Party chairmen debate the draft
From the political show MEET THE PRESS on NBC, a dialogue with the Democratic Party Chairman and Republican Party Chairman:
MR. RUSSERT: Let me show you something that John Kerry said about George Bush's future plans. Let's listen.
(Videotape, September 24, 2004):
SEN. KERRY: The young students wondering whether they are going to be finding a world in which there's a draft when they get out of college.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: A military draft: George Bush is against it; John Kerry is against it. The vast majority of both houses of Congress are on the record against it. The military is against it. Why is John Kerry raising it as an issue?
MR. McAULIFFE: Because you know today we have nine out of our 10 active service folks are committed over in Iraq today. If we had an issue in North Korea, the generals say themselves today that we don't have enough troops to handle another conflict somewhere else in the world. Generals, Tony McPeak, four-star general in the Air Force, ran Gulf War I, says we don't have enough troops today. So it is an issue that should be discussed out there. It is a very active--and I say to young people across the country, this possibly could happen because George Bush has made us less safe. And because George Bush says that we're not going to have a draft, George Bush also said there were weapons of mass destruction. He said he'd create jobs, he'd fund education, fund health care. George Bush has no credibility, and that's why he's going to lose.
MR. RUSSERT: Not a scare tactic in order to whip up the college vote?
MR. McAULIFFE: If we had a conflict somewhere else in the world today, we don't have enough troops. Now, why did the Pentagon on last Thursday, Tim, say that may have to have a draft for doctors? That is George Bush's Pentagon. Go check the facts. They say we may have to have a draft for doctors.
MR. GILLESPIE: Tim, it is long-standing military doctrine in the United States that a volunteer army is the best army, that they--not only do George Bush and Dick Cheney oppose a military draft, but the Pentagon is opposed to it because cost of conscription is higher, the turnover is higher. You don't develop an officer corps. People don't choose to stay for a career. Morale is lower. They're opposed to it.
We're not going to have a draft. This is a scare tactic, just like the notion that president's going to privatize Social Security, just like these charges of voter suppression, because you know why? The latest poll shows that 18 percent of African-Americans are voting for George W. Bush, double what it was in 2000, so they're resorting to scare tactics. And the same thing with blue-collar workers. If the president's re-elected, then we're not going to have overtime pay. It's the worst kind of politics of fear.
From the political show MEET THE PRESS on NBC, a dialogue with the Democratic Party Chairman and Republican Party Chairman:
MR. RUSSERT: Let me show you something that John Kerry said about George Bush's future plans. Let's listen.
(Videotape, September 24, 2004):
SEN. KERRY: The young students wondering whether they are going to be finding a world in which there's a draft when they get out of college.
(End videotape)
MR. RUSSERT: A military draft: George Bush is against it; John Kerry is against it. The vast majority of both houses of Congress are on the record against it. The military is against it. Why is John Kerry raising it as an issue?
MR. McAULIFFE: Because you know today we have nine out of our 10 active service folks are committed over in Iraq today. If we had an issue in North Korea, the generals say themselves today that we don't have enough troops to handle another conflict somewhere else in the world. Generals, Tony McPeak, four-star general in the Air Force, ran Gulf War I, says we don't have enough troops today. So it is an issue that should be discussed out there. It is a very active--and I say to young people across the country, this possibly could happen because George Bush has made us less safe. And because George Bush says that we're not going to have a draft, George Bush also said there were weapons of mass destruction. He said he'd create jobs, he'd fund education, fund health care. George Bush has no credibility, and that's why he's going to lose.
MR. RUSSERT: Not a scare tactic in order to whip up the college vote?
MR. McAULIFFE: If we had a conflict somewhere else in the world today, we don't have enough troops. Now, why did the Pentagon on last Thursday, Tim, say that may have to have a draft for doctors? That is George Bush's Pentagon. Go check the facts. They say we may have to have a draft for doctors.
MR. GILLESPIE: Tim, it is long-standing military doctrine in the United States that a volunteer army is the best army, that they--not only do George Bush and Dick Cheney oppose a military draft, but the Pentagon is opposed to it because cost of conscription is higher, the turnover is higher. You don't develop an officer corps. People don't choose to stay for a career. Morale is lower. They're opposed to it.
We're not going to have a draft. This is a scare tactic, just like the notion that president's going to privatize Social Security, just like these charges of voter suppression, because you know why? The latest poll shows that 18 percent of African-Americans are voting for George W. Bush, double what it was in 2000, so they're resorting to scare tactics. And the same thing with blue-collar workers. If the president's re-elected, then we're not going to have overtime pay. It's the worst kind of politics of fear.
posted by Hans Riemer at 8:59 PM
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