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Rep. Rangel will seek to reinstate draft
AP via Yahoo! ^ | November 19, 2006 | AP

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.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: conscription; draft; iraq; rangel; war
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To: The_Media_never_lie
"Rangle is a likeable person. He is also smart and served our country well."

No he isn't. No he hasn't.

241 posted on 11/19/2006 12:49:28 PM PST by Sam Hill
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To: DManA
Were our fathers too stupid to see the threat? To lazy and corrupt to take on the task without a gun to their heads?

Well, it would certainly seem so.

242 posted on 11/19/2006 12:49:30 PM PST by Jim Noble (To preserve the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity)
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To: Brilliant

there is a large pool of illegal immigrants who could earn their citizenship by serving, what about that charlie?


243 posted on 11/19/2006 12:51:26 PM PST by machogirl
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To: ilovew
He did the same damn thing in 2004 so the dims could scare people into voting for them, by claiming that President Bush was going to bring back the draft. Even though it was HIS legislation. And then he called foul when Republicans brought it up for a vote because he didn't actually want to *pass* his own legislation, he just wanted to be a complete jackass. Which he regularly succeeds in doing.

And if the MSM wasn't in the tank for the Dems, this article would have pointed that out.

244 posted on 11/19/2006 12:52:14 PM PST by L.N. Smithee (Mostafa Tabatabainejad: Like the Toyota commercials used to say, "YOU asked for it...you GOT it!")
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To: Sam Hill
Nice picture, where was is George Soros?
245 posted on 11/19/2006 12:52:46 PM PST by Bush Revolution (You gotta believe)
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Comment #246 Removed by Moderator

To: toddlintown

Actually, the low end model of the PS3 sells for $499.00.


247 posted on 11/19/2006 12:53:21 PM PST by reg45
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To: antiunion person

#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


248 posted on 11/19/2006 12:54:13 PM PST by Defender2 (Defending Our Bill of Rights, Our Constitution, Our Country and Our Freedom!!!!)
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To: L.N. Smithee

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.


249 posted on 11/19/2006 12:54:16 PM PST by Sam Hill
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To: leadpenny

"All I can say is the draft has been held constitutional."

So has abortion.


250 posted on 11/19/2006 12:55:55 PM PST by Ace of Spades (Sed quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
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To: scannell

>> Well when it comes to Armies, you need Big Numbers

You forget to mention black & white TVs and rotary phones.


251 posted on 11/19/2006 12:57:21 PM PST by Gene Eric
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To: reg45

"Actually, the low end model of the PS3 sells for $499.00."

Try to find one at that price.


252 posted on 11/19/2006 12:57:28 PM PST by toddlintown (Six bullets and Lennon goes down. Yet not one hit Yoko. Discuss.)
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To: rabscuttle385

They may not vote Republican, but they surely won't vote Democrat. Libertarian, perhaps.


253 posted on 11/19/2006 12:58:49 PM PST by reg45
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To: Brilliant

Like Rangel, most 18-28 boys are too fat to be drafted.

This is discriminatory against fit men.


254 posted on 11/19/2006 12:58:53 PM PST by Finalapproach29er (Dems will impeach Bush if given a chance.)
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To: Brilliant
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.

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.

255 posted on 11/19/2006 1:00:32 PM PST by Caesar Soze
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To: markomalley
How about The Democratic Party National Service Act?
256 posted on 11/19/2006 1:01:37 PM PST by reg45
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To: DManA
I'm pretty sure you misinterpreted my post. But thanks for checking up on me.

I'm a rabid these-eighty-or-so-years-of-mystery-we're-given-are-our-own-so-hands-off kinda guy.


257 posted on 11/19/2006 1:02:04 PM PST by I see my hands (_8(|)
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To: staytrue
"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,"

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 posted on 11/19/2006 1:02:09 PM PST by higgmeister (In the Shadow of The Big Chicken!)
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To: higgmeister

#258. Exactly Spot On Interpretation!!!!


259 posted on 11/19/2006 1:04:34 PM PST by Defender2 (Defending Our Bill of Rights, Our Constitution, Our Country and Our Freedom!!!!)
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To: Sacajaweau
Charlies argument over not having the draft is that it causes a higher portion of blacks and poor to join the military.
260 posted on 11/19/2006 1:06:28 PM PST by mware (By all that you hold dear... on this good earth... I bid you stand! Men of the West!)
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