Thursday, September 23, 2004

Some Elementary Arithmetic for John Kerry and Max Cleland

Thanks to an excellent early warning system, I'm loaded for bear about this

In a speech at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, [Max] Cleland told students they might find themselves pressed into military service if Bush wins a second term.

“America will reinstate the military draft” if Bush is re-elected and continues the Iraq War, Cleland predicted, according to an account of his speech by the Colorado Springs Gazette.

"Pay attention ... to what you've got going on in Iraq. That, ladies and gentlemen, is Vietnam. I've seen this movie before. I know how it ends. It does not end pleasantly," he added. ....

Former Kerry rival Howard Dean, now traveling the country to drum up support for Kerry and raise money for Democratic candidates, said last week at Brown University in Providence, R.I.,

"I think that George Bush is certainly going to have a draft if he goes into a second term, and any young person that doesn't want to go to Iraq might think twice about voting for him."

Because it gives me another opportunity to ask questions that certain useful idiots refuse to answer:

Please place an "X" in front of your selection of the number of troops required in the Moomaw Military:

__ 1. Between 1.5 and 2.0 million
__ 2. Between 2.0 and 2.5 million
__ 3. Between 2.5 and 3.0 million
__ 4. Between 3.0 and 3.5 million
__ 5. More than we had in 1968

Second question: Place an "X" in front of the number of Americans between the ages 18-30:
__ 1. Fewer than 5 million
__ 2. Between 5 million and 15 million
__ 3. Between 15 and 30 million
__ 4. Between 30 and 45 million
__ 5. Over 45 million

[Hints for the perplexed: The draft was ended in 1973, along with the Vietnam war. At which time we downsized from the 3.5 million men and women in uniform at the peak of the fighting, to about 2.4 million by 1985. The implosion of the Soviet Union allowed George HW Bush to further reduce force levels to about 1.7 million by 1992. Bill Clinton further reduced it to about 1.4 million--which is where we are today]

[Hint for any of the usual suspects from SDJ: Question #2, try "5".]



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