Posted on 11/19/2006 10:30:36 AM PST by Brilliant
A senior House Democrat said Sunday he will introduce legislation to reinstate the military draft, asserting that current troop levels are insufficient to sustain possible challenges against Iran, North Korea and Iraq.
"There's no question in my mind that this president and this administration would never have invaded Iraq, especially on the flimsy evidence that was presented to the Congress, if indeed we had a draft and members of Congress and the administration thought that their kids from their communities would be placed in harm's way," said Rep. Charles Rangel (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y.
Rangel, a veteran of the Korean War who has unsuccessfully sponsored legislation on conscription in the past, said he will propose the measure early next year.
At a time when some lawmakers are urging the military to send more troops to Iraq, "I don't see how anyone can support the war and not support the draft," he said.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), a South Carolina Republican who is a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Standby Reserve, said he agreed that the U.S. does not have enough people in the military.
"I think we can do this with an all-voluntary service, all-voluntary Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy. And if we can't, then we'll look for some other option," said Graham, who is assigned as a reserve judge to the Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals.
Rangel, incoming chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said he worried the military was being strained by its overseas commitments.
"If we're going to challenge Iran and challenge North Korea and then, as some people have asked, to send more troops to Iraq, we can't do that without a draft," Rangel said.
He said having a draft would not necessarily mean everyone called to duty would have to serve. Instead, "young people (would) commit themselves to a couple of years in service to this great republic, whether it's our seaports, our airports, in schools, in hospitals," with a promise of educational benefits at the end of service.
Graham said he believes the all-voluntary military "represents the country pretty well in terms of ethnic makeup, economic background."
Repeated polls have shown that about seven in 10 Americans oppose reinstatement of the draft and officials say they do not expect to restart conscription.
Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress in June 2005 that "there isn't a chance in the world that the draft will be brought back."
Yet the prospect of the long global fight against terrorism and the continuing U.S. commitment to stabilizing Iraq have kept the idea in the public's mind.
The military drafted conscripts during the Civil War, both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. An agency independent of the Defense Department, the Selective Service System trains, keeps an updated registry of men age 18-25 — now about 16 million — from which to supply untrained draftees that would supplement the professional all-volunteer armed forces.
Rangel and Graham appeared on "Face the Nation" on CBS.
#180. Or fill the Military with more backstabbing, grenade throwing Akbar's!!!!:-(
Well I think its something we all better think about.
Then you're a better person than I am. There's a whole $hit list of people I don't like. And day by day it grows.
IMHO, the greatest untold story of the 20th century is the history of the American military, post-Vietnam to the end of the Carter Administration.
Despite the inept leadership under Jimmy Carter, and the social experiments played during that rudderless administration, the effort and leadership displayed by tens of thousands of young officers & non-coms made it work, somehow.
Looking back on my experiences, I keep asking myself, "how did we make this damn thing work?" Our equipment was aged and growing more obsolete by the day, we had shortages of funding for training and maintenance, and the standards for new enlistees were far below that required today.
As I reminisce about the absolutely superb officers & NCOs I worked with every day, I'm reminded of the words of the final scene in "The Bridges of Toko-Ri": "where do these men come from?"
It's only my opinion, but a return to the draft would undo all that was accomplished by all of those fine soldiers.
It may be a good thing...showing that family and work and school rank right up there with duty!!
You have to go back in his speeches. He originally said the volunteer army was im-balanced...poor blacks etc.. He ate those words royally when the stats were published.
The poster I was responding to wasn't advocating a draft to defend our country against an external threat to freedom, but rather to force certain kids into doing something else with their time (he didn't approve of their x-boxes or whatever). In other words, he wanted a draft to abrogate their freedom to spend free time in ways that he finds "frivolous".
"Of course. Government can force people to do a lot of things, and a lot of jobs, if government assumes dictatorial control over people's lives. They did it in the Soviet Union for 70 years - telling people what jobs they had to take for the "good of the fatherland."
Rangel's constituents, some of whom might have some difficulty passing the educational and drug screening thresholds for the US military -- perhaps his constituents who fail the educational and or drug screening could be utilized to harvest crops in California for $76/month, now that illegal aliens are more difficult for California farmers to find and hire. I thought I read that crops were rotting in the fields because there's nobody to pick them. How can we let this happen? Remember, it's all for the "common good".
LOL
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Rangel saw combat as a draftee in Korea so what are you talking about?
You, like me, must have had a VOLAR rug, VOLAR bedspread and VOLAR rug in our VOLAR barracks.
The VOLAR beer machine in the day room didn't last long.
Is Charlie saying that if we had not had a draft that Truman would have never contributed troops to the "police action." in Korea? IMHO, the basic problem was the troop levels established during the Clitnon administration. But, as Rumsfeld surely noticed, raises in troop levels do not automatically translate into more boots on the ground. Indeed, since world War II, the Army has become fixated on the the idea of a force with too much brass, too large a rear echalon, and machines rather than men. My guess is that if you look at the force in place in Southwest Asia that there are many officers and noncoms who are there just to punch their tickets.
But Charlie also forgets that the draft did not result in distribution of serve among the classes during the Vietnam War. The rioting about the war came because college men didn't want to leave the comforts of home and do their time. So I guess his desire is to prevent another "Iraq." by in effect diminishing our ability to go to war for any cause.
No college deferments.
Draft women too.
Draft primarily to non-combat roles, leaving volunteer enlistees free to fight.
He's obviously one of the elite few idiots in congress that tries to out-do that other flip-flopper (which doesn't need naming).
Let Charlie's bill go for a vote in the House and the Senate & lets see what happens?
Will Casey Jr, Obama, McCaskill and any other of our great Senators vote for the draft?
This is like the 3rd or 4th time he trys this.
Thank you
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