Letters to the Editor
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administrative overhead
Then there is the Greenwald method where individuals and units are tracked and matched. So let's hypothetically have a force of ten units with ten troops each. I'm mathematically challenged, but if I recall correctly that's 10 to the 10th power of possible combinations of troops with an additional doubling of states for in field and out. I have no doubt someone will correct me if I'm wrong. So a group of 100 has how many possibilities? Ten million times two? Gosh, I wonder what it would be for a couple hundred thousand?
OK, leaving your poor estimates aside...
Tracking troop rotations is absolutely computationally feasible, and could be handled with one moderately-sized database, much simpler and smaller than those used in finance, for example. This is obvious to anyone who has worked at all in a database-related field. I myself have worked with databases larger than what would be required here. (Hint: you don't need to enumerate all the possible combinations of troops, that doesn't make any sense at all.)
Now, some people may think that someone who is against the war would lie about this. If this is you, you're a mendacious idiot, but don't take my for it:
http://www.theregister.com/2007/06/23/sentient_worlds/print.html
Read up on this "Sentient World Simulator" and you will be amazed at the degree of data tracking which is possible. Right now the system models entire populations at a 100-1 ratio, which will soon be a 1-1 ratio, capable of simulating and statistically predicting individual geographical movements through the real buildings of real cities. It is a very impressive system, it is worth your while to google it a bit.
Regulating troop rotations would be a drop in this thing's bucket.
For anyone who is worried about the cost (which would not be steep), please take your largest estimate and consider that our Congress has already squandered nine times the national budget on pork alone, not counting costs for the Iraq war. You will find that your largest uneducated estimate does not even register as a weekly fluctuation on budgets of this size.
There may be reasons not to adopt Webb's proposal, but the "administrative difficulty" is a real crappy excuse not to.
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we well may end up with a military and reservist's bill of rights out of this war --- so much "good faith" abused ...
I find the arguments for a draft overwhelming but I have always felt the "all volunteer" army was risky ... although I didn't realize how risky it was for those serving... as we've seen in Iraq.
People seem to think not-having-a-draft protects their child from being "drafted" ... but IF Iraq were a "real war" and IF TeamBush and the high commands were NOT willing to treat our military like legally-bound indentured slaves, and to fight Iraq with a military force INCAPABLE of achiving its mission-- we would have had a draft YESTERDAY. Instead of worrying that your kid might be drafted, consider that your kid might be a draft dodger or expatriot asylum seeker for a few years ... it's a small price to pay to keep the voice of the people "relevant" when our leaders misuse our military ...
Millions of emigrants who came to America at the turn of the last century were fleeing conscription in various stupid internecine european wars.... there's nothing noble about serving in a war you do not believe in ...
Better a draft than this indentured servitude and the military needs fresh faces and voices stir the waters. When you have a force made up of people hoping for a career path or trying to survive long enough to pay for a college education or payoff debts or make a downpayment, you have personnel, who like colonial indentured servants, do not have genuine freedom of choice as the rest of us enjoy... and for whom dissent or even doubts could have negative consequences.
Staying out of unnecessary wars, fighting as part of dedicated coalition, confining conflicts to wars that could predominantly be fought from the air (or not at all, i.e. peacekeeping) irrc, were some of the post-cold war assumptions... TeamBush has practiced bad faith to a degree unimaginable ... it will be interesting to see how our country responds to their transgressions.
I've been thinking about that old Psych 101 concept of "learned helplessness" ... it's also a form of bad faith psych-ops analogous to TeamBush's tactics ... the Surge that was actually an open-ended escalation ... the "progress" that wasn't ... the "new tactics" that weren't new ... so much double-talk... I know I feel exhausted ... too exhausted to demonstrate the appropriate outrage. The soldiers in Iraq probably similarly are too occupied just putting one foot in front of the other and staying alive to waste energy on "the bigger picture" when it's obvious no one gives a shit what they think.
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Welfare Queens, all
The best part about all these Kagan and Kristol types is that - if not the corporate welfare state - they would be unemployed losers with no constructive skills. Both the National Review and Weekly Standard are heavily subsidized and hemorrhage millions of dollars. Imagine if they really had to play by the capitalist, natural selection screeds they supposedly endorse- they'd be eaten alive.
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I don't know why Kagan's strawman is being...
battled here. He doesn't give a shit about troop readiness or simple logistic problems. Webb's bill will force a significant troop reduction or a draft because it forces enough rest for the troops. This will throw a wrench in Kagan's plan to hold out long enough to blame the next President when the house of cards falls in Iraq and our military is FUBAR.
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Bathe time!
This is the type of gene pool that needs a good cleansing with Clorox.
I have seen Mr. Kagen on tv, he seems rationale enough but the more he speaks the worse it gets.
Do they have any children that are service age?
They, of course would not serve, because they are needed for the neocon movement.
These people really do believe that there are 2 classes of people, us and them
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Sickos
The three most ridiculous and unnecessary wars of the last 100 years have been Vietnam, Iraq and the 1968 Soccer War between El Salvador and Honduras. It's ironic that the current disaster is so enthusiastically urged on by people who are even more demented than the ones involved in the other two.