Monday, September 05, 2005
The lies continue
The liberal Americablog is wrong on too many levels for me to count:
First of all, America blog doesn't understand what the supposed "backdoor draft" even was. No serious critic ever considered the mobilization of reserve and guard units for their intended purpose to fight and win our nation's wars to be a "backdoor draft." The "backdoor draft" referred to the stop loss policies designed to reduced turnover in deploying units, and the use of IRR troops to fill in individual vacancies within deploying units.
Neither phenomenon affects our domestic disaster response one iota. The "Stop loss" policy only affects those whose enlistments are expiring. And IRR soldiers are not subject to callup by governors for disaster response. Americablog fundamentally misunderstands the issue.
Further, Americablog's statement that "many fewer retiring soldiers will sign up for these groups (National Guard and reserve) in the future" is again false on several levels: First, 'retiring soldiers' don't sign up for any other component by definition, other than the Retired List. They're retired. Second: Retention rates are well above target levels and historical norms, particularly among units which have actually deployed. Third: Americablog attempts to buttress their false argument that retention is down by citing recruiting numbers - a sign that Americablog's misunderstanding of the military is so profound they should not be taken seriously on anything they write regarding military readiness.
Splash, out
Jason
Echoing our posting "Is This Disaster Natural Or Man-Made?," the New York Times in an editorial called "Man-Made Disaster" makes clear what many of us have been saying for years: that Bush has cavalierly damaged our nation's security with his backdoor draft of the National Guard and Army Reserve. Because Bush abused their trust and went back on the compact between this country and those brave volunteers, many fewer retiring soldiers will sign up for these groups in the future (Louisiana is at about 45% short of its goal this year in signing up new recruits). That's going to weaken our nation's security and ability to respond in case of terrorist attack or natural disaster for DECADES to come.
First of all, America blog doesn't understand what the supposed "backdoor draft" even was. No serious critic ever considered the mobilization of reserve and guard units for their intended purpose to fight and win our nation's wars to be a "backdoor draft." The "backdoor draft" referred to the stop loss policies designed to reduced turnover in deploying units, and the use of IRR troops to fill in individual vacancies within deploying units.
Neither phenomenon affects our domestic disaster response one iota. The "Stop loss" policy only affects those whose enlistments are expiring. And IRR soldiers are not subject to callup by governors for disaster response. Americablog fundamentally misunderstands the issue.
Further, Americablog's statement that "many fewer retiring soldiers will sign up for these groups (National Guard and reserve) in the future" is again false on several levels: First, 'retiring soldiers' don't sign up for any other component by definition, other than the Retired List. They're retired. Second: Retention rates are well above target levels and historical norms, particularly among units which have actually deployed. Third: Americablog attempts to buttress their false argument that retention is down by citing recruiting numbers - a sign that Americablog's misunderstanding of the military is so profound they should not be taken seriously on anything they write regarding military readiness.
Splash, out
Jason
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