Staying The Course in Iraq Means a REPUBLICAN DRAFT After Nov. 7th

[Dems Will Win]

The Army has announced it is planning to keep our current troop strength in Iraq until 2010. Last month 776 were wounded, 75 dead. We're now losing almost 1,000 casualties a month.

In other words, our troops are getting cut to ribbons. They are not even fighting the Shia militias yet, which will be next. The IRaqi parliament voted to divide the country in three on Wednesday (you might have missed that as the media never reported it). Meanwile, the Kurds now have their own flag. A civil war over oil is about to start.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon has stop-lossed all the troops they could, the IRR will be scraping little from the bottom of the barrel from now on and recruitment is juggling numbers so it still looks OK even though it is way down for the Guard and Reserves.

In other words, when Republicans say "Stay the Course" they are really saying "We Will Have To Reinstate the DRAFT By the End of the Year".

All it takes is a 1-page "Trigger Resolution" to reinstate the old draft. No new law or bill, just a 1-page trigger passed in the middle of the night after the election while there is still a GOP Majority.

There are no other options if the US is going to pull off all the rotations in 2007.

By the way, boot camp is only 6 weeks now...

If a REPUBLICAN DRAFT is called, it will automatically start the Medical and Skills DRAFTS as well. Do not confuse this with Rangel's protest Draft bill, which is new legislation changing the combat draft to include women in combat. That is just a protest bill defeated 402-2. Even Rangel voted against his own bill in 2004 when the GOp put it up on the floor to confuse young people into thinking the Dems wanted a DRAFT.

The Dems don't -- but now the GOP, even though it is political suicide -- will call the DRAFT after the election, or they will be putting US troops in great harm. Besides, Bush with DRAFT will allow him and Cheney to keep Iraq and invade whoever they like.

It will be the Roman Empire all over again, with Bushco shaming the new Dem Majority into funding it all with jingoism.

STAY THE COURSE MEANS RE-INSTATING THE DRAFT

What do you think?

Please remember to rec to remind people that Bush has run out of cannon fodder and will be forced to start DRAFTING.

[catmandu57]

1. It's coming for sure

The lameduck congress and the lameduck pretzledunce will pass it sometime next month like you said in the middle of the night. The new congress will I hope exert it's power of the purse and force a withdrawal from Iraq.
I hadn't heard anything about the partition vote is there somewhere I can read it?

[Dems Will Win]

3. Here you go

Iraqi Parliament approves law to form federal region

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Thursday, October 12, 2006

The Iraqi Parliament on Wednesday approved a law that sets out the mechanics of forming federal regions, an issue the Sunni minority and some Shiites leaders and fear might tear the country apart in sectarian civil war. On the ground, militiamen firing mortars overnight detonated a US ammunition dump in Baghdad, sparking a barrage of explosions that continued to shake the capital on Wednesday morning.

The largest Sunni coalition in Parliament and two Shiite parties tried to prevent a vote on a bill by boycotting Wednesday's session to prevent the 275-seat body from reaching the necessary 50 percent quorum.

But the quorum was reached with 140 lawmakers, who voted on each of the bill's some 200 articles individually, passing them all unanimously.

The law includes a provision that regions cannot be formed for another 18 months, a concession to Sunni concerns.

The federalism law sets up a system for allowing provinces to join together into autonomous regions that would hold considerable self-rule powers, a right given to them under the Constitution adopted last year in a national referendum.

Sunnis fear a federal Iraq would hand northern and southern oilfields to ethnic Kurds and Shiites respectively, and would leave them trapped in a poor, desert rump state in central and western Iraq.

Legislators loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and the smaller Shiite Fadhila Party stayed away from Wednesday's vote, showing Shiite support for federalism is not unanimous.

"This is the beginning of the plan to divide Iraq," said Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the Sunni National Accordance Front, which boycotted the vote.

"We had hoped that the problems of sectarian violence be resolved. We hope there won't be an increase in violence," he said.

The head of the Shiite coalition that dominates Parliament, Abdel-Aziz al-Hakim, praised passage of the bill and denounced Sunni opposition to federalism. He said the law would be a "factor of unity in the face of the enemies of Iraq - Baathists, Saddamists, criminals and Takfiris ... who rejected federalism, just like before, when they rejected the Constitution."

The law outlines a process for forming regions, requiring any province considering joining a region to hold a referendum, if a third of the provincial legislators request it.

Meanwhile, a mortar round fired from the Abu Dsheer area of southern Baghdad caused a fire in an ammunition holding area in Camp Falcon, a forward operating base for US troops, a US military spokesman said.

"Intelligence indicates that civilians aligned with a militia organization were responsible for last night's mortar attack," said Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Withington.

Residents of Abu Dsheer, a mostly Shiite area in the Sunni district of Dora, told Reuters that the Mehdi Army militia of Sadr was a growing presence in the area.

The Islamic Army in Iraq, one of a number of Sunni militant groups operating in the country, had earlier claimed responsibility for the attack in a Web site posting.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=76092

[winter999]

7. I'm not sure where the problem with a federal system is.

Isn't the US a federal system (National, State, Local)? It simply is a distribution of power and a better tool than keeping total power in the hands of the central government when there is a difference in cultures in different regions. Even with 50 States, we're still one country. Then again, I'm a fan of federalism; how do you stand?

[Dems Will Win]

8. Because each region keeps its own oil revenue!

It's really not a state, more of a separate nation.

THe only problem is the Sunni region has NO OIL. Zip, Zero, Nada.

So the Shia and Kurds just made off with 100 billion barrels of oil.

And the Sunnis are pissed off bIg-time, and now boycott the Parliament.

You can see why the media didn't want to report this SPLIT before the election.

IT IS THE END.

[winter999]

10. Sorry to refute you, but I just checked

Here's the federal map:
http://www.heartland.it/map_iraq_partition.html

and Here's the oil map:
http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/security/esar/esar_bigpic.htm

You can plainly see that each territory has plenty of oil fields. If you look closely, you'll see that actually Kurdistan has the least amount of oil resources (which is partially why their trying for land to the south).

Even so, what you're describing is nothing more than a EU-style setup. What's the harm?

I think the militias are by far the most troubling issue in Iraq. Imagine if the Black Panthers and KKK were in charge of local regions and the government couldn't stop or restrict them?! Yeah, frightening.

[spag68]

2. republican draft

Sounds like a good idea to me, draft republicans, the war will be over soon after that.

[mmonk]

4. As long as its republican.

[JVS]

5. Isn't that what people were saying 2 years ago?

I think I'll wait and see

[Dems Will Win]

6. Instead of drafting for the last 2 years

Bushco has quadruple deployed, stop-lossed, lowered recruiting standards and hired over 100,000 mercenaries from around the world.

But that's all over now. The Army divisions are worn out, under-manned and under-equipped, they can't stop-loss anymore, no more IRR, recruiting has cratered in the Guard and Reserve and the flow of mercenaries has even dried up.

They were clever in stretching it all out and making it this far. But now they are done.

STAYING THE COURSE MEANS REINSTATING THE DRAFT

[Selatius]

9. They will ask for volunteers from the 33% that are diehard Bush supporters

They will be the stormtroopers. The rest of the country will be either against the draft or be agnostic about it.

[robertpaulsen]

11. K & R!

:kick:

[bdamomma]

12. well if the Brits pull out........

that is something to think of.