The outgoing Armed Services chair, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R - San Diego), has had a son in Iraq.
Saddam was just convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging.
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.
Not everybody outside in tents in front of Bestbuy Walmart etc are young . There are plenty of older guys I saw last night waiting to get one to resell on ebay and make thousands or so they said.
HE IS OBESE!
This is unreal. This is what the Libs screamed about for the last two years., "Bush will bring back the draft!!" The condemned him for it constantly, but now it's a GOOD idea???
You think Americans were against this war before? Just wait until you try and force their kids to go.
But the truth is coming in this article:
Snip:
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.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061119/ap_on_go_co/military_draft
There has to be some way to make some of these young folks realize that they might possibly have a little obligation to this country for the great life of opportunity they have here. Many of them do, of course.
Maybe the draft isn't the best way to do it. Sometimes all it takes is a little incentive to make some people take the step toward military service. I know I would have never voluntarily gone in on my own. I ended up doing two years in the Marine Corps and thirteen in the National Guard. Would have stayed for 20 if they weren't throwing out old fat basstids like me right after the Gulf War.
I think he is an idiot!
The draft should start with the 535 members of Congress! They have John Kerry's standard of education to qualify for front line service in Iraq!
it's another way to build up the dying unions again
The outgoing Armed Services chair, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R - San Diego), has had a son in Iraq.
Saddam was just convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to death by hanging.
And I'm tired of people on this forum acting like we do nothing. You know NOTHING about what we do. Me and almost all of my friends are working and going to school. My parents stopped paying for ANYTHING for me when I turned 18 and left for college. Books, school, food, medicine, doctor...I've paid for everything. Next semester, I will likely be working full time and finishing my last semester of college. So don't tell me we don't do anything.
War today for the US military emphasizes technology and taking few casualties than in the past and calls for a more highly trained and professional soldier than past wars.
All I have to say is "Word"
You mean OBESE...
lol .............. his 'Gone With the Wind' look.
Bless your heart, honey! I am so proud of you (not that I did anything to make you - but you know what I mean!)
I am PROUD that you are here...thank you...now work your butt off to make us even more proud ;)
It's one thing for citizens to voluntarily submit to military discipline, quite another to tell them they must do so. In fact, we amended the constitution to outlaw involuntary servitude, except upon conviction of crime.
I believe as strongly as anyone that citizens ought to feel a sense of obligation to preserve the state and a sense of duty that would lead them to share the burden of defending the state. That model of civic virtue rather reminiscent of the Roman republic was the founding model of the American republic: our notion of the entire male population of military age constituting the militia, but the organized militia was entirely voluntary, and subject only to limited service.
However, the fact that I think citizens ought to feel a duty does imply that I believe the state has the right to impose not only the duty but punishment for refusal to accept it. As much as I like the militia model - as a VMI man the notion of the "citizen-soldiers, attached to their native state and ready in every time of deepest peril to vindicate her honor and defend her rights" has stayed with me through the past 40 years since I first walked through the arch - I think we're better off today with a primarily professional army with strong citizen-soldier reserve elements, rather than relying on reluctant draftees.
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