Trained.

This is coolbert:

Several recent posts have dealt with the topic of the military draft being reinstated in the U.S.

Congressman Rangel is seeming to be the foremost proponent of this idea.

An idea that seems to be totally out of touch with the realities of the U.S. military for the last thirty five years now. It seems the Congressman did NOT get beyond his Vietnam protest days.

Commenting on the restoration of the draft and what it would mean to the modern military of the U.S., the retired General Robert Scales says:

"A return to the draft is a very bad idea whose time passed with the world wars, Korea and Vietnam. These wars were tragically wasteful because in large measure they were fought with drafted soldiers.

Drafted soldiers are far more likely to die in combat than long-service professionals. Military leaders know from painful experience that it takes years to produce a fully competent combat soldier. They also know that older soldiers live longer in combat. Drafting teenagers and committing them to combat within only a year of enlistment will create an Army of amateurs. Our Army in particular has a sad history of committing to battle men who are too young and inexperienced to have much hope of surviving against a hardened and skillful enemy.

Drafted units can be kept together for only a short time and invariably march to war as random collections of strangers. Our soldiers performed so superbly in Iraq because they were seasoned. Good soldiers, like good wine, can be produced only with careful cultivation and patient aging. Unfortunately, amateur armies learn to fight only by fighting. Inevitably, the cost of that education is too horrific for the American people to bear."

Here is what Alexander Suvorov had to say about the value of trained, experienced troops over untrained inexperienced troops:

Suvorov wrote in his The Science of Victory:

"Training is light, and lack of training is darkness. The problem fears the expert. If a peasant doesn't know how to plow, he can't grow bread. A trained man is worth three untrained: that's too little- say six- six is too little- say ten to one."

What holds true in the day of Suvorov [Suvorov passed on in the year 1799!!] holds true today. Perhaps always will hold true!!

coolbert.