Involuntary Call Ups

[cenimo]

Marines to issue involuntary call-ups

Corps faces shortage of volunteers for deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Marine Corps said Tuesday it has been authorized to recall thousands of Marines to active duty, primarily because of a shortage of volunteers for duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. Up to 2,500 Marines will be brought back at any one time, but there is no cap on the total number of Marines who may be forced back into service in the coming years as the military battles the war on terror. The call-ups will begin in the next several months.

http://www.worthynews.com/news/msnbc-msn-com-id-14468245-/

__________________________________________________

There was another thread that was a Poll about having selective service or not and it was mentioned the U.S. always has plenty of volunteers.

Plenty of volunteers yes, but not enough volunteers to go to the combat zones and do the actual fighting.

Infantry, Armor, Combat Engineers and pilots do the actual fighting.
In a prolonged war, a draft is usually needed to man the ground units.

 

[Entertaining_Angels]

Yes, so many guys overseas right now were in the IRR. Fortunately, my IRR time ended sometime around the time of 9/11 so I was not pulled away. If I hadn't had children, I'd have gone in a heartbeat and even with my children, my husband had to talk me out of it.

Yes, the IRR is a sort of back-door draft. I just see it as a symptom of the larger fact that we have our irons in too many fires and need to cool it a bit. I understand the need to call up those in the IRR but it has to be very necessary otherwise you are simply punishing those who volunteered in the first place.

 

[cenimo]

Agreed....it's a sad situation when those who serve get called to serve again and again, when most of the population doesn't serve at all.

 

[Yusuf Evans]

Just to let you guys know, that the Marine Corps will no longer be sending whole units to Afghanistan. They may send a few here and there to train the Afghans, but large scale operations and peacekeeping are done for the Marine in Afghanistan. Our focus is primarily on Iraq, and wondering if the Army could do the same.

 

[[serious]]

I've got just under 2 years left in IRR. It makes me rather nervous...

With a 2 front war, I'm not sure how we are going to man everything.

 

[Entertaining_Angels]

Yes, if we keep after Iran, our country is going to have to do something drastic. Being former military, I hate the idea of a draft as do most military folk but if we're going to keep increasing our 'presence' places, we'll have no choice but to implement a draft. As it is, we're stretched pretty durn thin.

 

[rppearso]

By that time the bush administration will be out of office. Stop losses in my opininon are unethical and I would think they would come with the same consequences as a draft, ie unmotivated people who dont want to be there and may or may not be in weight or fitness reguations.

 

[ArnautDaniel]

Yes, if we keep after Iran, our country is going to have to do something drastic. Being former military, I hate the idea of a draft as do most military folk but if we're going to keep increasing our 'presence' places, we'll have no choice but to implement a draft. As it is, we're stretched pretty durn thin.

The primary problem here is that the public barely supports the war with things as is. You start telling people they or their loved ones are required to serve and that bare support will go over into outright opposition.

 

[rppearso]

I dont think there is support for the war now but congress must approve a draft and that means alot of there jobs will be on the line, not that they arnt already since most representitives in the senate voted against bringing our troops home. Bush is already done in 2008 so it does not matter what he does, now you have to watch out to see how your local representitives and senate members are voting on things and watch to see if they support the rumsfeld administration.