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Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Total Recall

Posted by on August 22 at 13:56 PM

Don’t call it a draft—it’s an “involuntary troop recall.”

The U.S. Marine Corps will start ordering what could be thousands of inactive service members to return to duty in the coming months to counter a steady decline in the number of such troops who volunteer, the service said on Tuesday…. President George W. Bush authorized the Marine Corps to issue involuntary recall orders to members of the Individual Ready Reserve, part of the non-active force. It will be the Marine Corps’ first involuntary recall since the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The authorization limits the number of Marines who can be activated involuntarily to no more 2,500 at any one time, out of a pool of about 35,000, Stratton said. The length of each activated service member’s duty is capped at 24 months but will likely last 12 to 18 months.

And, yes, I realize that this is all my fault.


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We all know Bush's military service was a joke, bought and paid for by the Bush family, and we know he skipped out on every single training... but still... the idiot has a Master from an Ivy League school...

Those who use the military skillfully do not raise troops twice and do not provide food three times - Sun Tzu

But, what about everyone else... Art of War is required reading for a military officer... #9 on the list

http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/reference/CSAList/list3.htm


But then again, wisdom of today or wisdom from the ages has never been strong in that fool.

Time to start selling T-shirts saying "I was Drafted and all I got was an Involuntary Recall notice".

I agree, The Art of War should be required reading, just wish they actually understood what it said.

They tell you up front when you enlist in the military that the term is not just for the (usually) 4 years of active service. It is for 8 years - 4 active and 4 inactive, during which you may be called up for stuff. It's not exactly in the fine print, although, when I enlisted in the 80's, my recruiter stressed that the Individual Ready Reserve had never been called up to fight.

The Marines knew that this was part of their enlistment agreement, so I wouldn't make comparisons to the draft. During my years on IRR, I got called up once as part of a test, which my recruiter had told me was not uncommon. I just had to go down to Ft. Lewis, verify my address and get a physical with about 200 other guys. I spent about 5 hours on post one day, and that was the extent of my IRR service.

Still, I wonder if the IRR had been called up for war a couple of times before I enlisted, if it wouldn't have given me second thoughts about military service. A short hitch was a big selling point for me.

The long deployments for the Reserves and National Guard, and now the IRR activation, are really hurting recruitment and re-enlistment, and could have effects long after we are out of Iraq. Just another way that this war has been botched.

So, you seriously expect a 17 year old to remember all the stuff they "tell you"?

They don't.

At least Mr. Savage is man enough to admit it's his fault. Bush will have someone to blame when this all comes raining down in lots of little bits of brown smelly stuff.
;>)

Israel has a mandatory draft. American needs one now. It makes for a better educated military, more intelligent, and able to read the fine print on the forms they sign.


The American military is low class idiots who joined for the money or because they believed what the recruiter told them. No wonder they can't read the fine print. They're all idiots.

Josh, don't be a fucking dick.


Yes, a lot of recruits signed up because they needed some cash, and a lot of them are "low class." That doesn't make them stupid, you fucking alterna-yuppie pig.


If you had any contact with actual soldiers, you'd know that most of them damned well knew what they were in for when they signed up, and did it anyway, some for money, a few for noble reasons, and a lot just for that ephemeral, defiant, youthful sense of fuck-you, which you probably found through something tame like crowd-surfing at a Jane's Addiction show when you were 19.

I feel sorry for my friends but I am really glad I am totally out. Thanks honorable mr bush for helping kill my brothers.

Good, Dan. Just so long as you realize that.

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