Kerry says Bush has mismanaged U.S. military (Using a back-door draft)

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03497472.htm

INDEPENDENCE, Mo., June 3 (Reuters) - Democratic challenger John Kerry on Thursday accused President George W. Bush of mismanaging the U.S. military, effectively instituting a "back-door draft" and complicating the mission in Iraq.

The decorated Vietnam War veteran said the United States had gone into Iraq with too few troops to prevent looting and crime and had neglected to secure almost a million tons of conventional weapons now being used against them.

"These mistakes have complicated our mission and complicated our objective -- a stable Iraq with a representative government secure in its borders," Kerry said. snip

'BACK-DOOR' DRAFT

He said the move underscored how overextended the U.S. military was as the Pentagon tries to maintain adequate troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan. About 138,000 American troops are in Iraq and some 13,000 in Afghanistan.

"The administration's answer has been to put band-aids on the problem," Kerry told invited guests in Independence. "They have effectively used a stop-loss policy as a back-door draft."

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[bobthedrummer]

1. I hope the Office of Force Transformation, the Office of Special Plans

and the entire traitorous neo-con infrastructure gets shut down forever.

These folks are fascists whether in or out of uniform, they have abused OUR military and brought great shame upon US.

There will be much repair work during President Kerry's administration.

[Just Me]

2. The repair will take far longer than the period of,...

,...ill-begotten neocon coup. Though never irreparable, the damage by the neocons is inestimable and it will take several terms to overcome.

[NNN0LHI]

7. Probably decades n/t

[lebkuchen]

3. Good timing and right on the money

The military family is desperate for relief, for a hopeful tomorrow.

[Monte Carlo]

4. Good, hit 'em where it hurts, Kerry.

The personnel crisis Bush has created is a total liablity for his campaign. Keep it up.

[KissMyAsscroft]

5. If they need recruits, which they obviously do...

why dont they just offer a huge cash incentive to sign up...just a lot of up front money...like 20 grand. They wouldn't even need a draft.

[Cronus Protagonist]

9. Violates the Bush Regimes funfamental tenet: Cheap Labor

It's all about cheap labor for these cheap labor conservatives.

Click here for "HERO KERRY ZERO BUSH", "VETERAN KERRY AWOL BUSH" and other fair and balanced yet stunning, insulting, shocking, funny buttons, magnets and stickers

[kerrycrat2k4]

10. Why dont they

just change the recruiting posters to show torture and the massacre of innocents? The white trash automatons will be lined up by the dozen.
:puke:

[DemBones DemBones]

6. Besides the enforcement of stop-loss orders,

the entire volunteer army concept constitutes an economic draft.

It cannot be denied, though, that when there is no draft, far fewer rich or highly intelligent young men and women enlist.

I hate what the draft can do to people's lives. I saw enough of it in the years U.S. troops were in Viet Nam.

But the draft may be a necessary evil. The trick is not to allow the well-connected to avoid serving along with the everyday men and women.

[Voltaire99]

8. Bravo, Kerry! He's starting to get it.

I am not in the business of giving Kerry plaudits for free - I'll leave that to the true believers.

Kerry's criticism here, however, is effective. The stop-loss policy abuses the faith and good will of soldiers. It's calculated as political insulation for Bush and other elites, allowing them to protect the middle class from conscription.

Let's be completely honest. The "volunteer" army itself is a kind of draft: it is economic conscription, the last means out of hopelessness for many. Volunteerism is merely a euphemism. The US middle class participates in this deception, knowing it to be the mechanism that absolves it of fighting the wars it is so eager to support. Its motto: "Draft? No thanks - I gave at the pump!"

Kerry is on the right path here. Now, it's time for him to complete his evolution and oppose this stupid, wasteful war.

[bigtime]

11. Junior is a back door man

oh, the troops don't know, but the four-stars understand