This is my second time hosting Carnival of the Vanities; I last hosted COTV #116 in December, and once again, I really enjoyed putting it together. I'm going to try a variation on a layout originated for last week's COTV at Willisms. In this …

We call it “Classiness, All Around Us.” Click to explore more WILLisms.com. In no particular order, WILLisms.com presents classiness from the blogosphere (100% more classy, this week only!): 1. Vietnam Syndrome- WunderKraut examines the Left’s obses…

Bush Sr. killed the military. Cutbacks under his adimistration (driven by his administration) were more viscious than anything before or since. Clinton maintained a steady reduction, but soon leveled out the playing field. What happened in the Clinton years is that we didn’t modernize. Bush Jr. inherited an understrengthed, “undertechnologied” military. He, his appointed staff and the military leaders of today have done a good job of trying to overcome some of those problems, but I still think they think technology and “special operations forces” will carry the day.

I can only hope they’re right. But my time and training tell me that they’re not.

I did 9 years. I got out because I forsaw what is beginning to happen now. I did my 7 months in Afghanistan and really didn’t want to have to leave my family again in less than a year’s time.

If things keep going the way they’re going, we are probably looking at a draft — regardless of what anyone says. There is simply no way to continue our multiple theaters of operation with our current troop strength. Add into that a wave of folks getting out of the military and the inability of recruiters to meet their quotas. It’s coming. And I think their is a good amount of disillusion amongst the conservative reporters such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh who for some reason cannot see that we are overtaxed and they administration does not have a good plan to overcome that.

Will that mean that Instapundit and Michelle will start paying attention to me?

That is one of my ideas: Use the military to seal our border, but like you said, not enough troops.

Your point about relying on high tech is spot on. That will one day be our downfall. Ever read my post on an EMP bomb? It scares the crap out of me.

As far as troop levels go. I would enlist this afternoon, but I can not afford to take a 50% pay cut. I know that is selfish of me and all, but I have a wife, three kids, a house payment and a car payment. Plus my wife currently does not work. The only way we could remotely afford it would be for her to get one good paying job. It is sad, but I am priced out of the military. 7 years ago when I graduated college I could have done it. But that was during the waning years of the Clintons and I had no desire to serve that man.

Oh well.

One additional element is that this war is not obviously costing us anything at home, save money on gas. There is no rationing, no scrap drives, no blackout drills, no Civil Defense, no privation, and casualties have been so low that an individual death such as Pat Tillman’s or Casey Sheehan’s assumes national prominence. It’s easy for the larger general public to take the war less seriously when it seems only a matter of TV reports and protests. When the Towers were still smoking craters, we knew, but we have forgotten since.

The problem is we don’t have the troop strength to seal any border (our own even) and no plans to raise troop levels. I have issues with DoD manpower solutions. We’re relying far too much on advanced equipment and not enough on troop numbers or the training thereof.