tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post1085644702336705945..comments2023-11-03T09:36:22.100-04:00Comments on In From the Cold: Your Monday Morning BriefingGeorge Smileyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07049707648660651119noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-57652119824979470432014-04-23T08:05:30.839-04:002014-04-23T08:05:30.839-04:00Thanks for the link, will take a look at it this m...Thanks for the link, will take a look at it this morning.Old NFOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16404197287935017147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-7968930035447435022014-04-23T07:07:42.357-04:002014-04-23T07:07:42.357-04:00You have to wonder about the effectiveness of a co...You have to wonder about the effectiveness of a conscript army selected out of our current society. <br /><br />The draft worked reasonable well in WW II when young men were by and large patriotic and there was a clear cut enemy who had attacked us.<br /><br />I don't think the current generation of young men would be very eager to defend Poland or Japan. Our current elites are hostile to patriotism and don't appear to understand the morale side of military power. I have the sense that we are heading towards some sort of fiasco or disaster.<br /><br />sykes.1https://www.blogger.com/profile/10954672321945289871noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-677545568018075762014-04-22T17:40:56.797-04:002014-04-22T17:40:56.797-04:00Couldn't agree more...and one more note: witho...Couldn't agree more...and one more note: without a draft, there is no potential for mobilization, or replacement of casualties. We don't have a latter-day Lord Kitchener who would tell a commander-in-chief that the next war could be protracted and bloody, and paraphrasing Kitchener, require manpower that we don't have--and haven't programmed for.<br /><br />With 72% of American youth unfit for military service, it would be virtually impossible to significantly expand our forces. The plus-up of our ground forces during the Iraq War was a herculean effort, and the Army (in particular) had to take recruits who would have been quickly rejected a few years before and would be turned away today. Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12712369389411084085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10820485.post-13699999968768391262014-04-22T07:03:20.029-04:002014-04-22T07:03:20.029-04:00More importantly, in a stand up fight against a ne...More importantly, in a stand up fight against a near peer power like China or Russia there will be losses in both personnel and equipment.<br /><br />Those losses cannot be made up. There will be no replacements for lost F22's or B2's or Nimitz carriers or Seal Teams or Armored brigades.<br /><br />These assets are simply too expensive to replace, and they won't be.<br /><br />If the war goes on for any length of time, say a year or two (and why not?) our highly trained forces will be replaced by half-trained conscript forces equipped with much simpler arms.<br /><br />Think BEF in WW I. The elite British infantry were dead by 1915.sykes.1https://www.blogger.com/profile/10954672321945289871noreply@blogger.com