade Iran and Syria. They're right wing lunatics over there. And their "leaders" never say anything that makes any sense, nor are they freely elected. Take it to 'em!
Oh, but don't ask me to pay for it either in higher taxes, or in providing my young 'uns for cannon fodder.
Curious George
Posted by curious george @ 04/23/2004 06:20 PM NY
lets deal with our own domestic right wing lunatics before we start importing them...
Posted by justin @ 04/23/2004 06:27 PM NY
justin,
thanks. your sardonic humor gives me a nice lift-off for the weekend. and, boy, do i need one. love your image of putting big tits on it. that's exactly how it works.
by the way, everytime i hear someone mention some old saw like "history will be the judge", i get faint. these guys run the school departments; they choose which books to buy; so history gets writ as they will have it. i once met a san francisco high school principal back in the mid-80s who told me the only thing in the text books then about the nixon administration corruption was the cambodian carpet bombing. period. (anyone have a kid taking high school civics out there? take a look.) so what can we expect anyone to learn about george & co. in 15 years? their high taxes/low federal services will be presented in some big tits fashion. clear skies. happy forests. (i know, i know, but i like happy forests better.) wait. an "ownership society" doesn't really cut it, no matter what the focus groups were saying. i've been telling people for months, their social security privatization overhaul will be dressed up as "sweet dreams". talk about big tits.
hey, blah3,
hope you're feeling more 'attended' to these days. apologies for sliding ot there.
Posted by oldupperwestsideLIBERALjew @ 04/23/2004 07:04 PM NY
The link for "I have no war plans on my desk..." should be May 23, 2002
Posted by pickypicky @ 04/23/2004 07:46 PM NY
Actually, Rummy's telling the truth on this one. Nobody in the Pentagon wants the draft because it would have a very negative impact on force composition and turnover. The modern army requires troops that know their jobs, so today there's a finite limit to their ability to absorb raw recruits. A draft would be a major pain because the force composition would shift to a much larger percentage of inexperienced troops. And just about the time the draftees got pretty good at their jobs, their time would be up, and they'd head back to civilian life.
The stuff that Rummy's lying about is, unfortunately, what he's been lying to himself about as well. The army may be much more efficient, and require smaller forces to achieve victory on the battlefield. But as Iraq has demonstrated in spades, we still need a lot more uniformed troops on the ground to handle post-conflict stabilization.
Rummy's plans for "transforming" the army doesn't change that calculus. Given how hard he fought against giving more troops to Shinseki and, more recently, to Abizaid, it's pretty clear Rummy's having a hard time giving up his dream.
Rumsfeld has deliberately abandoned the approach to sizing the military that was used in the Cold War. The Pentagon no longer plans capacity to fight at the same time a couple of big wars in different theatres. And small wars aren't likely to look just like each other, requiring the same mix of services, personnel and weaponry. Rumsfeld is a leader of the crowd who are convinced that technology and reorganization can transform the army so it can intervene in lots of different size and types of conflicts at the same time. He's right if he's just talking about the out-and-out fighting. With a bit of adjustment, we could have fought Afghanistan and Iraq simultaneously rather than sequentially.
But there's more to successful interventions than the fighting stage. We clearly don't have sufficient forces (or the right composition of forces) to simultaneously police Iraq's cities, counter insurgents in both countries, and deal with militias, whether led by war lords or clerics.
We can only hope the Bush Admin's attention is going to be sufficiently focused on Iraq and Afghanistan that they won't launch any more adventures any time soon. But if they remain responsible for the direction of US foreign policy for the next four years, they are indeed likely to set us on a path that will require a much larger number of citizens in uniform in the coming decades. The draft would probably be required eventually.
Posted by nadezhda @ 04/23/2004 07:55 PM NY
Of course there are no plans for the draft until December...wouldn't want to risk the election, now would we? The Defense Department has announced that Selective Service is making preparations for another draft, "in case one is needed."
Posted by Allison @ 04/23/2004 08:22 PM NY
Where's Robin Hacker on this one? No opinion?
Posted by Stentor @ 04/23/2004 08:46 PM NY
under normal circumstances, i think that the draft would probobly be counter productive. however, at this point, the military just needs warm bodies that can hold m-16 and get shot at. if they are poorly trained when they get blown up, that just means that the army spent less money on them, and people will stop picking on poor georgie about the deficit.
as long as the "evildoers" cant tell by sight which soldiers are trained and which had a 15 minute lesson on how fire a maching gun and lace up combat boots, it shouldnt be a problem. its sort of like putting a bunch of helmets on broom handles, visible just over the wall of the fort, it always works in the movies. besides, this way, they get to kill off a lot of poor people in the process of losing a disasterous war...
Posted by justin @ 04/23/2004 10:01 PM NY
under normal circumstances, i think that the draft would probobly be counter productive. however, at this point, the military just needs warm bodies that can hold m-16 and get shot at. if they are poorly trained when they get blown up, that just means that the army spent less money on them, and people will stop picking on poor georgie about the deficit.
as long as the "evildoers" cant tell by sight which soldiers are trained and which had a 15 minute lesson on how to fire a machine gun and lace up combat boots, it shouldnt be a problem. its sort of like putting a bunch of helmets on broom handles, visible just over the wall of the fort, it always works in the movies. besides, this way, they get to kill off a lot of poor people in the process of losing a disasterous war...
Posted by justin @ 04/23/2004 10:02 PM NY
damn it, sorry. i noticed a typo, tried to hit the stop button, and it didnt work out. oh well, at least i fixed they typo, although im sure there are many more
Posted by justin @ 04/23/2004 10:04 PM NY
The draft boards were brought up to strength at the end of last year. If Bush is elected, a draft will follow within two months of his inauguration. Believe it.
Scorpio
Eccentricity
Posted by Scorpio @ 04/23/2004 11:50 PM NY
There won't be a draft pre or post election. Bushco or Kerryco as november winners will not reinstate the draft. Although I fnd it intresting that all 18 year olds must still register.
Posted by Robin Hacker @ 04/24/2004 02:55 AM NY
Well he left out the military, the legislative, the judicial, and a whole lotta other folks.
And saying he "doesn't know anyone in the White House who thinks" is no big suprise. We've all known that for awhile now.
Posted by IXLNXS @ 04/24/2004 04:20 AM NY
If Rump hadn't said anything at all I would be less worrried. Now that he says no draft--because I know he never tells the truth--I think it really is time to make exit plans.
Posted by O Canada! @ 04/24/2004 09:45 AM NY
What pickypicky said. Editor, time to edit. That looks bad, if anyone's paying attention.
Otherwise it's just another catch of just another day of crime sprees by Bush & CO. Eh?
I'm feeling down. Could you tell?
Posted by Daddy-O @ 04/24/2004 01:40 PM NY
