[extropy-chat] Politics: US talks of suspending elections

[J. Andrew Rogers]

On Jul 17, 2004, at 1:20 PM, Rik van Riel wrote:
> Not just the party-bots, though.  There are quite a few
> concerned parents around, who know that if they don't
> vote Bush out of office, their kids could be drafted
> into the army.
>
> Rumor has it the target date for the reinstated draft
> would be june or july next year.  IF Bush wins, that is.


This is nonsense, and the only people who have floated the idea are the 
Democrats.  It is nothing more than a ploy to spread FUD pre-election.  
  The Department of Defense is adamantly against the idea, as 
conscription troops are markedly inferior to professional forces and 
degrade the overall force structure.  In effect, the overall capability 
of the military would not increase in any significant sense even if you 
doubled the number of soldiers through conscription.  Given no 
significant benefit at the cost of greatly increased logistical 
footprint, the military will take quality over quantity every time.

Instead, the DoD is doing something that it should have done a long 
time ago:  re-deploy the few hundred thousand soldiers still in Cold 
War deployments to useful theaters, much to the whining of Europe and 
Asia.

Military conscription won't happen, nor does it need to happen.  The 
reason political parties (the Democrats in this case) promote ideas 
like this is precisely so that people like you will think that it is 
real possibility and pin the notion on whoever the current 
administration is.  Manipulation of the masses, as usual.  Parents who 
are worried about this need to stop drinking so much conspiracy 
Koolaid.

It never fails.  Every single election is preceded with a good portion 
of the population descending into an irrational state of delusional 
paranoia about the Other Guy, which the politicians feed to their own 
ends.  And people wonder why I have such a low opinion of the species.


j. andrew rogers