A Civil War
Michael Silence and some others seem to be perplexed at a recent speech in which Sen. Obama said, "We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
While Sen. Obama might have been deploying some of his trademark rhetorical excess by saying "just as strong, just as well-funded," his plans for civilian service have been fairly clear.
According to the Baltimore Sun he "promised to increase AmeriCorps slots from 75,000 to 250,000 and pledged to double the size of the Peace Corps by 2011." In addition, Sen. Obama wants to create a Civilian Assistance Corps of "25,000 personnel. This corps of civilian volunteers with special skill, sets (doctors, lawyers, engineers, city planners, agriculture specialists, police, etc.) would be organized to provide each federal agency with a pool of volunteer experts willing to deploy in times of need at home and abroad."
Quite frankly, I don't think Obama will have enough money for this given his priorities of health care and the environment (and he has suggested he'll adopt PAYGO rules if elected), but this plan is in connection with his effort to tie federal college monies to public service; the idea being to expand affordable college to people who might not be militarily inclined.
3 comments:
How much should it cost the government to have a "volunteer" organization?
I don't know, we spend a shit load on our current "volunteer" organization situated in the Department of Defense.
The troops aren't the problem. If we could just persuade those tanks, airplanes, and DU bunkerbusters to stop being so spoiled and selfish and step up to the plate like "The Little Engine That Could", we'd save a bundle and just think what it would do for morale!
The Peace Corps is so small and pays so damn little that doubling it will cost nothing. If we had a "real" Peace Corps it would have gone to rebuild Iraq instead of KBR, etc.
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