Last week, House Armed Services chair Rep. Buck McKeon threatened the Super Congress over defense cuts, warning that the country would have to reinstate the draft if cuts went too deep. This was his appearance on Fox, making the threat.
McKeon's committee
released a report emphasizing those claims on Monday, concluding that "additional Pentagon cuts would force a draft, gut the military and make 'defending our freedom harder.'"
Military experts disagree, particularly over the blatant threat of bringing back the draft:
The HASC staff report contends a pre-9/11 force could not “decisively win” a war in one region “while defending vital national interests in another.” It also says a U.S. military of that size “jeopardizes [the nation’s] ability to respond to potential contingencies in North Korea or Iran, and adequately defend allies (including Israel and Taiwan).”
But Gordon Adams, who oversaw national security budgeting for the Clinton administration, said even a pre-9/11 force — after a number of weapons program cuts the panel’s report calls likely under sequestration — “would be a globally powerful military.”[...]
Even a defense analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation, which has increasingly been in lockstep with McKeon and his committee on military policy and budget issues, called the draft warning far-fetched.
“I think it’s nutty talk,” said Heritage analyst Jay Carafano. “It's an idle threat. There’s not a practical way they could institute a draft. For starters, the country couldn't afford it.”
When Heritage is calling bullshit on Republicans, you know just how ridiculous they are being. But this bullshit threat shows just how far Republicans are going to go to prevent any more defense cuts.