Mothers Against the Draft

Key US Army ranks begin to thin

The Army has seen the reenlistment rate of mid-grade enlisted soldiers drop 12 percentage points, from 96 percent during the first quarter of 2005 to a low of 84 percent for the first quarter of 2007. While a reenlistment shortfall in any Army group is cause for concern, many consider the declining rate among mid-grade sergeants to be a sign of potential bigger reenlistment problems for the Army down the line. In addition, the fact that more mid-level soldiers are leaving could have a long-term impact on the Army's ability to grow future leaders.

Mandatory national service to be a major campaign issue in 2008 The Pentagon is firmly opposed to a draft, believing that volunteers are more willing to learn, train and serve. There's far more support for a broad-based national service program. The concept takes various forms, but it generally requires that young college and high school grads perform a year of public service between the ages of 18 and 24. Supporters say that a compulsory national service program with a military training option would instill patriotic values and pride in upcoming generations of young people.	Army chief wants to speed up troop hike The Army’s new chief of staff said Saturday he wants to accelerate by two years a plan to increase the nation’s active duty soldiers by 65,000. He said the Army was stretched and would remain that way until the additional troops were trained and equipped.
Pay soars to keep people in military The Pentagon poured more than $1 billion into bonuses last year to keep soldiers and Marines in the military in the face of an unpopular war and battlefield deployments that are getting longer and more frequent. The incentives — including tax-free payments for those who re-enlist while in the war zone — have jumped nearly sixfold since 2003, the year the war in Iraq began.	Pentagon to Extend Service for All Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan Forget small extensions and trickles of National Guard troops. Under the plan, deployments for active-duty soldiers will be extended from the current 12 months to 15 months. This will apply to all active-duty soldiers, but not to the National Guard and Reserve.
Breaking the Army According to a report in the Boston Globe Wednesday, graduates from the military's officer training academy at West Point are choosing to leave active duty at the highest rate in more than three decades – "a sign to many specialists," the Globe said, "that repeated tours in Iraq are prematurely driving out some of the Army's top young officers." Of the 903 officers commissioned on graduating from West Point in 2001, 54 percent had left the service by January of this year.	An army popping at the seams Of the 20 army combat brigades in or on their way to Iraq or Afghanistan, none has been home for two years and four have not been home for a year. One unit, the 4th Infantry Division Headquarters from Fort Hood, Texas, will return to Iraq after about seven months at home. None of the units was rated fully or even substantially combat ready (C-2) when deployed.
Experts: Force increases may not be enough The Senate Armed Services Committee heard testimony Tuesday that increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps may not resolve severe and growing personnel problems. There was even talk of returning to the draft to fill the ranks.	Stressed army makes US vulnerable-retired general McCaffrey, who returned last month from a trip to Iraq and Afghanistan, condemned Pentagon policies he said had left the U.S. Army too small, with its equipment in disarray and lacking a fallback position should a challenge come from somewhere like Iran, Syria or North Korea.
Retired major general: it's time to debate military draft Retired Major General John Batiste, who led the 1st Infantry Division for two years in Iraq, said it's time for Americans to begin debate on whether to bring back the military draft. atiste says coalition forces would need 300,000 troops to "win the peace" in Iraq. Right now, there are 140,000 troops. To reach that level, and to confront threats from terrorists all over the world, Batiste believes it could be time to debate the military draft as an option.	Pentagon strains to uphold troops levels in Iraq The Pentagon will send four National Guard brigades to Iraq and may extend the tours of five active-duty Army brigades by as much as four months as it strains to find troops to sustain the buildup in Baghdad through the end of the year.