No he isn't. No he hasn't.
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.
No he isn't. No he hasn't.
Well, it would certainly seem so.
there is a large pool of illegal immigrants who could earn their citizenship by serving, what about that charlie?
And if the MSM wasn't in the tank for the Dems, this article would have pointed that out.
Actually, the low end model of the PS3 sells for $499.00.
#239. Exactly Spot On!!!! Pelosi's choice for House Majority Leader, Jack Murtha helped to do this to our military in 1994, please note the date:
Some of Jack Murtha's and the demoCommiecRATic Party's work:
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GOVPUBS/gao/gao19.htm
And of course Rangel didn't even vote for his own damn bill. Only John "Cut And Run" Murtha (D) and Pete Stark (D) voted for it. In all of the House.
"All I can say is the draft has been held constitutional."
So has abortion.
>> Well when it comes to Armies, you need Big Numbers
You forget to mention black & white TVs and rotary phones.
"Actually, the low end model of the PS3 sells for $499.00."
Try to find one at that price.
They may not vote Republican, but they surely won't vote Democrat. Libertarian, perhaps.
Like Rangel, most 18-28 boys are too fat to be drafted.
This is discriminatory against fit men.
This is the key. Rangel is trying to conflate support for the war with support for a draft. It's the most blatant kind of dishonesty, but he believes the American people are dim enough to believe it.
In the supremely unlikely event he passes a draft law and the President signs it, I assume the military won't bother to induct any draftees, except perhaps for the very tiny number of medical professionals or linguists who are randomly selected. There simply isn't a need, and we don't have the training facilities, materiel, and personnel to deal with a great influx of recruits. Unless required by law, the military is still in charge of who it hires and into what capacity; if the officers at MEPS simply decline to sign off on the paperwork for every draftee they see, that would sink the "draft" right quick, wouldn't it?.
Of course, the logistical and doctrinal details of a draft don't really matter, because Rangel doesn't intend for there to be a draft. He's trying to tie this lead draft balloon to the War on Terror so he can watch both sink.
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Democrat Socialist/Communist code words for "If we had more boys that didn't want to be there we could foment fraggings, strikes and revolts."
"Our mislead soldiers would throw down their weapons and leave the battle just as the Czar's troops did in 1917."
"Our Socialist utopia would be at hand and I would be the most powerful man in the world."
#258. Exactly Spot On Interpretation!!!!
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