Hackworth is always "interesting" even if off base with a frequent "anti-establishment" tone to this comments. He certainly "earned" the right - even though not required - to voice his ideas. He's made a second career of it!
If our nation needs a draft to meet the needs of national defense as determined by Congress, then we should support it. Right now, given the present situation, the military and the Executive says it doesn't need nor want it. That could change depending upon needs. I wouldn't make too many promises either way!
There is a tremendous strain on regular, reserve, and guard components that's requiring repeated deployments of many units. It's very difficult for those deployed as well as their families. We owe them our gratitude. Never the less, the hardship does not mean that we should stop sending them. We need them and they have a mission to fulfill.
There's nothing new about "stop loss" which is, as its name suggests, keeping needed troops otherwise eligible to be released so unit effectiveness is not lost. There's nothing wrong with that either. If the nation needs your services you need to do what's required.
The IRR is also nothing new. It is exactly what its name implies - individual ready reserve - meaning you're available for service beyond your release from active duty, if needed, even though you don't have a duty to attend regular drills. This is a known possibility on the front end of an enlistment. It's the individual's responsibility to remain "ready" but troops called up this way are requalified as necessary and brought back up to standards if required.
We need a larger regular military force than we have and we should not have cut back so much several years back. We probably couldn't see then what we see now. America has done that many times in its history and we come up short, temporarily, when problems arise. Somehow we've always managed to meet the challenge.
More challenges await us and we'd better get ready and toughen up our attitudes about it.
Patrick
