We Need a Limited Military Draft

Just the perspective of an older guy...

I spent quite a few years in the US Army in Germany. I loved the country and made lots of friends. But I was in the PRP (nuclear weapon business) and was not allowed to cross into East Germany or visit any of the Soviet controlled countries like Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, et al. Now, the one American Army Corps remaining in Europe, V Corps, is headquartered in Poland and we have troops in what was closed to me. I'm so happy our folks can see all the stuff I was not able to see,,, and, admittedly, a bit jealous too!

 

Well seems unrelated...however I was stationed in what was then West Germany "back in the day," and I loved the country and I liked being stationed there. There was plenty to see and do. I never went to East Germany, but I flew over it on a flight to West Berlin. From the air, I was really stuck by the public housing look of the city, especially compared to the beautiful Western part that I spent the weekend in.

I also visited the countries previously known as Yugoslavia, which although it was communist at the time, wasn't in the Warsaw Pact and it seemed ridiculously easy to get into considering it was a unit permissive leave vacation.

 

Actually, we have.

What is our commitment in Panama? Philippines? Are we mandated to keep forces inside of Germany once the nation reunified and the threat of invasion from East Germany ended? What about Italy, is it still going through the "Years of Lead" where various terrorists groups such as the Red Brigades were regularly staging bombings, attacks, and assassinations? In case you are not aware, that is a thing of the past. The Czechs stopped supporting them in 1989 when their government collapsed. Their pipeline of Soviet equipment through the PLO ended at the same time. Even their support from Yugoslavia and Romania ended at the same time with the death of those governments.

Our commitment to NATO still stands, but our commitment to maintain forces inside of those countries due to the threats from outside enemies ended when those enemies evaporated after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw pact. I can only imagine you are too young to remember that era, where attacks and bombings inside West Germany and Italy were almost common occurrences. That has not been the case in three decades now. The Red Brigades and Red Army Faction did attempt a resurgence in the late 1990s and early 2000s, neither of which really went anywhere and were quickly crushed.

The last RAF action was a bombing at a prison in 1993. The last attempt at a resurgence of the Red Brigades was a 2007 bank robbery, where the thief was quickly apprehended and is now serving life in prison. And neither will ever return, as their sponsor nations no longer even exist and have not existed for decades.

 

I actually laughed out loud when on my way to the ME we stopped for a layover at the Leipzig Airport. And I was amazed as this was a US military flight, and we were spending an 8 hour layover at what had once been a Red Air Force base. Where if I had been in that location two decades earlier I likely would have been shot. And each time I stopped there during my deployment I felt a bit unsettled as I could remember when that was clearly "enemy territory".

 

You stirred a funny little anecdotal memory here. In 1981 there was an active terrorist group in Germany call the BAADER MEINHOF GANG.

I Commanded a US Artillery Battery at the time and I got a call to come get some of my guys out of a Frankfurt jail. They had been apprehended in a drug deal at the Frankfurt Bahnhof (railroad station). I got it all settled and took appropriate action. But these Soldiers were always referred to as THE MINOR BAHNHOF GANG by their buddies after that.

 

The BMG was the early "public" name of the Red Army Faction. It was always "Rote Armee Fraktion", but to the public that was largely unknown so they were referred to as Baader-Meinhof as those were the two founders from 1970 until 1972 when they were all arrested. While they were incarcerated some of those not caught and supporters continued and it became more well known by their actual name.

And yes, gotta love such military humor. Back in early 2008 we had a guy go AWOL from Fort Bliss, and as he was heading back home decided to rob a truck stop in Deming, NM (he got caught 10 miles down the freeway). About 2 months later we had to do a convoy to Yuma for an operation, and part of the pre-convoy workup was a giant sand table showing the route and all places we would stop at to rest and refuel. And the first one was at Deming, at the same truck stop. And one of the guys that set up the sand table actually put a note on it saying "DO NOT ROB TRUCK STOP".

And the thing is, that clown was not unlike your guys. In his 2 years in the Army he somehow skated from many violations he did. Like getting his butt beat in Juarez (even though it was off-limits to us), getting his ass beat and tasered after going into a 7-11 naked while high on PCP, among other things. In fact, the reason he went AWOL in the first place was because he was told to go to the command building for a urinalyses. That was actually his third time going AWOL, as he realized that the penalty for AWOL was less than pissing hot. That was the third time he took off like that, always before returning 28 days later so all he got was a slap on the wrist instead of getting kicked out for drug use.

 

You are either going wildly off topic or you don't understand what I was talking about in the first place.

You keep confusing troops on the ground with our actual commitments. We have a mutual defense treaty with The Philippines. That bill is due whether we have forces stationed there or not. The question is does our current force strength match or total US military commitments worldwide? I would say no. Apparently you conflate the US military commitment to defend a country with how many troops we actually have stationed in that country so I suppose by your accounting our military is right sized for the mission.

 

Well well, look what's trending on Twitter(X) today?