A question actually 3 questions. Bring back the draft?

 A question actually 3 questions:

1. Why do we need a draft? 2. Can we bring back the draft and 3. Will it work?

1. We need a draft because American leadership has failed us.

More and more flag officers (Generals/Admirals) are promoted based on their political acumen/gender/race as opposed to their actual ability and experience.

For example, the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs is not best known for any of his combat exploits. He is, however, well known for declaring that the US Air Force has too many white officers in place.

Do we have too many white officers in the Air Force?

In my experience operating weapons and other military hardware, I had yet to be queried as to my skin color or reproductive capability by the system in question before I operated said equipment.
Now, the worst possible framework for advancement has taken place: slavish devotion to fringe-left dogma of all kinds (converting all military equipment to EV to save the environment, insane costs and total lack of infrastructure notwithstanding), support of the insanity of spending hundreds of millions of military and VA funds for gender-mutilation and subsequent lifetime drugs and health care, affirmative action and support of the disastrous idea of women in ground combat... and all manner of social engineering that does not and never will make the US military a more lethal fighting force more capable of performing its mission which boils down to closing with and destroying the enemy.

We need a draft primarily because those who would mostly consider enlisting are well aware of the "woke" nature of the military, where if you tell the truth on any given subject, your career is over, and you face court martial and prison for doing so.

If you express concern over reduced combat readiness as a direct result of insane socialized policies like those inculcated into the military today, you are done. And if you don't rabidly support those policies, it's a QKR, aka a "Quick Career Killer."

In short, what used to be the main reasons for enlisting have been reduced to the point of invisibility.

During the Biden Administration, the Army has yet to come close to meeting quota. And within the past week, they hit full panic mode and reassigned 800 NCO's to full-on Recruiting Duty, instead of meeting their career progression requirements. Those redesignated had as much as 6 days warning.

The Army is so desperate that almost all qualifying requirements to become a recruiter are waved. Substantial bonuses and promotions are being offered as bait. The Air Force? They've increased the age to 42.

I get what we've been bombarded with as excuses for failing to meet recruitment goals, as instead of engaging in a bit of introspection as to why enlistments are off at a catastrophically low level, we're entertained with a "tiny" pool of eligible individuals excuse.

Too fat. Too many use(d) drugs. Too many have a criminal record, and initially, too stupid; a situation attempting to be addressed with the Army's version of "headstart," (which, come to think of it, shows no particular advantage to the students so engaged) resulting in the claim that of those actually eligible for enlistment by age, only 28% actually qualify.

Yet, during the Trump Administration, that same "pool" enabled Army quotas to be met 3 out of 4 years of his tenure.

That same "tiny pool" was all that was available for the last year we met quota (2020) and since then, the Army has been reduced to meeting McNamara's 100,000 level requirements to even get the pathetic numbers we make now, still far short of the goal.

McNamara's Folly: lowering the standards to fill the ranks.

Of course the horrific public schools we have ramming their anti-country hatred and almost total lack of academics down our kid's throats doesn't help.

2. Can we bring back the draft?

Absolutely. It would take congressional approval and funding... but that doesn't mean it can't happen. It CAN happen.

But unless the East Coast is invaded, that's hardly likely. Further, the specter of women being drafted, which, under equality laws is ultimately unavoidable, will mean that half those drafted will be horrific fighters.

Imagine. Women, who generally are very big on SITUATIONAL equality of the variety that doesn't inconvenience them, have remained steadfastly silent over the obvious inequity of the draft, where men are the ones yanked in from the street to die/get crippled/injured for their country to provide women the freedom to ignore this PARTICULAR brand of inequality, may now find themselves given the same privilege that so many man have died from, or suffered horrific pain, for.

Exclusive of the obvious hypocrisy of this failure of the so-called "women's movement," the price of freedom is not free. Which causes one to wonder why women shouldn't be given the same opportunity as men to pay that particular price.

Army offers women "equality" in career opportunities 

You'd THINK that women would be pounding on doors and clogging the streets DEMANDING this equality. Their silence is deafening as they confirm they have no interest in equality beyond the situational variety. (Not unlike fallacies like the "wage gap" and so forth.) Based on the response to current legislation, however, it seems that the only demands are just the opposite: mainly that women would continue to be draft-exempt.

But for those and many other reasons related to those reasons, no matter how bad the situation gets outside the United States, Congress/President (likely, no matter who controls either) will put their political futures ahead of the needs of the country as they so frequently do,

We've already heard from fathers claiming their "daughters will be drafted over my dead body" because they're not interested in true equality either if their princess has to shed blood for this country to achieve it. So imagine the blow-back if the draft/mandatory service was restarted.

3. Will it work?

That's an open question.

It COULD work, perhaps. Israel, by comparison has just lost the equivalent in America to 60,000 people by population. What would OUR response be to such an attack? (And, for the record, women are subject to mandatory service in Israel as well.)

Well, that depends. Under the current administration, it likely would result in commissions so a determination could be made as to who we offended so much that attacked us and how can we avoid it in the future.

The only way in 2023 or the near future a draft would work is to make the cost of avoiding the draft so expensive that kids would have hard time accomplishing that. Of course, we could expect mass evacuations to leftist countries ala Canada during Vietnam.

Naturally, parents and other family members would be terrified if their son or daughter was drafted. After all with the combination of horrific military leadership and equally horrific political leadership, who'd want to go? With the sacrifice of time and money wasted on social engineering and brainwashing the troops into believing, falsely, that women are equal to men (How many women received a Combat Infantry Badge during the Afghan/Iraq war?) instead of spending more time on the craft of destroying the enemy... *I*, a 14 year veteran of the Army, would not consider enlistment these days unless the Russians were landing in Georgia.

The al-Tanf military outpost in southern Syria. U.S. personnel based here have come under repeated attack in recent days. (Lolita Baldor/AP)
And now? Now bullets are flying. Americans in the Middle East are suffering wounds for which they might not even get Purple Hearts. (Memo to the Washington Post: football players get injured. Servicemembers in combat situations get wounded. Big difference.) At what point will the draft be reinstated? Things will have to get far, far worse than they are now, but it remains a possibility. As opposed to a likelihood.

Ceasefire in gaza? Horrific mistake.

Have you noticed it?

The hypocrisy of leftists and their fake outrage over Israel responding to Gazan terrorism and 1400 dead, hundreds raped and thousands wounded... Ongoing silence by feminists everywhere. Outward antisemitism and hatred of Jews generally and of Israel specifically by the left en masse and their situational ethics on display for all.

College campuses, including Huskyville University of Washington are allowed and become hotbeds of hatred and demands for genocide of the Jews/Israelis supported by several college/university administrations.

More leftist bigotry on full display. Another shameful episode right up there with US policy towards Jews in World War 2. Similar bigotry displayed when US policy sent thousands of Jews to their deaths.

Himmler would be proud.

Leftists everywhere who hope for the destruction of Israel have been demanding a ceasefire since October 8th.

Israeli soldiers carry the coffin of 22-year-old First Sergeant Moshe Naftali, who was killed in the attacks on southern Israel, Photograph: Bernat Armangue/AP

"Humanitarian reasons" is their cry.

But those with functioning brain synapses and even a vague geopolitical understanding of the region know better.

ANY "ceasefire" (which hamas is likely to completely ignore) will serve no one but the terrorists. How'd the "ceasefires" work out in Vietnam?

The "ceasefire" is allegedly to return hostages. How many depends on what you've read.... 50 to 150. This, by itself, sets a dangerous precedent.

Do leftists notice that hamas terrorists have hostages and Israel, despite having hundreds of terrorists locked up, do not?

That said, we can now fully expect hamas to engage in the science of taking... and killing... more hostages in the future.

But more importantly, this day pause is a huge strategic opportunity for hamas to reorganize and resupply. In fact, the draft agreement includes a requirement that Israel END DRONE SURVEILANCE OVER BOTH NORTH AND SOUTH GAZA FOR THE DURATION OF THE CEASEFIRE. And the result?

More people will likely be killed as a result of this kowtowing to leftist whiners than are being saved.

Imagine a 5 day ceasefire a month after D-Day in Normandy. Imagine what would have happened.

The outcome here is likely to be similar. IDF momentum stopped in its tracks. Zero strategic advantage to Israel which, due to its short logistical lines, has zero problem with resupply.

So, one can reasonably ask themselves: who will gain the most from this effort? And why?

Great deal of Paliwood out of gaza with children.

Perhaps they shouldn't make them combatants?

https://www.facebook.com/reel/734903468656966

We have a former SS officer buried at Arlington. Should he be removed?

Back in late September, much was made of the Canadian Parliament, along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, giving a former Ukrainian SS officer, one Yaroslav Hunka, a standing ovation as a part of Zelenksyy's visit asking for more aid in Ukraine's fight against the Russians.

A quick look at Hunka's bio indicates he was a member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division.  Born in what was then Poland, he enlisted in the SS in 1943. Like Zelenskyy, he is also Jewish.

During World War Two, the 14th Waffen was part of the Grenadier Division SS.  The regiment was largely made up of ethnic Ukrainian volunteers from Galacia.

It was founded in 1943 to fight Soviets on the Eastern Front.

Fight the Soviets on the Eastern Front.

I was unable to find allegations that Hunka individually participated in war crimes. There are, however, allegations that his unit, the 1st Galician, committed war crimes. So, the essential issue seems to be that he was assigned to an SS unit. But the unit did engage in combat with Soviets for almost the remainder of the war in Europe, taking tremendous casualties along the way.

There was a huge outcry against the Canadian government, against their Parliament and against their Speaker of the House who ultimately resign.  Many of those leading the charge remain opposed to providing aid to Ukraine... and saw this as just another sign that Putin is correct, that his effort in Ukraine is to "clean out the Nazis."

Meanwhile, another individual followed the same path from a different area.

SS-Untersturmführer (Lieutenant) Lauri Torni

Torni was a Finnish soldier who fought under three flags: as a Finnish Army Second Lieutenant of the Fourth Independent Jäger Infantry Battalion against the Soviets in the Winter War and the Soviet-Finnish sub-theater of World War II known as the Continuation War; as a German Army Captain (under the alias Larry Lane) of the Finnish Volunteer Battalion of the Waffen-SS when he fought the Soviets on the Eastern Front in World War II in Sondercommando Nord.

Fought the Soviets' on the Eastern Front.

After changing his name, he went on to serve as a United States Army Captain (under the alias “Larry Thorne”) when he served in the U.S. Army Special Forces in the Vietnam War.

While I've been unable to find out much about Hunka's war record, Torni was a made-for-TV movie.

He was awarded medals for bravery in combat by Finland (Mannerheim Cross) Germany (Iron Cross) and the United States (Combat Infantry Badge, Legion of Merit, Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star and 2 Purple Hearts.)

He was also Special Forces and Master Parachutist Qualified.

                                US Army CPT Larry Thorne, promoted posthumously to Major.

While deployed in the Vietnam War, he was killed in a helicopter crash and his remains were not recovered until 1999, and he was subsequently buried in Arlington with full military honors.

There are, of course, similarities between Torni and Hunka.  Among those are the allegations that the Davison to which Torni was assigned, the SS Division Viking, did, in fact, participate in war crimes. I was, however, unable to find any allegations against Torni.

The differences are there between the two.  But so are the similarities.  

This begs the issue: if Hunka, the subject of scorn and derision is to be hated for his association with the SS as a teenager and the subsequent "scandal" have cost the Canadian Speaker of the House his position in Canada, should the remains of Major Thorne, who was in the SS in his mid-20s, be dug up and sent back to Finland?

If we are to give Thorne a pass considering his SS record of fighting what amounts today as Russians... then  why doesn't Hunka receive a similar pass for his service in fighting what amounts today as Russians?

I'd really like to know. And so far, as many times as I've asked that question, I have yet to get an answer.

Last night, Caleb Williams' reaction to their loss reminded me of Gardner Minshew

Gardner Minshew, now in the NFL, was disconsolate the night his Cougs lost to the Huskies in the Apple Cup in Pullman: (Snagged this screen capture) which I've never forgotten:

Gardner Minshew moments after the loss of the 2018 Apple Cup

Minshew is a warrior. Like Williams, he gave it everything he had.

Minshew knew he was only going to play for one year but he didn't care. He wanted it very badly.

Yesterday, Caleb Williams gave it everything HE had. And they'd likely have defeated most any other team.

I'd like that game, even as a USC loss, to be known for that effort, instead of a few minutes of post-game humanity he displayed in his mom's arms when it was over.

Caleb Williams, projected NFL QB Wunderkind

There's a lot more to the game then outcomes. USC did not lose because of him. But the loss hurt nonetheless.

This Husky Alum says Williams has nothing to be ashamed of.

Being human rarely does.

ONE YEAR LATER: Read this if you're thinking about going with Starlink.

Starlink is now available at many locations including Best Buy, Home Depot, Amazon, Cabela, Bass Pro Shops and many other places. You don't HAVE to go through the web site.

Make sure your address is getting service, however: some few locations are still not available or overly saturated.

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It took 6 months to get the system straightened out, or my understanding of it straightened out, to achieve what we have now:

The best system available in my area for rural internet users.

My prior ISP was the only one available: DSL on Kalama Telephone. Their DSL was so slow, we had to have (and pay for) 2 separate DSL lines at around 30 meg per month at $120. 

Each.

That did not include what we were paying for equipment (Whole home wifi, for example.)

Now because of a grant from the Fed, optic cable is finally going to be laid out here.  Once it's out here (and it isn't, as yet) their prices are insane considering the Fed gave them the money to do this.

$154.94 per month for a paltry "Up to" 200 megs. (For comparison, Xfinity charges $35 for 200 meg over their wireless system) but that would also involve an utterly ABSURD $185 "account setup charge."

As an aside, I have also tried T-Mobile's system, which costs $50 per month. ATT isn't available. Infinity can't find my address.

In spite of the claim that my rural area is ready for T-Mobile 5G wireless internet, it was not close to the demands of a combined business and casual internet use requirement, so I kept Starlink.

Starlink is by no means perfect. There have been equipment issues. One of the weaker links is the cable from the router to the satellite dish. It's a proprietary cable with proprietary connectors. It uses a system called Power over Cable (POE) because most of the actual internet is located IN the dish itself, so it offers power to a heater unit.  The problem appears to be that it's rough on the cable itself, and they become inoperable at a much higher rate than you'd expect if either of the two heater systems ("automatic" or "pre-heat") are switched on (As an aside, with mine off, the dish generates enough heat to melt most snow regardless. If you live in a snow climate... Minnesota or Vermont, for example, that may not be enough.).

I've needed two replacement routers. I've needed one replacement ethernet adapter. They have to ship them to you and you've got to send the other equipment back (which they pay for)

The proprietary nature of all this equipment, which was obviously unnecessary, remains totally in effect. Elon makes money, but he wastes a lot of it as well on issues that could be solved with a simple call. Further, the cable sent with Starlink WAS 75 feet, I'm hearing that has been reduced to 50ft. AFAIK, 150ft cables remain available but you have to pay for them and there are no connectors that simple allow you to connect one cable to another.  Instead, you have to splice cables together using Rj45 connectors and jacks which, as simple as it allegedly is, I have yet to be capable of doing.

That said, in the past 6 months, I've needed nothing. It has worked very well. We have had essentially zero buffering.  Starlink itself has gone down VERY infrequently as a result of Sunspots. But not nearly often enough or long enough to make it a bad deal.

Additionally, we've saved far more than enough money than we've even more than broke even on the issue of equipment costs (Starlink needs $600 up front) We are, in fact, paying ourselves back.

The 3rd Gen route is going to come out soon, and Starlink heard the complaints that were so loud, this router actually has at least one and possibly two ports on it so ethernet adapters won't be needed for the newest routers.

Customer service is still the worst in the internet world. There still is no number to call for tech support.

But in my experience, the cost savings makes it worth it:

Not long after this post of a year ago, Starlink announced a 1 terabyte data cap per month. They also incurred, ultimately, 2 price increases, from $99 per month (the charge for unlimited data at the time I signed up) to $110 (with the data cap) and then to $120 with no data cap, which is the current rate.

At the time, we were paying DirecTv roughly $200 per month.

Our total costs for internet and satellite TV then, was $240+ for two DSL lines (one business) and then the $200 for TV, or $440.

We now pay $120 for starlink and about $100 for TV (YouTube TV at $75 per month and a couple of subscription channels that enable m to follow most UDub football games... PAC12 network on Sling) Had they kept the data cap in place, this wouldn't have been possible, but they didn't.

We got rid of DirecTV altogether. YouTube TV has local channels and unlimited DVR. It's much cheaper.

If you are thinking about getting one of these systems. Read my initial struggles below the line.  Go on youtube and search for Starlink. Many of those videos are out of date, so make sure you're looking at videos from the last two months or so. All-in-all, it has been worthwhile. And I expect to stay with it.

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Realistically, their customer service sucks. It is, if not THE worst in the internet world, close to it.

If you have an issue, you have to email them. Then, since there's only roughly 1.5 million subscribers, you have to wait for someone to respond.

Then, you go back and forth until the problem is resolved or the component is replaced. Replacement components have averaged 2 to 3 weeks for me.

All the parts and the cables are proprietary (one of the many reasons this system is difficult to repair), and they have, as yet not even bothered to include a connector that would allow cable expansion unless you cut the cables yourself and connect them, typically using RJ45 connectors.

I have not been able as yet to accomplish that feat that I've been assured is as simple as making a P,B and J.

Further, the router has no ethernet port: (though the next version apparently will have such a port… or ports) so you get to buy an adapter that provides such a port (which SHOULD be enclosed) separately after you discover the port available on every other router on the planet is missing, for a quick $25... and a wait to get one.

We are what's called "end user quality control."

That said, when it works?

It's a fantastic system for rural areas. If you have access to other forms of actual high-speed internet, then don't bother with this.

Fiber/cable is typically much cheaper/faster and won't require a big cash outlay up front. And if something goes wrong, you typically won't face weeks of delay getting the problem resolved AND there's actual troubleshooting numbers to call to help you deal with the issues in question immediately.

Starlink COULD resolve these obvious failures but have chosen not to do so. Which is understandable if you don't care about modern customer service but have people begging to get their hands on your system.

That may change over the next couple of years as Amazon's proposed sat system gets online. Or they may make the same mistakes. Who knows?

The PARTICULAR area you live it may not have any availability for you to set up a system due to congestion by users that already have the system in place. But Starlink is expanding, albeit at a snail’s pace, so they'll get to you eventually if it's not available now. At this point, however, it's claimed the entire continental US is covered. The map below, from the Starlink website, does indicate there are places still where service is NOT available.

Just get your $700 or whatever ready up front and have at it. It's also available at Home Depot, Best Buy, oddly enough, Amazon among other places. BUY FROM A REPUTABLE DEALER. (Make sure it’s actually available where you intend to set it up, however. The location you intend may be saturated with users already and that will require additional satellites to come online for you to get service. If you buy it regardless, you’ll have a $700 door stop until more satellites are added.)

But first, spend some time on the various FB groups and check out the YouTube videos on Starlink of which there seem to be hundreds. Educate yourself and don't be surprised.

Amazon, or Home Depot. Check the web site to make sure you're in a service area.

https://www.starlink.com/map

In a nutshell...