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Lest We Forget: Shared Responsibility for Common Defense

 

 

So quit chortling over Russian men heading for the exits rather than put on their uniforms to “liberate” Ukraine from the Nazis.

Even Vladimir Putin admits “mistakes were made” in the mobilization of 300,000 “reservists,” but certainly not by him.

On the homefront, America’s Volunteer Army didn’t meet its recruiting goals in this past fiscal year; the other services squeaked by — but without expected depth for future personnel needs.

I guess the “shared responsibility” of a free society to provide for the “common defense” doesn’t apply here as well.

Historical note: In 1966, when the Americanization of the war in Vietnam was bubbling, 382,000 plus were drafted into the Army. {Hundreds of thousands more were “draft-induced” to volunteer for the other services.] To cover the U.S. casualties following the Tet Offensive in early 1968, another 296,000 plus were “conscripted” into the Army and the Marine Corps that year. More than 283,000 were drafted into the Army and Marine Corps the following years.

https://www.sss.gov/history-and-records/induction-statistics/

Richard Nixon knew those numbers were not sustainable — even ignoring the hundreds of thousands demonstrating against the war he soon expanded — openly — into Cambodia.

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