Rapaire - 11 Jul 06 - 05:36 PM

As rather clearly stated in my post of, 11 Jul 06 - 04:02 PM

"Ron's recommendation - Draft--3 years. Same as during the Vietnam era."

And in Ron's post of, 10 Jul 06 - 11:37 PM

"Teribus--

Draft--3 years. Same as during the Vietnam era"

In response to my question posed in my post, 10 Jul 06 - 02:29 PM

"So a Draft is viewed by ex-vet Ron as being a good thing. Question Ron how long would you draft the youth of America for - 2 years? 4 years? 6 years? 8 years? Longer?"

Having waded through that Rapaire are you still in anyway confused as to who it was that stated, incorrectly, that the US Draft period was 3 years. If you are in any doubt try Ron's post of, 11 Jul 06 - 10:53 PM:

"Rapaire is of course correct--in the Vietnam era draftees served 2 years, not 3. I had 3 years firmly in mind, since that's what I served. Mea culpa."

My comments on the effectiveness of the US military during the Vietnam war period are based on observation during the earlier part of it and on comments from others whose opinions and judgement I respect. During the early part of the Vietnam war the US sent some of their "advisors" to the Jungle Warfare Training School in Changi in Malaysia, the British at the time were just in the process of rounding off Sukarno's bid to take over Sarawak, Brunei and Sabah. On aptitude, application and achievement the general opinion of the British, Malaysian and Ghurka Instructors was summed up by the comment, "Thank fuck they aren't advising me." They (US personnel) arrived with the certainty that nobody could teach them anything, they arrived with the firm conviction that these goddamn limey's knew nothin'. They arrived totally convinced that the whole exercise was a complete and utter waste of time.

Only thing was Rap, we ran circles round the Indonesian insurgents in Borneo, not a single one in four years ever made it from the Kalimantan border to the coast. Two main reasons for this, one, we trained (keeping our eyes and ears open during that instruction), and two, we had the "Hearts and minds" of the local population, and we worked very hard at that Rapaire.

"Hearts and minds" is a phrase that you hear bandied about a great deal, it was originally stated by a man called Templeton during the early days of the "War of the Running Dogs", the Malayan Emergency. It is one thing, and this represents what I have been saying about US forces at the time. The armed forces of the United States of America have NEVER been very good at implementing a uniform "Hearts and minds" strategy, even to this day in Iraq and in Afghanistan. It is something that they had better start to seriously get to grips with.