Ok, i think i was misunderstood in a few issues, so here goes:
@Muspell
Quote:
|
And I still think the number of friendly fire incidents is very low. 236 incidents on about 100 000 troops through a year is almost nothing.
|
First of all, there werenīt 236 friendly fire incidents. There were 236
casualties of incidents, period. The numbers are all thrown together, friendly fire and accidents alike. Although important, the friendly fire incidents are not the main issue. Itīs all the other accidents, incidents, or whatever you call them. Itīs the traffic accidents, the shoot yourself in the foot incidents, the drive into rivers incidents, the crash chopper into chopper accidents, and a whole miriade of other instances. There have been over 700 fatal casualties, in over a year in Iraq. And of those 700, a third are accidents?? Donīt you see the point? The US troops are way more lethal on themselfs than the enemy!!
@Ranger
Well, it seems we have diferent realities.
Our draft time has been extended and diminished so many times that we canīt keep track. The latest was 4 months of service, and now it has disapeered alltogether. The draft was revogued. Only volunteer service for us now.
Quote:
|
And draftees are not there for "just a few months" either. The minimum time a draftee will have to serve here in the US is 2 years -- 2 years full time. It may be longer; that's up to the government.
|
As it could be less. Like you said, itīs up for the government.
However, i think we need to make a distinction here, between wartime draft and peacetime draft.
The "volunteers" that mean, are the ones who join the army and stay for a career. Thatīs what i meant as "volunteers". Excuse me if i donīt have the right vocabulary to make myself understood 100%.Sometimes the word iīm looking for keeps iluding me.
The comparison i was trying to make is between career guys and draftees, wether volunteers or not. The career guy is there for years and years, for life even, while the draftee is there for the short term. In general. There are exceptions, as i pointed out earlier.
Quote:
|
In the Guard or Reserve they maintain (and expand upon) their proficiency and skills during their monthly weekend-long drills, and once each year each unit also goes back to full active duty for at least two weeks.
|
You donīt really expect me to believe a guy who takes two weeks a year of training is just as prepared as a guy who practically lives in the Army, do you?
And remember, we are talking mostly Infantry here.No draftee will get his hands on an Apache chopper or a Tank. But letīs forget about that for now.
How about you explain me why the casualty numbers for non-battle related incidents is so high in Iraq? Take a look at the numbers and type of incidents involved, and tell me it has nothing to do with training. Because thatīs what iīm trying to understand here!
And let me throw in another question:
Could it be that the US military is so desperate to maintain their quotas that they are accepting people that they wouldnīt normaly accept? Like instable guys, guys with poorer eye sight, shorter than normal, taller than normal, fatter than normal, less inteligent than normal? And how about guys whose dominance of the english language is subpar? Weīve seen how they are letting non-americans in. People without US citizenship, from Latin America and other places.