Recycled Soldiers, mission creep, nation building and the draft, is no burden to great?

 Thomas Paine said, “Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism”. I, like a few of you, swore an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic more than once, and it is because of that oath and sworn duty that I write today.  Dissent is not only my right it is my duty as a citizen of this democracy for without dissent we have dictatorship.   A soldier’s duty is to go forward when others back away, to move into the line of fire when common sense and human instinct tell him not to. Our duty as civilians in this great democracy is to question why he is ordered forward in our place because the soldier cannot.

Back in 1985 my Regiment Commander told us something I have never forgotten, he said “As soldiers we are instruments of our nations policy, our duty is to make sure that that instrument is as sharp as possible when the nation calls.”  That commander later went on to become Secretary of the Army. My point is that to be effective an instrument must be sharp, and cannot be overused, and we are overusing our instruments now. Remember those instruments are people not tools. In the 8 years of the War on Terror 300,000 different soldiers have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, how does this compare to past conflicts. Well in the 12 years of the Vietnam “Conflict” 3.6 million different men were deployed into the conflict zone. During the three and one half years of combat during World War Two, 16.5 million served in the Army for the duration of the war with only 15% ever seeing any combat. In Vietnam percentage of soldiers who experienced more than one 12 month tour was small and they were all volunteers. In the 1980′s I was trained by, and served with a few of these cats they were combat junkies who became addicted to the rush of combat like a drug. If we had never left Vietnam they would still be fighting today from wheelchairs if we let them, why because a good soldier doesn’t quit, he doesn’t leave his fellow warriors behind, his job is not to ask why it is to do or die.

Our politicians will say we have never had a more professional Army, and never has the Army been better equiped. That may be true but that’s not the issue here, the issue is we are sending men back for four, five, or even six combat tours. The issue is we are sending the same 300,000 guys into the breach over and over, the pentagon and the chicken hawks will spin it as a seasoned force consisting of more experienced soldiers, the reality is we do not have enough men in the Army or Marines to handle the multiple deployments and nation building we are undertaking. Did I mention the money? Do you know how much has been spent on the Military in the past 8 years? It is in the Trillions of dollars with a “T”. I have a team of people pouring over the annual defense budgets and the multiple “supplemental bills” for combat operations. Set the fiscal costs aside, what are the human costs of this never ending ground war in Afghanistan, Iraq and all points around the globe. Do you know how many men have been killed in combat and “non combat” operations in the past 8 years, how many have been wounded and not returned to duty? No, why is that? Because the government doesn’t want you to know, that’s the simple answer but the real answer is you don’t want to know what the costs of the Wars are in terms of dollars and more importantly in terms of lives and limbs.  Do you?

What is the mission in Iraq today? Are we preventing the mushroom clouds, removing a dictator who kills his own people, eliminating terrorists, assisting Iraq in building a democracy, or just plain building a country from scratch after destroying it for no good reason? Who knows, the guys I talk to in Iraq have no idea what the mission is, they did in 2003, 2004 or 2006 but today they have no idea, none. How many men are still in Iraq? Why don’t you know you’re paying for it? What is the mission? They don’t know do you?  Here is the thing, you don’t know the answers to these questions because you do not have a personal interest in the men or their mission.

Now, back to the main issue here, the Iraq and Afghanistan Combat vets will be the smallest group, by percentage of population ever to fight for our nation. In fact, more men were involved in Operation Desert Storm then in the entire war in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. My point, we are asking too much of these brave Americans, and it’s time to get them some help, it’s time to have the entire nation have a stake in these conflicts. Remember the 16.5 million Americans who served during World War Two, we defeated two Super Powers in less then four years and I mean defeated, total surrender and make no mistake Japan and Germany were Super Powers. Four years and sixteen million men to conquer the world and everyone pitched in everyone. After eight years, we are worse off in Afghanistan then we were after the 90 day Special Forces Operation to remove the Taliban in 2001 and early 2002. What’s wrong with this picture? How can it be fixed?

The answer is the one the Pentagon fears the most, the draft. We can resolve the entire issue by instituting a draft. Why not, if the mission is that crucial to our national security everyone should pitch in and the draft is the answer, an added bonus it will create jobs. Why not institute a draft, because if you have a draft you create a level of interest among the American people that the Pentagon doesn’t want. What? Seriously, if you have an all volunteer force, then only those who are part of our Nations military culture, and the poor who have no other option or voice  will participate. The regular American family is not poor or part of the military culture thus they have no reason to care about what the Pentagon does or where they send the men under their command. The French figured this out long ago and as a result created the French Foreign Legion, as no french citizen can be part of the legion the citizens give a rats ass about what happens to them, and yes the legion is real and deploys everywhere for France. After the massive anti-war, end the draft demonstrations of the Vietnam era the powers that be decided to go all volunteer, not to improve the Army but, to make it easier to use. Now that the middle American family no longer worries about junior being shipped off to Vietnam, or anywhere else for that matter they feel it’s ok to send guys back into the breach again and again, after all they volunteered didn’t they? You see no one will protest volunteers at least not in large numbers, not large enough to matter. So if you’re truly concerned about mission creep, nation building, and running our Army into the ground tell your congressman to reauthorize the draft. It you won’t call your congressman to tell him to start drafting your kids then call him and tell him to stop sending other peoples kids, husbands, and fathers to fight for something you can’t support with the lives of your loved ones.

The situation is Osama bin Laden is in Pakistan and we are not, he is not in Iraq, Iran, or Afghanistan, but we are.  Osama is not in some cave somewhere as you would like to think, he is living in a large compound with his entire entourage laughing at us. He knows that everyday he lives it is a victory, he knows that the demographics are on his side in the long run, he knows we are not fully engaged in this fight and he is. We can win this, but we can only win this as a nation united behind a cause that is just and our cause in Afghanistan and all places Al Qaeda operates is just. We the American people need a call to action and lets win this thing once and for all, and then bring our boys home.