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.
Excellent post!!
Thank you very much. I am so sick of these holier than thou people. What the hell business is it of theirs how people spend their time as long as they aren't breaking any laws or hurting anyone. But no, if you aren't doing the same kinds of things that they are than you are just wasting your life. Unreal.
You seem to accept the premise that all draftees will somehow be dumb. You can train draftees to be as highly professional as you want. They'd be trained by the same people, with the same equipment, in the same facilities as the enlistees are now.
As I noted in response to another post, a largely conscript Army defeated the German Wehrmacht, which was better trained, equipped and led than anybody we've fought since. A largely conscript Army did damn well in Korea. And we never lost a battle in Viet Nam that wasn't fought in the CBS newsroom.
Yes, you liberal left-wing fools, your masters have plans for you.
All through the years, Conservatives have warned and admonished Americans about the forked tongue talk of the Left. Your Lefty leaders, your betters, you DU'ers. Those Lefties with their million$ and billion$ of dollars who spit out words of sorrow and concern for the poooooor and the blackbrownredyellow skin common folk. Those Kennedys and Kerrys and Pelosis and Jacksons and Hollywooders in mansions who'd have their guards shoot your unwashed commonfolk rears should you soil their property lines with your presence.
You stupid liberals who fulfill the prophetic words of Lenin by being the "useful idiots" of the liberal grand plan for America. You morons who cannot grasp the complexities of politics but whose "feeeeelings" are manipulated by your smarter and shrewder masters as you mouth the latest talking points send down from on high. Yes, you beautiful nimrods....just keep on a-pullin' those levers for any ole Demoncrat who's on the ballot. C'mon, the snakeoil's for sale. Come buy a quart, or gallon. And have some nice, yummy Kool-Aid, comrade, to wash down those bitter pills comin' your way.
Ohhhh, yeah......it'll be a wondrous sight to see, should Rangel and his cronies get a plan into law whereby your young and strong backs are forced to hoist a 60 pound pack and shoulder that assault weapon for a war of the Left's choosing.
Who will you turn to?
Guess yer on yer own, Sonny.
Real short...
If Congress only used draftees for their staff, we would have the government we could afford.
I NEVER SAID THAT OR IMPLIED THAT.
What I said was that draftees as a group will be less motivated and less well trained than a professional soldiers as a group who has made the military their profession.
By the way, what the hell is the matter with you ? Why try to twist words ?
The motivation depends on the training cadre. The training is the same as that given to enlistees. And nothing is the matter with me. I wasn't trying to "twist words". I made an inference based on what I believed to be the logical outcome of your argument. No offense was intended.
Our military personnel don't seem to want the draft, because they don't want to fight along side of people who are forced to be there.
Westmoreland got angry: "I don't like to hear our patriotic draftees referred to as slaves." And Friedman got rolling: "I don't like to hear our patriotic volunteers referred to as mercenaries. If they are mercenaries, then I, sir, am a mercenary professor, and you, sir, are a mercenary general." And he did not stop: "We are served by mercenary physicians, we use a mercenary lawyer, and we get our meat from a mercenary butcher"Elimination of the draft was one of the few positive accomplishments of the Nixon administration, thanks in part to Prof. Friedman's persuasive arguments.
Too bad he had so little sway with Nixon's economic policies.
totally agree
why do we need to out source the mess hall/cook and transport truck driving type positions at 5k a month
It is generally easier to demoralize conscripts than professional volunteer soldiers.
This affects unit effectiveness and mission capability of the units receiving these troops, and can carry over into the volunteer ranks as well.
While draftees can become capable and gung-ho troops, this is not what the Dems would be banking on. Instead, they have bought into the Socialist historical model of Vietnam which permitted them to portray American troops there as torn by racial and class strife within our military.
I'd bet dimes to doughnuts that is the game here.
Besides, mom and pop ex hippie soccer mom America has been infused with the notion that it is okay for someone else's kid to go to war, but no theirs, so this would increase the potential for media magnet protests and the Socialist Media Vietnam Redux they have been working from day one in the War on Terror to bring about.
They want a quagmire, and this is just hauling the water...
I don't care. He is still a Jacka$$
Somehow you have read my posts on this thread and generalized them to include yourself. Obviously, you are not one of those that I was talking about so why are you so all-fired incensed about it? You have generalized and thereby done the same thing that you are accusing me of.
That's because the Vietnam era draft-dodgers continue to spread the lies that you (and our military) read now. Getting rid of the draft was an effort by the left to justify their actions during the war. LBJ's war gave the draft a bad name.
The militia was undisciplined, even by pre-Steuben standards. In several engagements they proved to be terrible shots, or simply broke and ran. They were somewhat useful for harassing the flanks of the British and repressing local Tory sentiment, but for the most part, inadequate for maneuver warfare. Of course, a lot of their efficacy depended on which company-grade officers they elected and whether or not a drafted individual could hire a competent replacement.
The militia served its purpose, and its ethos is an important part of our Anglo-Saxon culture. But they are not a good model for a modern, worldwide, expeditionary Army. Or even a homeland defense force organized along military lines.
Who knows what's going to happen in the future?- Wouldn't it be better to have a large number of trained troops at the ready-if needed?
This would send a message to our enemies as well- That we are prepared to deal with them -should it become necessary. Just my 2 cents.
Exactly. Rangel is a con artist. His purpose in trying to bring back an active draft is not to strengthen the military in the WOT, but to undermine support for it at home.
Richard Nixon understood the flip side of Rangel's thinking during the Vietnam era. As his Administration phased out the draft then, the level of domestic protest and dissent against the war decreased, as was predicted. That in turn enabled him to buy more time to try to achieve his foreign policy objectives.
The ultimate sad ending to the Vietnam War was in large part the result of the Dem Congress' withdrawal of funding for it, not the end of the active draft.
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