McLaughlin Group: Troop strength down 25% , Draft possible ?

[EVDebs]

On McLaughlin Group today I see that we are following the Vietnam timeline almost to a tee. Bush's poll numbers mirror LBJ's as of 1967 and even back then we already had a draft.

This was already exposed on counterpunch magazine by a former CIA analyst

February 4, 2005

Election Parallels
Vietnam, 1967; Iraq, 2005
By BILL CHRISTISON
Former CIA analyst

http://www.counterpunch.org/christison02042005.html

I would suspect if we listened to the VIPS and Ray McGovern's group of former CIA personnel and had ignored the OSP and other DoD and CIA 'stovepipers' we wouldn't be in as bad a situation as we are today.

Furthermore, what the Bush administration has created in Iraq is an Islamic Republic of Iraq...precisely the opposite of what they had wanted.

[Lifelong Protester]

1. IMHO...

we already have a draft, it's just called "extended tour of duty".

[win_in_06]

2. None of the Generals on MTP this morning anticipate a draft

[EVDebs]

4. But building 'permanant bases' clashes with the standdown/standup

"As Iraqis standup we will standdown" policy of Bush.

[Qanisqineq]

3. my husband is already expecting to be drafted

only in his case it is called "STOP-LOSS".

[Dudley_DUright]

5. Blankley was bloviating about

the necessity of a draft within five years.

[EVDebs]

6. Because Rep's already know we're stuck there for '10, 20 yrs, '

According to Sen John McCain

Bob Herbert
Heads in the Sand
spectrumz.com/z/fair_use/2004/09_04.html

"When asked this week on CNN how long the U.S. military is likely to remain in Iraq, Senator John McCain replied "probably" 10 or 20 years. "That's not so bad," he said..."

So Blankley wasn't merely 'bloviating', he was anticipating the draft that will become necessary unless Bush pulls our troops back to the Kuwait staging areas or redeploys them elsewhere (as a recent EJ Dionne column proposed). That is the only way to avoid a draft and these Repub idiots know Bush is just running out the clock, trying to stick a 'draft' onto a newly elected Democratic administration/Congress.

They're admitting defeat by their actions, which speak louder than words.

[wli]

7. if they try to impose a draft I expect things to be worse than Vietnam

Simply because we haven't had a real draft yet and public opinion etc. is already as bad as it was or worse than it was during the worst of Vietnam.

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Do you really think that a Draft is a good idea when the reason

people aren't enlisting is that they don't trust nor like this president? We're going to have morale problems that will make Vietnam look like summer camp.

[POAS]

9. A good idea? That's beside the point

A draft is rapidly becoming a necessity. A bad policy is leading to a list of choices that is as bad as it is short.

[Cosmocat]

10. I don't know ...

The funny thing about this admin is, they are just so friggen obtuse ... They have their little playbook they are going by to shape the Middle East, but are COMPLETELY oblivious what is going on around it ...

It is like they see things one dimensional ...

Do these guys, Bobo, Cheney, Turdblossom ... Do they even REALLY realize how bad things are in Iraq ???

This is make or break now with the constitution and whether it gets ratified ... If it doesn't, then the whole thing is just going to blow up big time ... If it does somehow get ratified, then they might be able to draw out ...

I don't think the white house cares one bit about the 2006 elections ... The whole lot of them have NO loyalty or consideration for ANYONE, even their own kind ...

HOWEVER, they also are reaching a breaking point with Congress and the House ... I think the Rs are going to come back from this break with a big agenda and clear marching orders ... I think this is their last stand with the White House ... IF, they get some things done and rebound with the public a bit, I think they will stand with the White House for a while longer ...

BUT, if this dies out like SS did, and they keep taking hits in the polls, I think the people in the house who are up for reelection are going to start thinking AND acting for themselves A LOT more ...

WHERE is all of this going ???

1) This admin has no clue how bad things are, and to what extent they do, they will keep just wearing out the commissioned troops and reserves ... They have NO problem with it ...

2) The Rs in the House will NOT go for a draft until they determine if they are going to start breaking from the Admin about the occupation in an effort to save themselves for reelection ...

3) The only way we get a draft is if the agenda they come out with in September REALLY takes, and they rebound a good bit in polls ... If not, they will push to cut and run ... The blame, of course, will to go the liberals who blew "the war" at home, and then the Iraqis themselves ...

[EVDebs]

11. Correct, cosmocat

The only way out from 'cut and run' is to create a 'redeployment', either to Kuwaiti staging areas or to bolster Afganistan (where they should have started and finished the job to begin with).

Classic military/political 'over-reach' planned from the 1991 postwar neocons to begin with. You'd think they'd have thought things through and had listened to GHWB/Scowcroft in A World Transformed and the Powell Doctrine, huh ?

[Cosmocat]

14. It just is amazing ...

How a president and admin that CLEARLY has an agenda that runs completely counter to the best interests of this country could assume total control of our country, and for about five years now do so with almost no awareness or concern from the people ...

Just a COMPLETE and total "perfect storm ..."

* A country that becamse so affluent that apathy took a death grip ...
* People like Gingrich and Limbaugh who were both smart enough/totally lacking in any integrity realized the underlying predjudices of the south and religious right, and utilized it to splinter the country ...
* People like Rove who saw the inherent weakness in our system to unethical methods and who were souless enough to take advantage of those weaknesses ...
* A time when the mainstream media became totally consumed by conservative ideologues, who eliminted any sense of "journalistic ethics" for the sake of developing a culture of conservatism that serves the interests of the ultra rich ...

The perfect storm left this country with a complete stooge as president, with a group of dangerously close minded neocons as his admin, and no checks and balances, from either the house or congress, or even the freakin media ... AND, 9-11, which both gave them COMPLETE and total dictatorship of the country AND all but ensured this idiot would get reelected ...

[EVDebs]

15. You call it a 'perfect storm' but I've heard it called a 'shit blizzard' !

[Chicago1]

12. THERE WILL NOT BE A DRAFT!!!

Not under these circumstances can you have a draft. Everything is ready to explode on these idiots.

NOW, the Democrats have already figured out that this bunch ARE CAPABLE OF ALLOWING A TERRORISTS ATTACK ON THE US. So everyone is trying to AVOID one so THERE WILL NOT BE A DRAFT.

[EVDebs]

13. But the Repubs, see posts #4 and #6 above, require one

Assuming we 'stay the course' under this President.

That can only mean that the R's are going to revolt and impeach if they overreach. Hey, dem Dems float like a butterfly and sting like a bee ... Bush can't hit what he can't see.