Sigh.
More asininity from the leadership of the Democratic party. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) wants to bring back the draft…because he thinks that minorities and the uneducated (both comprising a large percentage of Rep. Rangel’s constituency) are disproprotionately represented and being killed in the military.
Of course this is utter bunk, and holds no water whatsoever:
Hey…why let facts get in your way, Charlie. But if you are serious about bringing back the draft, I would 100% support you if — and ONLY if — we start by drafting every single member of Congress, pushing them through basic training and 11B training (Infantry), and then shoving them onto the first C-130 heading for Afghanistan.
Of course, we’d have to wave all standards of enlistment (age, physical ability, intelligence, rap sheets, patriotism, etc.) to accomodate he and his colleagues.
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MORE: Michelle Malkin has more info (and lots of examples) of how Democrats used the “Republicans want to bring back the draft” scare tactic to sway voters.
Gina Cobb calls Rep. Charlie’s plan exactly what it really is: Communism-lite: “Everyone in America should be forced by law to work for the government (or for someone approved by the government) for two years — either for no pay or for minimal pay.”
D.A. Ridgely at the Inactivist:
I have written elsewhere and continue to believe that American society would be well served by a return to a more robust notion of national service, including military service, as a moral, voluntary obligation. But it is in the nature of moral obligations that they must be satisfied, if at all, voluntarily.
I couldn’t agree more with the exact sentiment of that statement. I would love to see a return to a time where more men who could did serve. I would just hate to see it made mandatory.
Gina Cobb calls Rep. Charlie’s plan exactly what it really is: Communism-lite: “Everyone in America should be forced by law to work for the government (or for someone approved by the government) for two years — either for no pay or for minimal pay.â€
Wow, that’s rich. Of course we have had a draft many times in our history and it was rarely conservatives who opposed it.
Look, very few Democrats support the draft. As you note the volunteer does fairly well in getting a mix of incomes and races but it does not impress on all Americans the shared responsibility of protecting our country. In this respect I think Rangel is right- support for the invasion of Iraq has dropped from about 80% to about 40%. I question whether those 40% who changed their minds would have supported this war if they knew that their own relatives and friends would be on the line. I don’t think that is an unreasonable standard for evaluating the justness of an invasion.
Left by Preston on November 20th, 2006 at 11:42 am