Hot on HuffPost:

See More Stories

MAIL

Politics Daily

Obama: Allies Will Soon Take Control of Libyan Campaign
- Politics Daily Staff
Democrats Could Lose Senate, Biden Warns Party
- Politics Daily Staff
South Dakota Governor Signs Tough Abortion Bill Into Law
- Politics Daily Staff
Obama Getting Heat From Left and Right for U.S. Role in Libyan Attacks
- Politics Daily Staff
Allied Airstrikes Buoy Libyan Rebels; Obama Stresses Limited Military Goal
- Politics Daily Staff
Opposition Rises to Increased Nuclear Power Use; Offshore Drilling Support Rebounds
- Bruce Drake
French Warplanes Enforcing Ceasefire in Libya After Gadhafi Keeps Up Attacks
- Politics Daily Staff
Economic Issues Underpin Obama's Trip to Brazil, Chile, El Salvador
- Politics Daily Staff
Obama to Gadhafi: Stop the Attacks or Face Military Action
- Politics Daily Staff
House to Consider Bill to Defund National Public Radio
- Politics Daily Staff
New Fire Breaks Out at Damaged Japanese Nuclear Plant
- Carla Baranauckas
Japanese Nuclear Power Plant Rocked by Second Explosion in Quake's Aftermath
- Carla Baranauckas and Bruce Drake

military draft

Published: 09/30/10

Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Duke Students: Join Up!

By David Wood - Politics Daily

In a gently admonishing tone, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is urging young Americans to consider joining the "tiny sliver of America'' that is fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the volunteers who make up the armed forces. Speaking to students at Duke University, Gates -- who once served as a young Air Force officer -- observed that no war in American history has been fought with a smaller percent of its citizens, currently less than 1 percent. Since the shift from a draft army to an all-volunteer force in 1973, Gates said, the military has become a truly professional force. "Indeed, the ...

Keep Reading »

Add Comment

Published: 09/9/10

In the 10th Year of War, a Harder Army, a More Distant America

By David Wood - Politics Daily

The U.S. Army now begins its 10th continuous year in combat, the first time in its history the United States has excused the vast majority of its citizens from service and engaged in a major, decade-long conflict instead with an Army manned entirely by professional warriors. This is an Army that, under the pressure of combat, has turned inward, leaving civilian America behind, reduced to the role of a well-wishing but impatient spectator. A decade of fighting has hardened soldiers in ways that civilians can't share. America respects its warriors, but from a distance. "They don't know ...

Keep Reading »

Add Comment

Published: 05/30/10

A Soldier's Memorial Day Message: Show the Troops You Still Care

By Robert H. Scales - Politics Daily

Memorial Day was cast as a time for remembering the past exploits of our war heroes. But America's attention span is notoriously short, particularly when the subject is something as unpleasant as war. I returned from Vietnam more than 40 years ago to a nation tired of images of soldiers suffering and dying in that war. My only concern at the time was to exchange my jungle fatigues for civvies at San Francisco International. My presence was not resented by passengers around me so much as ignored. Fast forward and the nation's attentions today are shifting away from images of Iraq and ...

Keep Reading »

Add Comment

Published: 05/2/10

Army's Generous Pay, Benefits: Are Skyrocketing Costs Sustainable?

By David Wood - Politics Daily

The military draft once chose young Americans for war. Now the Army attracts them with generous pay and benefits. But the heavy cost may be unsustainable. Painful choices lie ahead: cutting the size of the Army, even as it is heavily engaged in combat, or cutting soldiers' pay and benefits, a step that has proved too politically poisonous even to mention aloud. To get a fix on the problem, I spent some time at Fort Jackson, S.C., one of the Army's sprawling basic training bases where, over 10 weeks of very long days, drill sergeants transform gaggles of young men and women into disciplined ...

Keep Reading »

337